How Long Should You Run Your Air Purifier?

How long does it take an air purifier to clean a room?

Generally, most air purifiers will take half an hour to two hours to totally cover a whole room.

Highly reliant on the purifying coverage of the unit, room size, and the speed of the fan, air purifiers first should feature the capacity of fulfilling the size of the room.

A room size of about 300 square feet will require a unit with a purifying coverage of at least 300 square feet.

Comparable to the purifying coverage, a unit running in four-speed will take just half of the time to cover a room than a similar model operating at two speed.

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To maximize your air purifier, you can run it for at least a few hours at full throttle. After that, you can switch back to low speed to maintain the quality standard of your room.

In addition, you can keep the unit running throughout the day since dirt and other airborne particles circulate the entire day.

Facts about having healthy air:

Probably you would like specific health benefits such as relief from asthma or allergy. What should you know to ensure the air purifier will give those health benefits?

Think about the following factors:

Your air purifier’s level of efficiency
Reintroduction of contaminants
Dilution of contaminants
ACH (Air changes per hour)
Personal sensitivity
Dispersion of contaminants

You will need to take into consideration 4 factors together before you understand simply how effective these units are at cleaning up the air in a room.

The size of particles the filters will trap
The volume of air the unit is rated for
How quick the unit will cycle the air
The air purifier’s power setting

Power setting

Many features of an air purifier are popularized with the highest power setting. That is to say, once you lower the power, the capabilities of the unit reduce quickly.

You should remember this, particularly during the first day of using this unit. If you want to see results you should switch the unit on at the power setting.

What an air purifier cleans up

The good news is that you have bought an air purifier, which can clean up a big space measuring 800 square feet with high ceilings, and it will exchange all the air every fifteen minutes.

However, there are filters you should take into consideration. Simply because the unit can move all the air in the room does not mean that it can clean up all of it.

You should know what type of contaminants the filters can trap and eliminate from the air in your room.

Many models of air conditioners and purifiers can get rid of medium and big particles such as dust and pollen; however, the fine particles, is where the dissimilarity occurs.

Fine particles are air contaminants inside your home that are 2.5 micrometers or lower. However, you will be astonished to know that many of them are in the range of 0.1 – 1.0 micrometers.

A common way of fighting the fine particles is by HEPA filters; however, they aren’t all made equal.

For instance, models with a true HEPA filter can filter 99.97 percent of the contaminants as minute as 0.3 micrometers in size. Weigh against filters, which are often marketed as “HEPA-style” or HEPA-like.”

They can filter 99.0 percent of the contaminants as minute as 2.0 micrometers in size. There can be a huge space between 0.3 and 2.0 micrometers once you understand just how many contaminants are smaller 2.0 micrometers.

You can add to the notion that the machine undergoes a lot of air changes daily, and the variation in the quality of air might be very big ultimately.

How far does the air purifier clean?

A strong air exchange rate is superb. However, even if every ten minutes the unit can clean out the air, will it really clean out all the indoor air?

What’s the volume of air will it push through?

How far is the air purifier’s reach?

For this, you will want to get a model that comes with a clean air delivery rate (CADR rating).

This is a standardized examination that will show the number of cubic feet per minute unit can move for cleaning out 80 percent of contaminants in the air.

How fast an air purifier unit will clean?

When you try to establish just how fast this machine will clean the air, you should consider the rate of air changes per hour, or ACH.

This informs you of the number of times the same air will cycle trough the unit and get cleaned per hour.

The best air purifier needs to cycle a room’s air approximately four to five times per hour. That is to say, every 12 – 15 minutes, the same air should pass through the unit.

Average models cycle the air thrice per hour (once every 20 minutes); however, they obviously don’t match those having a fast rate of air changes per hour.

Avoid those models that do not change the air out quickly enough. Indoor air in many houses is often very contaminated.

An air purifier that will take a whole 60 minutes to change the air out will not be powerful enough.

How do I know if my air purifier is working?

It is good to use an air purifier in your home. In the event you suffer from some chronic illness such as severe allergy or asthma, you can use these units for improving the quality of air inside your home too.

The particles contaminating the air are very small that is why you cannot see them easily. As a result, the measurement of these units becomes hard as well.

It is easy to maintain an air purifier and also you do not need to do a lot of maintenance. Thus, the most popular question asked by many is how to know if the air purifier is working.

That is considering that you have placed your air cleaner the right place.

Check the filter

Checking the filter frequently is another way of monitoring your air purifier’s performance. You will be able to easily see the HEPA filter and the pre-filter if it already requires replacement.

If the screen has dust, debris, and hair, then you’re certain that the unit is functioning well. But it’s important not to allow it to get clogged.

Cleaning the pre-filter is possible; however, you’ll require help from an expert when you want to clean up the HEPA filter.

If you aren’t cautious enough, the accumulated fine dust and bacteria will get released into the air in your home.

Remember to look at the filter frequently, since dirty filters will obstruct the capacity of the air purifier to purify your air. You can replace the filter every 6 months.

Keeping track of the filter indicator

Make sure you look at the filter service indicator on the unit or in the app to check your air purifier’s performance. Keep in mind that the lights flicker at certain intervals.

This isn’t necessarily a sign of the unit not working. Once the lights are back, start by looking at the filters and deal with the problem.

Use an indoor air quality monitor

Though many models of air purifiers have an integrated monitor, it might not be as precise as you would like. It won’t help you in measuring if the air purifier is effective to clean up the air in your house.

To test your home’s quality of air, try to use an air quality monitor separate from the one that’s in your unit.

These small devices will help you get an air quality reading immediately. Knowing your home’s quality of air will help you determine if the unit is working perfectly.

Check for airflow

The best natural method of checking an air purifier’s operation is to look at the air circulation. Additionally, keep in mind that some models adjust the fan based on the contaminants it will detect.

If you have clean air in your house already, the unit might just generate small wind, which makes them energy-efficient.

If the vents generate a light gentle wind, then the unit is functioning well. The fan should generate less noise as well. Once it gets noisy, examine it for pollution buildup and hindrances.

Though the unit needs not to be noisy, it should still generate calm whirring sounds. If either of the issues takes place, it may be time to get in touch with the manufacturer.