How Should Air Purifiers Be Rated?

 

We were just featured on CBC’s Marketplace on Friday in one of their stories about portable air purifiers and indoor air quality testing. We have been on CBC Marketplace several times over the past decade and always enjoy working with them.

We have been inundated with calls about this story and how people should judge or pick an air purifier or HEPA filter. Although CBC was fairly thorough in their analysis on filter capacity, we do feel that they didn’t quite show the full picture and may have missed the mark on filter effectiveness in this story.

This is how air purifiers should be rated (portable, central, MERV rated and HEPA).

Cost:

The first part of any indoor air quality device should be benefit not price. We realize in tough times it may be appealing to look at affordability…however your lungs only care about performance…not what you spent or saved.  

Obviously you don’t want to over spend but in most cases, the cheaper the filter product, the cheaper its parts and its construction. We believe that a quality air purifier should be in the $800 to $2,000 range if you are looking for quality and years of dependable service. This could be either a portable or centrally connected system. In our professional opinion, we have not seen a less expensive air purifier that can deliver the same consistency.

CADR:

The Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) is only one aspect of rating an air purifier. The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers developed the CADR as a tool to measure overall performance for portable air purifiers and is not utilized for centrally installed air purifiers or HEPA air cleaners. The CADR represents how much volume of air can be cleaned and uses smoke, dust and pollen as a reference over a 25 minute period.

Drawbacks of CADR:

  1. CADR does not include odours, gases or VOC’s Many quality air purifiers and HEPA systems also reduce or eliminate these toxins.
  2. CADR tests the filters only on the highest setting. It is unlikely that you would run a portable air purifier always on the highest setting.
  3. It can only provide data on when the filter and filter media is brand new and clean. It does not take into account the quality of the filter media, the motor reliability, quality of air seals and overall construction of the air purifier. The CADR also does not provide any data on how effective the filter is with any dust accumulation or how it will behave over time.
  4. CADR basically tells you the fan capacity and overall efficiency. It does not provide exact data on how efficient the filter is at the smallest dust size such as 0.3 microns. Is it 50% reduction, 80% reduction or 90% reduction of dust and particulates in the breathable air? You could have a low efficiency filter that does not filter very well combined with a high capacity motor and get a good CADR.
  5. CADR does not take into account energy usage.
  6. CADR also does not take into account the noise level of the air purifier.  


We believe that to properly test the effectiveness of a portable as well as a centrally installed air purification device, the following should be examined:

Top 10 Ways To Judge an Air Purifier.

  1. How effective is the unit at cleaning the air in the room or application that it is placed? What were the 0.3, 1.0 and 2.0 micron levels of airborne particles when the unit was placed in the room and what was the end result? Also, what level of particle reduction was observed coming out of the air purifier. Is it really HEPA efficiency or not? How long did it take to clean my air?
  2. Can it also absorb VOC’s and odours?
  3. How much noise does the unit make?
  4. How expensive are the replacement filters?
  5. Will it continue to operate when filters are 50% full?
  6. How well is the unit made and how long will the unit last? If it’s $1,000 but lasts me 10-15 years or is it $200 and I need to buy a new one every year.
  7. How much power will it use? Will it be costly to run?
  8. Does it produce ozone? This is a carcinogen.
  9. Can it do the whole house or just the room that it is in?
  10. Is it CSA approved, for electrical safety?

At Verify Air Quality we test your indoor air quality testing toronto first, then we determine what air purification products you need.  We can then advise you on what brands and types of air quality equipment you need for the air quality issues you have.

Call us today and we will be happy to help you with your indoor air quality needs. We love to talk to our clients.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should You Turn Down The Furnace When Leaving Your Home…Or Not?

  In many GTA homes, this could be dinner conversation or the source of some heated disagreements. Should you turn down the heat when you leave the home or keep the furnace running as usual when you’re home? There could be several reasons for turning down the furnace or heat in your home during the day, especially if no one is going to be home. There could be energy savings reasons and environmentally friendly intent, budgetary constraints and the need or desire to save money, as well as well meaning indoor air quality reasons and the belief that a cooler home is better for mould growth prevention. However, with these good intentions you may actually be harming your indoor environment and causing poor indoor air quality with fluctuating temperatures. Here is a list of problems associated with turning down the furnace for a few hours or even a few days when no one is home. Top 5 Reasons not to turn down the Heat when you leave the house: If it gets too cold, plumbing pipes could freeze
Read more

Your Home Should Be An Air Quality Safe Haven

Outdoor air pollution in Toronto and Southern Ontario is very poor today due to the Northern Ontario forest fires. We had a lot of pollution this spring with higher than normal pollen counts leading to more serious allergic reactions. Now, asthma sufferers are having to deal with the high dust counts outdoors from the soot and smoke from forest fires. This is Climate Change folks and it’s here to stay. This is why your home should be an air quality safe-haven! How? It’s actually easier than you think. To control outdoor pollutants such as seasonal pollen, ragweed, and grasses as well as summer soot and smoke particles from forest fires as well as other outdoor issues such as exhaust from cars and industry…you need proper ventilation and filtration. Proper ventilation will help dilute, dissipate and exhaust indoor air quality pollutants such as Carbon Dioxide (from us breathing), chemical issues such as VOC’s (from building materials and contents), and control indoor humidity that could
Read more

What Do I Do If My Basement Is Wet?

  With all the recent rain in the Toronto and GTHA area recently we are getting lots of calls from people concerned about damp basements and recent water or moisture issues. Most callers want to know how they should dry out their homes and prevent mold. Here are some general tips on mold prevention. One of the first things that you should do is STOP and THINK. Don’t do anything in a panic. Many people when faced with moisture or mold panic and in many cases make the situation worse.   You should first determine if this is the first time the area got wet or if this has been a recurring issue. The reason for this is that if there is a potential that mould has grown in the past in the affected area and may still be there….or if you see mold…it is best to call a professional mold inspection or professional mould remediation company. Mold clean up is not a DIY project and can have serious and costly results if you don’t have the right equipment and don’t know what you are doing. You can mak
Read more