Air purifiers are incredibly versatile, and are adaptable to multiple uses in the home, office and work environment. Whether it's to just make the air that you breathe cleaner or remove toxins, most units operate on a very simple technology. Purifiers draw air from the room with a fan, clean it and send it back out into the room. After the air is drawn into the system, there are a number of ways that cleaning it can be performed. The air can be absorbed into specific media like zeolite or carbon. When chemical contaminants come into contact with the media they are removed from the room. During the absorption process, little impact on particles occurs, but it will remove chemicals and some parts of tobacco smoke and odors. The second type of filtration media is the mechanical filtering you find on your furnace filter. When the air is drawn into your furnace filtration system, there is a fine screen that removes air particles. Furnace filtration is usually done with a fine, HEPA, screen filter that removes particles as small as 0.3 microns. If you're looking for the best air purifiers for your furnace, you'll find that this HEPA filter will remove particles like pollen and mold spores, but will have little effect on the chemicals in the air. It's usually used in combination with some form of absorption filter.
The third type of effective technology for air purifiers is electrostatic, also known as electronic pruifiers. These air cleaners use charged plates to magnetize particles as they flow through the filter giving them a charge of one polarity. In other words, the particles are given a positive charge and the collecting grids or plates have the opposite electronic charge, which is negative. This opposite charge draws the particles to the collecting plate. As a build up occurs on the collecting plates, the charging voltage will start to arc causing a popping sound. When you hear the sound, you know it's time to clean the air-cleaner plates in the dishwasher.
Many manufacturers claim to have the best air purifiers, but you simply must look around and be knowledgeable before considering a purchase. A type of filtration system that is a unique technology is a hybrid between HEPA and Blueair Air Purifiers, unique filters that use electrostatic brushes to charge the particles prior to them being mechanically filtered. These Blueair air pruifiers use HEPA with the larger holes and thus get higher throughput. Although not in the strictest sense a cleaning technology, it does address ultra violet or UV light here. UV is a light that kills microorganisms such as mold spores and bacteria. When employed as an air cleaner, it is always used in conjunction with other technologies.
The best air purifiers use some type of pre-filter in addition to all the filter elements mentioned above. These pre-filters serve an important function as they extend the life of the fine filter such as the HEPA element by removing large particles before they get to the HEPA filter. You're going to find visible items such as dust, lint and hair in the pre-filters. Of course, like any mechanical or filtration system, when you keep the pre-filter clean, you can dramatically extend the life of the HEPA filter and improve the overall efficiency of the purifier. Air purification technology has become advanced and there are many manufacturers on the market. Trane has been making air filtration systems for years and may be worth a look. When purchasing a system, keep in mind exactly the reason why you're buying it and for what purpose. Air filtration systems are used extensively by asthma and allergy sufferers, due to their effectiveness at removing particles that cause irritation in the air.
