An air purifier can be very useful to improve the quality of your indoor air and make it more fit for breathing. Contrary to what people think, it is the
quality of your indoor air, and not so much outdoor air, which is responsible for various health problems such as asthma, allergies, hay fever, etc. All
these can be taken care of with a proper air purification system for your home. But how do you choose one? Well, here are the factors to consider when
choosing an air purifier.
Criteria For Choosing Air Purifiers
1) Size of the area: The size of the room that you wish to purify is an important consideration when buying an air purifier. If you choose a purifier
that is too small, it will not effectively clean the indoor air, thus rendering itself useless. And if you choose one that is too big, you could be
wasting a lot of money on your power bill. Thus, before buying an air purifier, you should measure the area of the room (or whole house as the case may
be) and then buy an air cleaning system that has the ability to purify the area.
2) Your purification needs: Why do you need an air purifier? What do you wish to remove from your indoor air? These are two questions that need to be
answered before choosing an purifier. Let’s tackle them one by one.
Most people want to buy an air purifier so that they can enhance their health through cleaner air. They wish to get rid of niggling allergies and
other health problems caused by bad indoor air. If that is the case, you need an air purifier for your whole house so that you can benefit from purer air
throughout your home. You should also ensure that the materials used in the air purification system as well as the filters are not ones that you are
allergic to and to which you can have a negative reaction. However, if you wish to purify selected areas in your home, it is best to go in for a portable
or a room air purifier, which can be used wherever you need it most.
And now to the second question…what do you wish to eliminate from indoor air? Do you want to get rid of animal dander, or harmful germs and bacteria,
or disease causing particulates, or offensive odors and gases? If your primary need is to remove harmful particulates, then a HEPA air purifier is your
best bet as it effectively eliminates particles as small as 0.03 microns. To effectively remove germs and bacteria, you can choose an air purifier with a
UV system as these kill bacteria most effectively. However, in order to make your air as clean as possible, it is best to choose an air purifier that has
multiple filtration systems and not just one.
3) The CADR Rating: Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) is a rating that tells you how effective an air purifier is in eliminating dust mites, pollen
particles, and smoke from your indoor air. A higher CADR rating means the device is more effective and quicker at removing these harmful substances than
one with a lower CADR. Thus, you should select an air purifier with the best CADR rating.
4) Number of air changes per hour: This indicates the number of times a particular air purifier purifies the entire air within a given area in one hour.
Obviously, the higher the air changes per hour, the more efficient the purifier is, in not only purifying the air, but also maintaining its purity by
ridding the air of its impurities and pathogens rapidly and consistently. Thus, you need to choose one with as high air changing/hour rate as possible.
5) Maintenance and cleaning: Many people do not pay much attention to ease of cleaning the purifier when buying it and then get frustrated later on with
having to put in a lot of effort into its maintenance. While choosing an air purifier, you need to be aware of how regularly it needs to be serviced and
cleaned. How long can the filters be used before they need to be replaced? How expensive are the filters? Once you have the answers to these questions,
you can choose one which is easiest to clean and also not very expensive to maintain.
6) Noise Level: Some air purifiers make so much noise that they can literally wake up the dead! And since you want an purifier to enhance your health, it
is not going to happen if you choose a noisy one and lose sleep over it. Thus, check out the noise level of the air cleaner before making your purchase.
By following the above steps, you are sure to pick the ideal air purifier for your needs.