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Room Air Purifiers vs. Whole-House Air Purifiers |
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Room Air Purifiers vs. Whole-House Air PurifiersBy Mary Lou Derksen There are hundreds of air purifiers available for sale. Some are meant primarily for the one room in which the purifier is located. Some are promoted as being able to purify the air in the whole house. Articles are written to tout one kind over the other, usually depending on which one the writer has for sale. Obviously there are benefits for either kind of purifier, but how can you decide which is best for you? Some of the most obvious comparisons are price, amount of noise, space taken, and ease of cleaning. In discussing these four areas, we will assume, for the sake of simplicity, that both room purifiers and whole-house purifiers do the job of air purification well. Initially, room air conditions are generally the least expensive. However, if you were to purify the air in every room in the house, you would generally have to buy a purifier for each room. At that point, a whole-house purifier would be the most cost effective. However, there are some so-called room air purifiers that use photo-catalytic oxidation that can, given enough time (up to several weeks for very large areas), purify all of the rooms on a single floor of a house. Room air conditions, by the very fact they and their motors are located in the room, are noisier than a whole-house purifier whose motor is located in or near the furnace (and oftentimes is the furnace fan). Obviously, if you are looking at how much space in a room a purifier takes, the whole-house purifier would win hands down every time. Depending on which kind whole-house purifier you choose, it may take up a fair amount of space near the furnace. Room air purifiers are often easier to get at to clean, but if you have one in every room you have a passel of purifiers to clean. If you choose a purifier such as the Air Oasis purifiers, there is very little cleaning involved, so the number of purifiers is insignificant for that consideration. Some say that the whole-house purifiers are harder to get at, but this need not be so if you research before you purchase, and choose one that is not difficult to clean. There are a few websites on the internet that argue that there is no such thing as a good whole-house air purifier -- a discussion of some of their arguments will follow. However, in October, 2005, Consumer Reports stated that whole-house purifiers did a much better job than their smaller room-purifier counterparts. As with room air purifiers, whole-house air purifiers can use a variety of purification methods. These generally include filters that replace the usual furnace filters, and usually either need frequent cleaning and/or replacing or are not very effective, HEPA filters, carbon filters, electrostatic precipitators, and electrostatic filters. One of the arguments that has been given against whole-house purifiers is that it is impossible for these cleaners to pull dirty air from rooms that are 'far' away from the central air return area in the building. That thinking is either out-of-date, limited to certain kinds of heating systems or made up of faulty thinking. If you have a furnace / air conditioner with ductwork in your home, then almost every room has a cold-air return that draws the air from those rooms and through the ductwork to the furnace or air conditioner. The air is then redistributed to all of the rooms. I know that at certain times the grates over the cold-air returns in the rooms of my house collect more dust than any other part of the room, so I know that dirty air is getting into that system! And the fact that heated or cooled air is getting to all the rooms demonstrates the efficiency of redistributing that air. One article states that if you use an air-handler system (such as those by AllerAir), you are using two fans all of the time: one in the air handler, and the furnace fan. However, if you have an air purifier in every room, how many motors are running all of the time? This same article states that ultraviolet lights in the central HVAC system cant clean dust from the air, and that they can send harmful ozone levels into the home air. I have not seen any scientific studies or explanations, but I know of a number of instances where just installing a good ultraviolet light system has reduced the dust and dirt in the vent system. I also know that if you carefully choose the right ultraviolet light system, such as one from ComTech, there is never a problem with ozone levels. Another article states that the only way to remove radon from your home is to have an appropriate whole-house air purifier. In order to remove a gas such as radon with a whole-house air purifier, you would likely need a system that has some sort of carbon filtration system. The only way to know what air purification system is best for you is to know your budget, the health needs of your family, the area in which your home is located and how large of an area needs to have the air cleaned. Often a combination of several kinds of purification processes will be needed to meet your health needs. Research the field and come up with the best air purifier for you! About the Author: Mary Lou Derksen has been involved in a variety of health-related jobs since 1976, included nutritional counseling and mental health counseling (as a licensed counselor). She also taught junior high and high school classes in a 1-room school house setting. Never ready to settle down to a stale retired life, she has now entered the field of air purifications systems. http://www.magnamics.com
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