What is an Air Purifier?

What is an Air Purifier? Related Information:

An air purifier helps to take all the pollutants and allergens out of the air you breathe wither at hone or in your workplace to make it easier for you to breathe. An air purifier filters out dust, smoke, pollen, pet dander, mold spores and other airborne pollutants as small as 0.3 microns. Through one of these devices, the dirty air is drawn into the device through the inlet grill. Some of the devices have a washable filter that traps the larger particles. Air passes through the filter and helps to reduce the odors along with the particles.

Air purifiers come in all shapes and sizes and there are several technologies that they use to clean the sir in homes and offices, such as electrostatic precipitation, HEPA filters, ionizers and ultra-violet light. Having clean air in your home has many benefits:

• You sleep better
• You are more alert
• You don’t have as many allergies
• You have better digestion
• Your immune system will improve
• You will have more energy
• You will be able to breathe easier
• Your skin will be less irritated

Most people like the fact of knowing that the air they breathe when indoors is clean. They have many choices open to them when it comes to purchasing an air purifier. The choice they make really depends on what they want to achieve. For example, if the main goal is to clear the air of allergens, then an air purifier which would remove the large particulates such as pollen through a pre-filter, but also smaller allergens, which would be particulates from 0.3 to 5 microns in size is the best choice. A HEPA filter would trap these particles and remove them from the area, but since most of the pollutants are minute in size, the HEPA may not be able to remove the smaller particles. Some machines use UV light to attract these particles and effectively remove them from the air.

UV light is an effective way to remove the pollutants from the air in a controlled environment. When a surface that has germs on it is exposed to UV light for a period of time, the surface will be sterilized. A low speed fan provides a more efficient removal of the microrganisms. Some machines bathe the HEPA filter in continuous light so that everything that is trapped in the filter is destroyed. Other air purifiers use carbon filters that absorb the molecules in the air. However, carbon filters are not very effective in humid areas where there are a lot of water molecules in the air.

Some air purifiers are electronic and use one of four types of technology to clean the air:

• Electrostatic Precipitator. This type of air purifier has a series of metal plates with charges that are opposite to the ones in the air. The plates act like a magnet to attract the particles and draw them out of the air.
• Media Charged Filter. This contains an electrostatic filter that has opposite charges to attract the particles in the air. It can collect particles as small as 0.1 microns, but as it attracts more and more particles, its efficiency reduces.
• Negative Ionizer. This machine eliminates the particles from the air, but deposits them on other surfaces in the room and as they lose their charge, they go back into the air. You have to be continually vacuuming and dusting with this system.
• Ozone Machine. This machine cleans the air by emitting ozone, which in itself is a health hazard.

You do need an air purifier to take out the lung damaging particles in the air because these are small enough to enter through your nose and throat and cause respiratory problems.