Buying Guide: How to choose the right air purifier

With the onset of the festival season, we all start preparing ourselves with the most fashionable attire and refurbishing our homes with grandeur designs. While we immerse ourselves in the festive mood, we generally ignore to think about our environment which has become an ongoing issue of concern. Like clockwork, the approach of the festive season brings steadily worsening pollution levels across the country.

With a recent WHO report stating that India has 14 out of 15 most polluted cities in the world, in terms of PM 2.5 concentrations, the alarming increase in air pollution has become a major concern for the nation. It is more concerning that indoor air is 5 times more polluted than outdoor air and an average human spends 90 per cent of their time indoors. While we clean our homes and make is impeccable we completely ignore the fact that the air at our homes is highly polluted. Hence, one should focus not only on the clean appearance of the room but also in cleaning the indoor air which is invisible and ignored by many.

Installing an air purifier at home will give you an edge to breath clean air at home. Air purifiers are no more a luxury gadget, but truly a necessity. But unlike smartphone or Television where one can easily monitor and see what they are getting, buying an air purifier is not that easy task. Looking at the lack of awareness about the technology and know-hows about the air purifier, there are a few factors that one should keep in mind and consider before making a purchase decision.

Country Head for Blueair, Arvind Chabra shares with us a few tips and pointers that the consumers should consider before buying an air purifier.

There are many factors to be considered while buying an air purifier. But the most important is the perfect combination of all, Room size & CADR + Best filtration technology for the claimed area removing the minutest pollutants (ex –bacteria, virus, Pm particles etc) + Minimum time to clean the air in recommended room size + Energy efficiency & lower noise levels. Hence choose an air purifier which gives the complete set without compromising on any of the above-mentioned features.

Room Size: Indoor air is constantly affected by airborne contaminants that are always present both inside & out. Hence it is important to select an air purifier with the capacity to handle the total air volume on a continuous basis. Always choose the air purifier whose recommended room size is same or larger than your room.

Efficiency: The performance of an air purifier depends on the coverage area, CADR (Clean Air Delivery Rate) and ACH (Air Change per Hour). CADR describes the purifier’s ability to produce the volume of clean air per hour. The higher the CADR, the clean is the air. ACH means how frequently does a purifier intake the impure air and give out pure air in an hour considering its claimed coverage area. This is a very important factor as pollutants keep on entering the room because of constant human activities and the air purifier must constantly clean the air. Therefore, one should go for an air purifier with a perfect combination of higher CADR + higher ACH delivering cleaner air in the recommended room size.

Technology & Filter Type: The effectiveness and output of the air purifier completely depend upon the technology and type of the filter. Most of the air purifiers in the market have HEPA (high-efficiency particulate arresting) filters which removes household allergens such as dust, pollen, pet dander and other minutes particles. The activated carbon filters remove odour, VOCs, smoke and other gaseous pollutants.

To remove minutest air pollutants of smaller particle size, an air purifier would need more dense filters (i.e. higher filter grades), which may reduce the clean air delivery efficiency, the duration for cleaning the air in recommended room size, making it noisier and increase energy consumption. 

Hence the right combination of technology and filters delivers the best clean air.

Air Purifiers with HEPASilent filter technology unites the best in electrostatic and mechanical filtration which removes 99.97% of harmful particles from the air, down to 0.1-micron in size. The clean air is delivered with minimum energy consumption and at lower noise levels.

Understand how HEPASilent Technology is better than any other Simple mechanical filtration.

Large Filter Area: Since the filter is the heart of an air purifier, hence larger filter area will secure better and consistent output all the time, one should always ask the size of filter area and go for the maximum.

Sensors & Wi-Fi connectivity: The product with integrated sensors & Wi-Fi connectivity helps with a better control of the clean air. You can just connect your air purifier with the smartphone to monitor air quality and other functions like Switch on/off, filter change alert etc.

 

Certification & recommendations: Before you buy, be sure about the company’s performance claims. They are many well-acclaimed bodies which publish independent test results and CADR performance ratings. For example, AHAM (Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers), Energy Star, etc.

Maintenance: The durability of the filters is a prime thing to consider. While maximum air purifiers require a change in the filter after they are used for a while, it is wiser to opt for an air purifier which needs minimum maintenance and longer filter durability. Getting the best warranty on the product also adds up to the deal.