Without a doubt, home air purifiers are starting to become more and more popular each year. People are learning that they can have many benefits for the air you breathe around your home. They are also one of the most misunderstood pieces of equipment around the home. That is why we took the time to write this article. After reading this article you will become more familiar with how to get the most benefit from your home air purifier and understand how it operates a little better too.
What Do Air Purifiers And Air Cleaners Remove From The Air?
For the most part, you can’t see it but there are many bad things floating around in the air you breathe inside your home. Air particles that contain allergens, dust, odors and pet dander certainly are not healthy to breathe all the time. That’s a problem because on average a person spends up to 50% of their life inside their home. If the air quality in your home is not good then it stands to reason you are breathing poor air 50% of the time.
That is why having at least one air purifier or air cleaner with a good air filter is highly recommended for every home. They can remove many fine particles in air that over time could become respiratory irritants or even worse. In many cases, if the filter on your air purifier is good enough it will remove almost all traces of pet dander, pollen, dust mites and more from the air you breathe inside your home.
Do Home Air Purifiers Consume a Lot of Energy?
Most people assume that any device that runs constantly and contains an electrically powered fan will cost much money to run. That is simply not the case with home air purification equipment in most cases. Medium to large size home air purification units on average only use 50 to 200 watts to make them run. That is less than it takes to run a light bulb in some cases and light bulbs don’t use very much electricity.
So if you are one of those people that turn off your air purifier once in a while to save money you may not be getting any significant benefit from that. Typically air purifiers and air cleaners do not put a significant dent in your utility bill for all the benefits they offer you as far as air quality in your home. That means for the little bit of money you will save by not running them you may be doing more harm than good. So get the most benefit out of them by letting them run 24 hours a day.
Home Air Purifiers Do Not Make Fresh Air
Make people are under the impression that air purifiers produce top quality air that is equivalent to fresh air. This is a misconception. Although air purifiers and air cleaners do significantly improve the quality of the indoor air they do not make fresh air. That’s because the air inside is recirculated air that builds up such things as a higher level of harmful carbon dioxide over time.
So what does that mean for you? It means in order to keep the air inside your home not only clean but fresh your air cleaner needs a little help. You can do this by opening your windows on a regular basis and by adding a few carbon dioxide eating plants around the inside of your home. Your air purifier will even do its job with the windows open so go ahead and let some of that high-quality fresh air into your home every few days.
Adding a dehumidifier into this mix will also help improve the overall air quality around your home too.
Your Air Purifier or Air Cleaner Is a Helpful Friend around Your Home
Simply put, air filters and air cleaners offer much in the way they improve the air quality around your home. It’s actually pretty amazing all that you get from them considering they are not expensive items in most cases, cost little to run and you barely notice they are around because they run so quiet. So take full advantage of them. Run your air purifier or air cleaner 24 hours a day seven days a week.
Don’t forget to let a little fresh air in your home on a regular basis and add some indoor plants around your home too. If you do these things and change your air filter when necessary you will significantly improve the overall air quality in your home.
How Often Should You Change Your Air Filter?
This is not an easy question to answer because of all the different type air filters there are out there. Some you can even extend the life of by cleaning, and with others, it’s simply not practical to clean them. For instance; cheap glass fiber air filters or foam type air filters are so budget friendly it’s not worth taking the time to clean them but they will have to be changed every 3 to 6 months.
Higher end filters such as HEPA filters are a whole different story. They are thicker and made to last a lot longer than conventional low-cost air filters. Some of them only have to be changed every 2 to 3 years. The best rule of thumb here is to follow the advice of the manufacturer of your air cleaner or air purifier. The label on it should tell you how often it needs to be replaced. You can find this information out on most manufacturer’s websites too.
