Air Purifier City

I’m sure many of you have seen them, the Oreck XL air purifier that is frequently advertised on TV.

The Oreck XL air purifiers are promoted as a powerful air purifier that can clean the air in your room of allergens and odors. Oreck also claims that the Oreck XL air purifier does not need any filter replacement or maintenance.

Untrue Claims About the Oreck XL

First of all, the claim that you do not need to replace any filters is just flat out not true. The Oreck XL does indeed have 4 carbon filters that need to be replaced on a regular basis. These carbon filters are what the Oreck XL uses to remove odors from the air. These little carbon filters are also expensive, often being sold for $39.95 for a 4 pack.

Also, the Oreck XL claims that it can filter bacteria and mold, and also makes a claim that it will kill harmful bacteria. This is probably true to some extent, but the Oreck XL will not capture and remove nearly as much harmful bacteria and mold from the air as a good HEPA filter.

Also, the Oreck XL needs to generate ozone to kill bacteria. The amount of ozone that is generated is so small that it really won’t make a large impact on bacteria in the air if there is any. The amounts of ozone that would be required to efficiently kill all bacteria in the air would also be harmful to humans. So basically, the claim of killing bacteria is true only to a certain small degree.

Wonky Filtering Mechanisms

The Oreck XL air purifier uses a metal grid filter to capture particles from the air. The metal grid is electronically charged, that is how it gets particles to stick to it. Sure, this will capture some particles out of the air, but as soon as particles start to build up on the filter (after only a few days in most cases) the majority of the air that is being sucked through the machine is really not being cleaned at all, since the grid has started to collect more particles than can stick to it overall.

If you clean the metal grid frequently, you will probably get some results from the Oreck XL, but once again, you will not get nearly the same air cleaning results as you would from a good air purifier that uses a HEPA filter.

The worst thing about all this is the on the advertisements the Oreck XL claims to be better than a HEPA filter, and also claims that HEPA filters are much more costly to maintain. This really isn’t the case. A HEPA filter will capture and remove organisms from the air that are 0.3 microns in size, and a HEPA filter will continue to filter and clean the air even after it starts to get dirty. When the metal grid filter in an Oreck XL begins to get dirty (after a few days) it’s effectiveness drops considerably until it is cleaned.

Conclusions

Many users of the Oreck XL may find that it does remove allergens and particles from the air. They may see that this unit does actually work to some extent, and therefore not really think that there are better options available. The truth is that pretty much any air purifier that uses and HEPA filter will pull many more times air through it and will remove many more times the particles and harmful substances from the air than an Oreck XL will.

If these Oreck XL owners had actually been using and air purifier with a HEPA filter before trying the Oreck XL air purifier they would indeed find that the Oreck XL filtration methods cannot hold a candle to a true HEPA filter.

Don’t buy into the hype on TV about the Oreck XL. Spend your money ($350 in most cases) on an air purifier that uses a true HEPA filter and do a proper job of cleaning the air inside your home. You will not regret it.

There are numerous well known benefits to people when an air purifier is employed. The air becomes easier to breath, allergens are reduced and impurities are removed from the air.

Beyond the benefits to people that an air purifier can provide, computers will benefit from the presence of an air purifier too.

An Air Purifier Will Lessen the Effects of Dust

The main benefit to computers from an air purifier is that the purifier will remove dust from the air. Dust is not a good thing for computers.

As your computer runs it’s fans and cooling system will suck air through your computer to keep it cool. If the air in your room is dusty or full of particles your computer will constantly be pulling dusty air through itself.

The excess dust that is being pulled through your computer will build up over time causing your computer to be less efficient at cooling itself. This is not a good thing as an overheating computer can have all kinds of problems.

Using an air purifier to remove the dust and other particles from the room in which computers reside will allow your computer to operate more efficiently and will reduce the buildup of dust inside the computer.

If You Need to Use Gas Dusters… You Need an Air Purifier

A common method of removing dust from the inside of a computer involves using a gas duster. A gas duster is essentially a can of air that can be sprayed on devices. The highly pressurized air blows all the dust off of whatever you are targeting with the gas duster.

If you find yourself needing to use a gas duster to remove dust from your computers on a frequent basis you should probably consider using an air purifier in your computer room. The fact that you have dust building up frequently inside your computers is a red flag that your air is dusty and full of particles.

Other Benefits

In addition to reducing the amount of dust inside your computer the air purifier will keep excess dust from building up on your computer monitor and inside your keyboard.

You may also have other electronic devices in your computer room that can benefit from pure air such as external hard drives or electronic audio equipment.

Overall, the benefits of purifying the air in your computer room can not be denied. You will only need to buy an air purifier that is rated for the size of the room itself, which should not be horribly expensive. The cost of buying the air purifier compared to the cost of replacing of replacing computer parts that are caked with dust and even replacing computers that have overheated due to dust buildup should be pretty easy to justify.

Just remember: Dust is an enemy to computers and electronics but it can easily be battled with an air purifier.

Let’s face it. People love their cats!

It can be assumed that cat owners more than likely are very fond of their pet cats and more than likely look at them more as part of the family and not so much just a pet.

What is one of the stigmas that surrounds cats and ownership of cats as pets? Allergies. Many cat owners battle allergies and still want to keep their cats. This is where air purifiers, more specifically room air purifiers can come in handy. A good room air purifier that uses HEPA filters will allow you to control the level of cat dander and allergy causing substances in the air.

Most cat owners that have allergy symptoms related to their cats can probably consider the allergic sensitivity as mild, as stronger allergic reactions would prevent most people from wanting to be around cats. But there is a certain part of the cat-owning population that suffer from mild allergies related to their cats.

Where does the air purifier come in to play?

Fel d 1 is the specific allergen that is found on cats that cause most people their cat-related allergy troubles. Fel d 1 is a protein that is excreted through the cats saliva or sebacious glands. It gets on the cats fur when they are licking their fur, and when it dries it ends up in the air as a particle that is breathed by humans.

That is where a good room air purifier with a HEPA filter comes in handy!

HEPA filters are perfect for removing these particles from the air, along with any other allergy causing particles that might be floating around in your indoor air. Filtering the air in your home will remedy all kinds of compound effects of allergens that are in the air by clearing the air of all the allergy causing stuff.

Cats won’t be offended by an air purifier

You might have a hard time bathing your cat, or doing other things to keep the cat clean free of allergy causing substances. But… your cat probably won’t mind if you have an air purifier running in your home. Even though it is probably a good idea to bath and brush your cat regularely if you have allergy problems, an air purifier can help pick up the slack if you cat hates baths or you can’t find time to brush the cat as often as you’d like.

Brush your cat in front of the air purifier

If you have a room air purifier, it works quite well to brush your cat near the intake of the air purifier. This way any particles that are sent into the air during the brushing process might get forced through the HEPA filter on your air purifier much more quickly than normal.

All in all, it’s hard to deny the benefits of keeping an air purifier running in your home if you suffer from cat allergies. You’ll be able to keep your lovable feline friends in your home and the effects of cat allergies will be greatly lessened if not eliminated completely by employing the air purifier and other cat allergen reducing techniques.

Ok, so you’ve come to the conclusion that you need to buy an air purifier. Maybe you suffer from allergies, need to remove odors from your home, or just want to keep the indoor air of your home pure and clean.

Now you need to decide what type of air purifier you will buy.

Air Purifier Buying Factors

There are many factors to consider when buying an air purifier. The most common factors that should affect what type of air purifier that you buy will be:

• In what size room will you be using the air purifier?
• What do you want to filter from the air?
• How much air purifier maintenance can you handle?

Room Size

Buying an air purifier that is appropriately rated for the size of room that it will be used in is very important. Not buying an appropriately rated air purifier for your room will have a negative effect on how well the air purifier works for you.

This is where “CADR” comes in.

CADR is short for “Clean Air Delivery Rate” and is represented on the packaging for air purifiers in the form of a seal, usually on the back on the box.

The Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) seal program was developed by the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM). The intentions of the CADR seal program are to provide a standard way of measuring the largest size room that an air purifier will be effective for.

CADR is based on the cubic feet of air a purifier can filter per minute. Basically, the higher the CADR number the faster the unit will clean the air in a room.

The following formula will help you determine the correct CADR for your application:

Square footage of the room x .75 = CADR

Here’s a quick example: If your room is 20′x20′, which equals 400 sq. ft., you will need an air purifier with a CADR of at least 300.

400 square feet x .75 = 300

When looking for an air purifier, if the exact CADR you require is not available, get the next size up. For instance, if the room requires a CADR of 300, and your options are 250, 330 and 400, get the air purifier with a CADR of 330.

Air Purifier Maintenance

When buying an air purifier, always make sure to pay attention to required maintenance. Pay attention to how often you will need to either clean or change the HEPA filters, pre-filters, carbon filters and in some cases UV lamps.

Consider the costs of the maintenance. How much will it cost to buy a new filter replacement? How much will it cost to buy a new UV lamp?

In addition to the cost, pay attention to how often a HEPA filter, carbon filter or UV lamp will need to be replaced. There can be a big difference in cost in maintaining an air purifier that requires filter changes every 3 months as opposed to every 12 months.

Why Do You Want an Air Purifier?

“What do I want to filter from the air?” is a question that you should ask yourself for sure.

For example:

• If you want to filter particles from the air, you’ll probably want to get an air purifer with a HEPA filter as that is the best type of filter for removing small particles from the air.
• If you want to kill airborne bacteria and viruses, look for an air purifier that uses UV lighting to kill these types of organisms.
• If you want to combat odors, look for an air purifier that uses activated carbon to remove odors from the air.

You should be able to find an air purifier that addresses your needs with a small amount of research and investigation. There are many manufacturers making many types of air purifiers these days, as air purification has become a popular general health topic.

Many air purifiers implement the use of activated carbon. This enables the air purifier to better remove odors from the air.

Many of the air purifiers that employ activated carbon filters are used in areas where exhaust fumes are prevalent, such as airport hangers, auto repair shops, and painting shops.

Activated carbon is a commonly thrown around term in the world of air purifiers, but many might not know exactly what this means.

Purification of Air and Liquids

Activated carbon is used in air and liquid purification. An example of air purification would be a typical home-use air purifier. An example of liquid purification would be a filter on a fish tank that uses activated carbon to clean impurities from the water.

Activated carbon is manufactured from a variety of sources. The most common sources are coal, wood, lignite, and coconut shells. The process of creating the activated carbon includes first carbonizing the raw material at low temperatures, and then activating the carbon in a high temperature steam process.

How Does Activate Carbon Work?

Activated carbon can be viewed as a sponge for gases. The more carbon that an air filter has inside of it, the more gases (and odors) it can soak up. Through a physical and chemical process, any gases and odors in the air will adhere to the carbon’s surface, thus removing them from the air as air passed through the carbon filter.

Activated carbon has a slight electro-positive charge added to it, making it even more attractive to chemicals and impurities. As air or water passes over the positively charged carbon surface, the negative ions of the contaminants are drawn to the surface of the carbon granules. That’s pretty much how it works.

What is Activated Carbon Good For?

An activated carbon filter in side of an air purification system will battle all of the odors and smells inside of the room that the air purifier is running in.

If you smoke cigarettes in your home, activated carbon will help remove the odor of cigarette smoke. If you cook very aromatic foods or fried foods, activated carbon will clear the air of the cooking smells. If you have pet odors, activated carbon will help battle down the pet odors.

You get the idea.

Using Activated Carbon

Now that you know what activated carbon is, you will be better educated when looking at the different models of air purifiers that might fit your situation. If you want to combat odors as well as air particles and contaminants, you should definitely find an air purifier that employs an activated carbon filter in addition to a HEPA filter or other similar air particle filter.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ranks indoor air pollution as one of the top five environmental risks to public health, wow! Indoor air pollution can sometimes be two to five times higher – and some of the time more than a hundred times as high – than outside air pollution levels. Poor indoor air quality is one of the top five risks to better health.

One of the best ways to improve the indoor air quality is the use of an air purifier with a HEPA Filter.

What is a HEPA Filter?

HEPA filters are an effective way to capture particulates of smoke, dust, asbestos, actinolite, bacteria and other pathogens, radioactive dust and mold spores. HEPA filters are designed to trap pollutants and particles by trapping or sticking these elements to the filter fibers.

HEPA filters are best for people with allergies and asthma because they offer the fastest way to remove airborne particulate from the air. Many people with allergies have a freestanding HEPA filter in the bedroom, a HEPA filter-equipped vacuum or both.

HEPA filters remove contaminants and purify air

HEPA filters are also used in other places such as hospitals and manufacturing rooms where clean air is absolutely vital important to the well being of the location and people within it.

HEPA filters are critical in the prevention of the spread of airborne bacterial and viral organisms and, therefore, infection. Typically, medical-use HEPA filtration systems also incorporate high-energy ultra-violet light units to kill off the live bacteria and viruses trapped by the filter media. HEPA filters are the only way to remove these types of contaminants.

Definition of a HEPA Filter

True HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filters are those that are regulated by the Institute of Environmental Science as filters that capture 99.97% of air contaminants at the 0.3 micron size.

HEPA filters are usually of multiple pleated construction. The nature and relationship of the pleats may vary but the filters are commonly comparatively bulky and of generally box-like form. Air purifiers that use HEPA filters will vary in the size and construction of the HEPA filter that is actually used in the unit.

Filtering odors

A HEPA filter usually won’t combat odors as effectively as it will filter fine particles out of the air. For this reason, if you wish to filter odors as well as particles out of the air you will want to find an air purifier that also employs activated carbon to filter odors along with a HEPA filter to filter out the particles.

Activated carbon is the most effective type of filter against chemicals and odors. (dust, pollen, dust mites, dander, mold spores, asbestos fibers, droplets, etc.).

In conclusion

The HEPA filter is the best type of filter available to keep air clean. If you are going to buy an air purifier for use in your home, consider the air purifiers that use HEPA filters to be the best option available.

Allergy sufferers know the rigors of suffering through allergy seasons. Allergy seasons come and go along with the 4 seasons, and it’s just a cycle that needs to be continuously battled.

The long winter months might actually provide relief to those with seasonal allergies. When spring rolls around, and the prospect of nice weather arriving and the cold winter days leaving is upon us, mixed feelings will be the norm for those that suffer from allergies.

Allergy symptoms

Even though the cold days are gone, the new springtime weather brings with it a bevy of allergy causing situations. Pollen, pollutants, open windows, vacationing to different outside locales… all of these will contribute to allergy problems in some way or another.

If you suffer from intense allergies on a seasonal basis, you are probably already doing something to combat your symptoms, whether that includes taking allergy medication or other approaches to curbing your symptoms.

In addition to medications, keeping the air inside your home is important to curbing your allergy symptoms.

This is where an air purifier comes in.

Keeping indoor air clean with an air purifier

Using an air purifier to clean and filter the air in your home is a must if you are trying to combat allergies. The air purifier will help you reduce the amount of pollen and other small particles in the air that aggravate your allergy symptoms.

In many cases, the air inside a home may be of poorer quality than the air outdoors, even during allergy seasons outdoors. This could be because of poor air circulation systems within your house or poor ventilation within your home overall. Even though it’s a good idea to fight the source and get poorly maintained ventilation systems cleaned or maintained, an air purifier can clean up some of the poor air conditions that might result from poor air handling within your home.

Where should you put an air purifier?

You will want to focus your air purification efforts on certain key areas within your home.

The bedrooms of your home are probably the most important places to keep an air purifier. One reason for this is the fact that you spend a large portion of your time in this particular room when you are sleeping. Another reason to keep an air purifier in your bedrooms is because human respiratory systems let down their guard while you are sleeping. Stuff in the air that might not bother you much during the day will wreak havoc at night while your body is relaxed and you are trying to sleep. Also, it’s easier to sleep if you are not suffering from your allergy symptoms.

You’ll also want to put air purifiers in other areas where you spend a lot of time. If your family spends a lot of time in a particular family room (especially one that is shared with pets), you’ll want to concentrate on that area of the home, for example.

Some people will move an air purifier from room to room as they do things in various parts of their home. Maybe you put the air purifier in your bedroom at night and in the living room during the day. This can help alleviate costs too.

Keep the air purifier running

Don’t run your air purifier for short periods of time if you don’t need to. It’s best to leave it running continuously wherever it is that is running.

When you turn off the air purifier you run the risk of letting the air quality drop and your air purifier will need to play “catch-up” when you turn it back on.

For allergies, use an air purifier with a HEPA filter

Overall, an air purifier that uses a HEPA filter will prove to be the best at combating most types of air-born allergies. The term HEPA stands for “High Energy Particulate Arresting”, and HEPA filters where developed by NASA for use in space shuttles.

Basically, the HEPA filter is the best at pulling the tiny particles that cause allergies out of the air. A HEPA filter will need to be changed periodically, and will be more effective during the beginning of it’s life cycle than the end of it’s life cycle. Because of this it is important to stay on top of maintaining your air purifier and it’s filter to get maximum performance from your air purifier.

Other air filters in your home

In addition to the air purifiers in your home, make sure that you also properly maintain the filters on your air conditioning systems and other ventilation systems within your home. This can be important and will lessen the need for an air purifier unit and will help lengthen the life span of any air purifiers that you might be operating.

Don’t delay

Make sure you prepare appropriately for allergy season by servicing all your air systems within your home and by getting your air purifiers running before the allergy season begins. This will help you to stay on top of the situation and prevent air quality from becoming bad within your home in the first place, and will make your indoor experience during allergy season a pleasant one.