Studies show that the air quality inside our homes can be almost five times more contaminated than outside. To prevent this, the best air purifiers work to expel toxic allergens, impurities, and toxins from the air. By purifying the air, these purifiers guarantee the healthiest life possible, especially when we need to spend most of our time indoors.
However, the main issue is that with such many alternatives available today, deciding to choose an air purifier for your home can be an irksome venture. In this article, we will guide you on choosing an air purifier by explaining everything you should know before buying these gadgets.
What are Air Purifiers?
Essentially, an air purifier cleans the air around you. An air purifier's filtering process aims to eliminate pollutants such as dust, pollen, tobacco smoke, toxins from aerosol sprays and other chemicals, VOCs (volatile organic compounds), bacteria, and many more. The lesser these harmful particulates are present in your home, the lower the chances you and your family will inhale them.
Types of Air Purifiers
Several distinct sorts, styles, and brands of air purifiers are available in the market. However, you don’t need to feel lost in the crowd of air-purifying brands because there are only four main types of filtration technology based on which air purifiers are designed. These four air-cleaning channels target various kinds of indoor air contamination. Given below are the four types of air purifying technologies and how they function:
1. High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) Filtration
This air filtering procedure is rated as the best way to purify the air. It comprises an extremely thick paper filter that catches airborne pollutants. A ‘True HEPA Filter’ air purifier is guaranteed to eliminate almost 100% of pollutants such as visible smoke, pet dander, hair, mold spores, dust, parasites, fungi, and other microscopic particles as small as 0.3 microns in size and doesn't discharge them back into the air.
2. Ionic Filtration
This technology works by emanating a haze of charged ions into the air that clasps onto airborne impurities. Through this procedure, the contaminants are forced to fall onto the floor. Some ionic air purifiers incorporate an electrostatic plate that collects and eliminates these particles from the room.
Ionic filtration can eliminate ultra-fine particles of almost 0.01 microns in size, such as pollen, fungi, mold spores, visible smoke, harmful bacteria and viruses, and other micro-particles. They are more affordable than HEPA air filters, are noise-less, and don’t need maintenance.
3. Carbon Filtration
Carbon filtration technology makes use of activated carbon particles as they have a large number of microscopic porous vents. These pores can efficiently catch odors, fumes, and other gases by creating a vast surface area. However, these filters can only be used to remove odors and fumes from tobacco smoke, paints, cooking, etc., and make the home smell clean and refreshing, but they are not utilized to eliminate harmful particles.
4. Ultra Violet (UV) Light
Unlike the other three, this innovation emanates an undetectable light that attacks contaminants instead of filtering them through a channel. The UV light is enclosed inside the air purifier and not emitted into the room. UV air purifiers utilize the UV-C band of the ultraviolet range, which does not harm humans.
It is designed to eliminate microbes inside the home by decimating their DNA structure, thereby creating a sanitized, clean condition in your home that is free of disease-causing germs, viruses, and bacteria. Ultraviolet light tubes rarely need replacing and can last long hours.
Other than these four sorts of air filtration, air purifiers are also available in two different variants:
- Classic Version – These types of air purifiers are available in the conventional model, where you will not get the details of the type of pollutants that are being eliminated from the air.
- Smart Enabled Version – These air purifiers have a customized mobile app that informs you how well the gadget is cleaning the air.
Types of Ratings for Air Purifiers
There are two types of ratings for an air purifier. They are:
- ACH – The complete form of ACH is "Air Changes Per Hour." Although mostly overlooked by buyers, this rating indicates how efficiently an air purifier performs. The ACH ratings (shown on the device as 4x, 5x, or 6x) indicate how frequently the air purifier can swap the air inside the room with fresh air per hour. A higher number indicates how successfully the machine can purify the air inside a room.
- CADR – Clean Air Delivery Rate or CADR rating plays a significant role, especially when comparing two or more products. The CADR rating guarantees that if an air purifier claims to clean the air of a particular sq. ft. of the area has actually been tried and checked to be valid. The CADR rating estimates three kinds of air contamination: dust, tobacco smoke, and pollen. The range for each measurement category can be from 10 to 450, which is shown as a 3-digit set. The higher the number, the more effectively the air purifier can evacuate that contaminant.
Size of an Air Purifier
Choosing the right size of air purifier is one more critical factor you should keep in mind. Calculate the total area in the square foot where the air needs to be purified. If you need the air cleaner for one room, calculate its size in sq. ft.; if you need it for multiple rooms, add the total area of all rooms combined. You will then know what the base area rating an air purifier must have to effectively clean the air inside your home.
Additional Features of Air Purifiers
Air filtering machines also offer a variety of additional features and upgrades like carrying handles and casters, air quality sensors, antimicrobial treatment, pre-filter, digital controls, filter replacement indicators, programmable timer, plasma-wave technology, adjustable fan speeds, photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) and many more which helps you to decide how to choose an air purifier.
The membrane solutions air purifier is a significant investment; therefore, consider the above-mentioned factors before buying a purifier that will effectively purify your home and keep you healthy.
