“Can you recommend any energy efficient air purifiers?”
Sabrina from Seattle
Let’s face it. Air purifiers are meant to be operated 24/7. After all, you breathe 24/7. And you want that air to be the cleanest it can be, right?
But running an air purifier perpetually is going to burn some electricity.
Fortunately, even if you get a big honkin’ behemoth like the IQAir HealthPro Plus your power usage may be as low as 85 watts.
Or it could be as high as 215 watts. It all depends on the fan setting. Power consumption is totally up to you depending on how much air cleaning you need at the moment.
However, there are a few energy efficient air purifiers that have earned an Energy Star Certification for keeping electric use low.
So whether you’re thinking about the environment or your pocketbook you do have some good choices in quality air filtration.
However, don’t make this newby mistake…
Energy Star Certification by itself is no indicator of how energy efficient an air purifier may be.
Consider two air purifiers with similar Clean Air Delivery Rates (CADR), the Sharp FP-A28U and the BlueAir ECO10.
Both have an Energy Star Certification, but the Sharp air purifier just barely makes the standard with a CADR per Watt rating of 2, the barest minimum required performance.
On the other hand, the BlueAir ECO10 has a CADR/Watt rating of 19.66, almost ten times more efficient than the Sharp model. In fact the BlueAir ECO10 is the most energy efficient air purifier on the market.
But BlueAir gets absolutely no extra recognition for this performance.
Obviously, with actual efficiency ratings spread across a broad range, you need to dig a little deeper to discover the real performance numbers.
And don’t make this mistake either…
Energy Star Certification is not an indicator of quality, suitability or safety. Read this because you could expose yourself to real physical harm.
Energy Star Certifications are determined by comparing electric use to the AHAM CADR rating.
CADR ratings are fundamentally flawed.
CADR does not take into consideration serious health concerns such as ozone production.
CADR does not rate chemical and odor removal.
CADR only rates removal of particulates of a certain size range, not the sizes most harmful to health, but those easiest to remove.
CADR is a short duration test. Many ionic air purifiers post good numbers but would rate extremely poorly on a long duration test.
Here is a hypothetical scenario…
You purchase an energy efficient ionic air purifier with an Energy Star Certification. It received this because its performance on a short term test met the standard.
However, within three days it’s only cleaning at 20% of its rated CADR due to plate loading.
Within a week it’s essentially useless but still burning electricity. This is why regular maintenance cleaning is an absolute must.
But it gets worse…
This same ionic air purifier is producing ozone, a tissue damaging lung irritant.
Elevated ozone levels are proven to induce asthma attacks, heart attacks and stroke. It also increases allergy sensitivity because of respiratory irritation.
And it gets worse still…
Ozone also reacts with volatile organic compounds and micro particulates in the air, resulting in ultrafine particulates that reach deep into the lungs and even pass into the bloodstream.
Some of these byproducts are known to be toxic and carcinogenic.
Your ionic air purifier not only doesn’t remove them, it is the cause of them.
Yet this questionable device is rated acceptable under the CADR test and gets an Energy Star Certification as an energy efficient air purifier.
And just one more thing…
There are air purifiers that would rate as energy efficient, but their manufacturers refuse to submit them to the test based on principle.
Take IQAir and AllerAir for example.
Both of these companies are among the best air purifier manufacturers in the world and oppose the CADR test because of serious flaws in its design.
They argue quite correctly that this self regulating industry has put together a weak test that utterly fails to address serious issues while allowing almost any participant to receive good ratings.
Thus, they refuse to grant it any semblance of credibility by submitting their air purifiers to it.
But no CADR rating means no Energy Star Certification.
Recommended Energy Efficient Air Purifiers
There are no easy answers. Energy Star Certification by itself is not an adequate guide.
The bottom line is you need to break out the calculator and crunch some numbers to see if an air purifier meets your expectations.
While energy efficiency is definitely a reasonable expectation I recommend you not sacrifice air cleaning performance solely in the name of efficiency.
Such may well be a case of “penny wise, pound foolish”.
Energy efficiency concerns should be kept second to your primary concern for healthy air. Once you have a short list of air purifiers that will work for your situation, only then should you compare their energy use.
Don’t prevent yourself from getting the results you need because of a few Watts.
That being said, I do recommend a number of energy efficient air purifiers that also meet high standards of air cleaning performance.
You may wish to consider any of the following Energy Star Certified air purifiers:
- BlueAir air purifiers
- Alen air purifiers