Polluted air in homes and workplaces could potentially prove to pose a significant risk to our health. Air quality can be more polluted in indoor environments than outside, according to the EPA.

Therefore, in order to protect our health and preserve the quality of the air within our indoor environments, it is necessary to take adequate steps and use technology to help. One excellent way of improving the air quality in your home or business is to use an air purifier. This poses the following questions: ‘what are air purifiers?’, ‘what do they do?’ and ‘how do they work?’.

What does an air purifier do?

The primary role of an air purifier is to filter harmful particles out of the air, removing dust, bacteria, viruses, mould and other contaminants from the air that is circulating around you. Consequently, this is effective at improving the quality of the air and helps to prevent you from being susceptible to illness or chronic damage to your health. In short, air purifiers give you better quality air to breathe, allowing you to enjoy the benefits of living with cleaner air. They can be used in both domestic and commercial settings, in public buildings (such as libraries and government buildings) and in private workplaces in order to promote better air quality and health for everyone.

There are a few varied types of air purifier, with each offering different benefits to suit your needs and requirements. Although all air purifiers are intended to purify and filter the air around you, they may vary in the way that they are installed, their size and their cost.

So, what are the various types of air purifier available?

Home air purifiers

These air purifiers are intended to be used in a domestic environment. A home can build up many air hazards that can pose a danger to your health. Pet hair, dust, bacteria and germs can easily breed and contaminate the air quality in your home. If you have children in your home, especially younger ones, protecting them from damaging contaminants in the air is imperative. Domestic air purifiers are unobtrusive and affordable units that have a stylish and streamlined aesthetic. Therefore, they not only offer the practicalities of cleaning your air, but they will add to the decor of your home.

Air purifiers for HVAC systems

When an air purifier is installed within the ducts of your central air system, it allows the tiniest of particles to be effectively filtered from the air, keeping the air that is constantly circulating within your premises from being polluted. Polluted air risks infecting people or inflaming chronic conditions such as eczema, asthma and other illnesses. In public buildings, it is particularly important to keep the air clean, fresh and unpolluted as there will be many people passing through and bringing a variety of microbes and other potential pollutants into the building.

When an air purifier for an HVAC system is installed within a workplace, it can also protect your workforce from taking many sickness absences. Many days are lost to sick leave, resulting in a substantial loss of revenue for a number of businesses. With cleaner air, the number of sickness absences could potentially be reduced as cleaner air would lessen the risk of being infected by microbes, which would have been removed from the air by the purifier.

How can an air purifier protect me?

Air purifiers are excellent at trapping viruses, bacteria and particles of mould that could damage your health if they were to be breathed in. They are also very good at filtering pet hair and dander out of the air so that you do not inhale them.

In addition, dust and dust mites can be cleaned from the air by a purifier. In some more dangerous workplaces, they offer the added advantage of filtering volatile organic compounds from the air and neutralising smoke. As a bonus, they can even remove odorous smells from the air, delivering a more comfortable and pleasant environment for you to live and work in. In the age of a global pandemic, the necessity of keeping the air clean has been further emphasised and air purifiers may help protect against COVID-19 too.

What are the various types of filtration technology?

Different air purifiers work based on different technologies, including HEPA, carbon activated filters, ionising purification systems and electrostatic fields. Some of these technologies offer different benefits. For example, carbon activated filters are particularly good at filtering smoke, volatile organic compounds and bad odours out of the air. HEPA filters have an exceptionally high filtration rate, removing 99 per cent of harmful particles from the air around you.

Choosing the right air purifier to suit your home or workplace is an important decision that could have a positive impact on your health in the present and in the future. For a range of air purifiers from a trusted supplier, please visit Eco Industry Solutions.