AP

A list of air purifier options + some technical info

*Warranty = 1 year

**ACH = Air Changes per Hour (i.e. how many times per hour the air in your room is recycled). Higher numbers are better.

Click here for more info about ordering an air purifier.

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How air purifiers work

A good air purifier should consist of a strong fan and a couple of filters (HEPA for particles, activated carbon for odors and gases, and a couple of other nice ones). Air purifiers work by passing the air in a room through some filters, eliminating the harmful particles in it, and releasing clean, breathable air. The more powerful the fan, the quicker it can change the air in your room. The more air changes you have per hour, the better.

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How ACH works

ACH depends on room size and purifier capacity. For example,

• ACH of AP04 designed for a 20m2 (215ft2) room = 2.6, but

if the purifier is used in a smaller 10m2 (107ft2) room, then

• ACH increases to 5.0

On the other hand, if the purifier is used in a bigger room than it was designed for - e.g. 30m2 (323ft2) - then

• ACH decreases to 1.7

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Can your AC be an air purifier?

Yes, if you can retrofit it with HEPA and activated carbon filters.

That said, ACs are about 1-1.5 horsepower (~745W), while air purifiers have similar power ratings to ceiling fans (~25-50W). If you have a non-diesel generator and don't have constant PHCN power, then I'm guessing you can't really run the AC all the time.

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Are ionizers good for you?

Bottomline: Not recommended for home use - but if you must, use in combination with an air filter. And for the love of all that is good and holy, stay away from ozone generators, they're bad for your lungs.

Air purifiers typically contain filters (HEPA, activated carbon, etc) or ionizers, or a combination of both.

Ionizer-only air purifiers are cheaper and require less maintenance - just charge or plug in to a socket and you're golden. Or are you? I don't know, it depends on whether you're happy to have soot particles coating every single surface of your house.

Ionizers work by releasing negative ions to collide with positive ions (because some pollutants are positively charged). So the negative ions attach themselves to the positive ones, which become heavy and fall down. Of course it's much better to have them on the floor/table/wall than in your nostrils, and if you're ready to deep-clean your home every so often, that's lovely. But how do you know which pollutants your ionizer can catch? Good question. Apparently ionizers cannot eliminate dust, smoke or odors.

Sources

• Ionizers and UV Lights: Potentially Dangerous Tech in Your Air Purifier
• Breathing ionizer dangers
• Health effects of ionizers
• Air purifier questions

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To learn more about available air purifiers and order one, see this post.