- Discover why the best air purifier for your needs includes HEPA filtration.
- Build the foundation you need to buy air purifiers like an expert.
- I’ll show you how…
HEPA Filters Meet The Challenge of Medicine
Your air purifier should clean your air sufficiently to give you real health benefits.
Will a HEPA air purifier provide you with these benefits better than any other?
What do you think? Would you trust the choice of hospitals as a guide to the best air purifier?
Medical facilities need air purification to control infectious microbes that spread through ventilation systems causing illness and death. Thus operating rooms, outpatient surgery, labor and delivery, isolation rooms, intensive care and other areas require high efficiency filtration.
The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), the American Institute of Architects, (AIA) and the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) all recommend HEPA filters for medical facilities.
Likewise, in Guidelines for Environmental Infection Control in Healthcare Facilities, the CDC recommends HEPA filtration to remove airborne contaminants. No other air purification method receives this endorsement.
If a HEPA filter is the best air purifier choice for hospitals then what is your best choice?
The Best Air Purifier For Health Benefits Is HEPA
Only HEPA filter air purifiers have the efficiency you need to improve conditions like:
- Allergic rhinitis
- Allergic conjunctivitis
- Asthma
- Allergic sinusitis
- Allergic bronchitis
- Animal allergies
- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
A HEPA filter air purifier is effective at removing many types of airborne allergens, asthma triggers and infectious agents such as:
- Pollens
- Molds and mildews
- Dust mite debris
- Animal dander
- Cockroach debris
- Tobacco smoke
Facts About The Best Air Purifier Technology
HEPA stands for High Efficiency Particulate Air filter. A HEPA air filter must be 99.97% efficient, allowing no more than 3 particles in 10,000 to penetrate the HEPA filter media.
HEPA air filters were developed to contain radioactive particles at nuclear facilities. Since then, HEPA air purification has been used in industrial, medical and military clean rooms.
There are two very different types of air filters on the market that use the term “HEPA”.
- A true HEPA filter must remove 99.97% of all particles 0.3 microns in diameter.
- HEPA-type filters use similar media as true HEPA. However, their efficiency may be no more than 55% at removing particles regardless of diameter. These filters are much cheaper than true HEPA filters.
Avoid products that hijack the HEPA term but provide no performance guarantee.
HEPA filter material causes a great deal of resistance to airflow so a powerful fan is needed to push air through the air purifier.
Because of this resistance neither a HEPA air conditioner filter nor a HEPA furnace filter is practical. A whole house HEPA filter system is not recommended as your best air purifier choice. They filter only a portion of the air passing through your ductwork and provide you with less benefit than HEPA room air cleaners you can place wherever needed most.
HEPA filter replacement is essential to best air purifier performance. Your HEPA air purifier filters need to be changed when they are dirty or else your clean air will steadily dwindle. How often they need to be changed depends on several factors:
- How large the air purifier HEPA filter is. The greater the surface area of the filter the longer it will last. Some filters can exceed a five-year useful life expectancy.
- The best air purifiers use a prefilter. Prefilters stop larger particles from reaching the HEPA filter. Prefilters can often be cleaned and allow the HEPA filter to last longer.
- The kind of environment where the filter is being used. Homes with mold, pets or smokers require filter changes more often.
Now that you understand why HEPA filters are at the heart of the best air purifiers as well as some background information it’s time to move on.
I’d like to invite you now to consider why not all HEPA filter air purifiers are created equal and how it affects your choice of the best air purifier.