If you are looking to buy a new home air purifier, check our tips for help in making your decision.

Air purifiers become an essential component in many households today. Home air purifiers filter out allergy-provoking substances, including dust, odors and pollen. Home air purifiers are especially good when a person has a suppressed the human immune system, making the body more susceptible to infection.

"Understanding the bacterial environment is important for health," said Fox, professor of biology and biochemistry at University of Houston. "People often spend months in conditions that create a bacterial breeding ground."

"People are more concerned about preventing everyday infections. Our goal should be to avoid infections with routine monitoring to keep bacteria levels low in the first place," Fox said.

Home air purifier draws in air, filters out the dust, pollen, bacteria and scent molecules, and then emits the clean scentless air into the room. The air would not be completely pure and sanitized, but there would be significantly less dust particles and allergens in it.

HEPA-certified filters are most common in home air purifiers. The next generation of filters is ULPA (ultra-HEPA) filter that removes close to 100% of particles. Uncertified HEPA-like filters proved to be less effective.

There are several types of filters used in home air purifiers. Filters with added activated carbon – similar to the one used to treat food poisoning - serve as prefilter, which captures large particles. Then, HEPA filter absorbs small particles. Some purifiers add a natural organic filter that neutralizes volatile compounds from household chemicals or smoke.

Less common filter types used in home air purifiers are electrostatic or ion filters attract particles by static electricity and therefore can create unnecessary electric tension in the household. Hybrid purifiers employ more than one particle-collecting method. The fairly new method used in home air purifiers is ozone filter that filters the air and purifies it with ozone. However, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission warns that ozone generators can be harmful especially to people affected by asthma and other breathing problems. Many experts think that ozone is generally ineffective against air pollution.

All homes and offices have different air conditions which depend on the age of the building, materials used in construction, number of plants nearby. That’s why is impossible to predict the effect of home air purifier on the overall air quality. In general, dust and pollen particles usually are reduced at least as much as tobacco-smoke particles. When choosing an air purifier, look at the Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR). This rate indicates how many cubic feet of air is cleared of airborne particle. Smoke is considered a smallest particle, dust is medium and pollen is the largest one. The higher the CADR rating, the less time your new air purifier needs to remove particles from the room.

Even though air purifiers can become a holy grail for many allergy sufferers, experts suggest that no one should rely only on air purifiers. The best strategy to achieving healthy breathable air in your home would be to use an air purifier along with natural window ventilation.
 

 Other news