Keeping the air pure and fresh is an absolute necessity these days, especially because you breathe in it. When it comes to the air inside your house, it’s far worse than the air outside, at least the EPA suggests so! And it’s all in your hand to keep it fresh with proper ventilation and purification. An air purifier can help you eliminate the pollutants and the allergens in the air and keep it breathable.
However, getting the right air purifier that can effectively do its job isn’t so easy as the market is saturated with fake ones. I will get you through features that you must look for in an air purifier and the things you should consider having in it. Stick to the article to know How to choose an air purifier if you’re searching for the best purification device for your home.
Do Air Purifiers Really Work?
When the air around you is polluted and saturated with harmful elements, here is how an air purifier comes into the play and clean the air:
- The machine contains an inlet fan, followed by a series of filters, such as HEPA, activated carbon filter. It also contains sterilizing filters like the UV ray filter, VOC filter, and all of them get sandwiched in between a preliminary filter and the fan.
- When you start the filter, the fan starts to spin, and it takes air into the machine through the layers of filters. All the filters do their distinguished jobs and purify the air before it gets into the machine.
- The fan then distributes the fresh air into your room, and it keeps this circulating job until the room is full of fresh air.
If you’re interested in going in-depth on this, read this article on the topic, Do air purifiers really work?
Types Of Air Purifiers
You’ll find so many types of air purifiers when going for one. You have to choose the right one that suits your air quality in your room. Here are the common types of air purifiers and what they do:
- Electrostatic air purifiers: They use an electromagnetic field to trap the pollutants from the air it’s absorbing in with the fan.
- HEPA air purifiers: The high-efficiency particulate absorbing (HEPA) filters out the harmful particles like viruses and bacteria larger than 0.2 microns from the air.
- UV rays air purifiers: These purifiers make a protective layer of Ultraviolet Rays that can sterilize the air going inside from the harmful residues and pet dander.
- Activated carbon purifiers: If you have smoke from tobacco or kitchen, bad odor, fumes, and dust particles in your room, the activated carbon filter can filter them out.
- Negative ionic purifiers: The negative ion makes people happy as it makes positive energy when it’s in the air.
How To Choose An Air Purifier
Choosing the right air purifier device can be a tricky job unless you know what you’re looking for. Here is How to choose an air purifier, things you must consider having in it, and the features it must have:
Which filter method to go with?
You can go with two different types of filtration when buying an air purifier. Go either for HEPA filtering technology or go for the Electrostatic filtering system. Both work great, but the HEPA filtering system is better at reusability as you can replace the filter once dirty. It also filters efficiently at filtration by almost 20-30% than the electrostatic filtration.
An activated carbon filter is must
The activated carbon filter layer in your air purifier works against the smoke, toxic fumes, and bad smells. It can actively filter out the extra-small pollutant particles that the HEPA filter might miss out on. The rule of thumb here is to have as much activated carbon as possible. A higher amount of carbon on the filter means it can absorb and trap more allergens in it, without having to wait for other filters.
More anti-bacterial filters with HEPA
Bacteria and germs are everywhere, especially in the house where the circulation is minimal. Getting rid of these small yet very dangerous elements is crucial to living a healthy life. Your air purifier must contain multiple layers of filters that can fight against these parasites. The HEPA filter works in the front line for you and fights against bacteria and viruses. Another filter is the UV filter to kill any virus or even smaller particles in the air.
CARD clearance
CARD or the Clean Air Delivery Rate is an important issue when it comes to deciding whether a purifier is good or not. It indicates the effectiveness of its purification level at its maximum speed level. The rule of thumb here is to get as much CARD rating number as possible. The higher the CARD number is, the higher the efficiency of purification is.
Other certifications
While buying an air purifier, make sure you’re going through the specifications and see what other certifications it has. The AHAM certification, EPA validation, and other certifications make it more reliable along with CARD rating. So, be sure to get as much as possible of positive ratings to be fairly sure that it’s going to fit in your room for a good cause.
Consider the room size
The purifier must be able to cover the size of the room you have and has to be able to clean the air efficiently. Please make sure the specifications suggest that it can cover the square fit you have in your room. The AHAM certification is a great way to determine that they provide coverage ratings for air purifiers. If the AHAM certification says it can cover 400sq feet, you can be sure that it can. Try to get a purifier that has 20-40% more coverage than your room in size.
Beware of the noise level
You might want to breathe fresh air while sleeping for sure. If you end up getting an air purifier that makes too much noise, you cannot make it work. So, try to get a purifier that has a minimal noise level. Purifiers with low-noise aren’t that expensive either; check out the best air purifier under 100 with low noise.
Benefits Of An Air Purifier
Getting an air purifier is the least you can do if you’re looking for a healthy life and want to breathe in healthy air. Here are the key benefits of an air purifier in your room:
- Breath fresh air: An air purifier will filter the harmful elements in the air and help you breathe clean and fresh air to stay healthy.
- Stay safe from allergens: The air purifier can keep the pet dander out of your reach and keep you safe from other allergens too.
- Prevent lung cancer: The biggest reason for getting lung cancer is because you breathe harmful smoke and fumes from tobacco or the kitchen that an air purifier cleans effectively.
- Stay out of Radon Gas: The radon gas is leaking gas from your wall, the faucet, the breaks, and everywhere else that causes cancer to the human body. The air purifiers give it a good circulation and keep it away.
- Fit in everywhere: An air purifier is rationally small in size that you can put it anywhere and clean the air in your room. It works great if you’re lying in a hospital bed as there are too many germs around you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the most frequently asked questions about air purifiers that you might want to know about:
Where should I place my air purifier?
Place your air purifier 6-7 feet away from your body and 2-3 feet away from the nearest wall.
Should I sleep with the air purifier on?
Yes, you can keep it on and keep breathing fresh air while sleeping.
Is it OK to leave the air purifier on all night?
Yes, it’s OK if you leave the purifier turned on all night, try to set a schedule timer though!
Final Thought
After reading through the checklist above, now you know How to choose an air purifier. However, I’ll suggest you try to get extra features in your air purifier. It’s to be more secure and to fulfill the demands of modern life.
Features like hands-free control with remote or wifi are a great addition and air quality monitor and sensors. Be sure to have a pollution level indicator and automatic cleaning in the filter for extra convenience.
