What Is A HEPA Air Purifier?

 HEPA stands for High Efficiency Particulate Arrestance. Some industry members mislabel the letter ‘A’ meaning Air.

To be classified as HEPA the filter media has to meet a minimum of 99.97% efficiency ( particle collection or particle stopping power ) of any particle that has mass of 0.3 microns or larger. So in other words, to be called HEPA you need a filter that is capable of stopping airborne particles that are the same size or larger than 0.3 microns 99.97% of the time.

If this were to be measured, then there should be an airborne reduction of airborne particles that are 0.3 microns in size to 99.97% lower than before the HEPA filter was used.

A micron is one 1 millionth of a meter. A human hair is usually 75 microns.

The issue with most HEPA filters is not the HEPA filter media as very few HEPA air filter or HEPA air purifier manufactures actually make or manufacturer their own filter media. Most buy the HEPA media from a HEPA media manufacturer that has tight controls on the efficiency of the HEPA media. So in 99.99% of the cases, the media does what it claims to do…which is collect 99.97% of anything larger than 0.3 microns in size.

The difference between HEPA products comes at the design and manufacturing stage. Here is where a good HEPA product and a poorly functioning HEPA product is born.

Poor cabinet designs, poor air seal design, under performing motor technology to get the air flowing through the filter is usually the first step in creating a poorly functioning HEPA product. The second step is poor manufacturing protocols and poor quality control.

The seal of any HEPA product or the prevention of air (that is to be filtered or purified) from leaking, past, under or over the HEPA filter media is crucial to the product being able to filter out the harmful pathogen at 0.3 micron or larger. Air is not going to force itself through a tightly woven and highly restrictive filter media like a HEPA if it can leak past it. It’s all about the path of least resistance.  

If the seals are not 100% perfect, you will not have 99.97% reduction in airborne particles or pathogens at 0.3 microns or larger.

So if the HEPA air filtration device or HEPA air purifier has a poor design or is poorly made, it will not work as advertised.

Now let’s look at pathogens that are likely in the breathable air in a home or office. Most fine dust tends to be in the 0.1 to 0.3 microns range. Ordinary household dust collides and there fore collects to larger particles while airborne and there is also an electrostatic phenomena that makes the smaller particle collect enough that 0.3 microns and larger is efficient enough.

Mould spores tend to be anywhere from 1.0 to 2.5 microns in size. Bacteria can range from 0.1 to 5.0 microns and viruses can also be much smaller than 0.3 microns but usually attach themselves to dust particles and thereby become a larger particle floating around the breathable indoor air.

HEPA filters are extremely efficient and collecting most of these particles if the product is designed and manufactured properly.  

However, there is new technology in furnace filtration that can collect ultra-fine particles that are less than 0.1 microns through agglomeration. This is a fancy word for electrostatic but an several passes through these agglomeration filters the electric charge makes the particles (including bacteria and viruses) clump together so they can be collected in the furnace filter over time.

Frankly, we have been recommending both systems together. A HEPA filter and an agglomeration furnace filter can take your home or office to a levels usually seen only in clean rooms, computer labs or operating rooms.

Now the term HEPA air filter or HEPA air purifier is mostly interchangeable. However, to properly purify the air it should have a biocide or purification step such as UVC killing power. This is also over-marketed and has some claims that are impossible…we will leave that for further discussion.

Another recent marketing term that has evolved is a Medical Grade HEPA. I’m not sure where this first started but there is no such thing. It is either HEPA or it is not.

Here are some good quality portable HEPA air purifiers:

  • Jaspr
  • Amaircare
  • Austin Air
  • IQAir
  • Abatement Technology

Here are some good quality central HEPA air purifiers that do the whole building.

  • Abatement Technology
  • Amaircare

Best Furnace Filter:

  • Bionic Air Screen 

See Healthy Home Air Purifiers and other Products at

https://bionichealthyhome.ca

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