Most families have managed without an air purifier for generations – hundreds or even thousands of years, so what, you may be asking yourself is the hurry to get one now? And it is true, there is a bit of a buzz about air purifiers at the moment. But do they work well and are they worth the money?
The answers to both of these questions are not simple, but everyone would have to agree that the motor turns when you plug them in, so in that way they do all work. Whether they are effective or not depends on what you buy. There are some very effective air purifying units and there is a lot of rubbish too.
The very useless ones are the very cheap models, that are just not powerful enough and do not even enclose adequate filters, but leaving those aside, there are very good portable air purifiers and very good central air purifier systems.
So, the first thing you have to determine is whether you want a central or portable air purifying system. If you want to purify the air in your office at work or your caravan or trailer, then a good portable purifier will do the job very well. The reason why a portable purifier is not so good for the home is size. Your house is just too large for one portable air purifying unit.
If you locked yourself up in one room, then OK, but as soon as you open the door, or someone walks into the room, you have lost a lot of your clean air. Therefore, if you are thinking about purifying the air in your house, you really ought to go for a central system, particularly if you already have ducting in place for a central heating or central air conditioning system.
If you are lucky enough to have such a system then a powerful and very efficient air purification system can be fitted near your existing blower in minutes in most cases. These systems will purify the air in your whole home at the same time, meaning that you can walk about your house, go about your daily business and leave interconnecting doors open at leisure. It is the only way to go if you have active children. This is often the cheapest option too, surprisingly.
If you are going to purchase a portable model, note the measurements of the largest room you are likely to use it in and work out the volume of air in that room (length x width x height). You will have to check that whichever air purifier you get can deal with that volume of air. That information will be in sales literature. The cost of filters is an essential aspect in the overall cost of a purifier. How much are they and how often do they need to be changed? Can they be cleaned a few times before requiring to be changed?
Think about why you want an air purifier. Is it because you want to prevent a specific allergy? Is it because there is a smoker in the house? Is it because of animals? Or is it just because of increasing levels of general pollution from cars and industry? Whatever the reason, make sure that the air purification system you are thinking about purchasing can take filters that can remove those substances from the air. Not all filters are identical – not all filters can filter everything.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with central air conditioner prices. If you are interested in Home Air Conditioning Systems, please click through to our site.
