How Should Air Purifiers Be Rated?

We were just featured on CBC's Marketplace on Friday in one of their stories about portable air purifiers and indoor air quality testing. We have been on CBC Marketplace several times over the past decade and always enjoy working with them.

We have been inundated with calls about this story and how people should judge or pick an air purifier or HEPA filter. Although CBC was fairly thorough in their analysis on filter capacity, we do feel that they didn't quite show the full picture and may have missed the mark on filter effectiveness in this story.

This is how air purifiers should be rated (portable, central, MERV rated and HEPA).

Cost:

The first part of any indoor air quality device should be benefit not price. We realize in tough times it may be appealing to look at affordability...however your lungs only care about performance...not what you spent or saved.

Obviously you don't want to over spend but in most cases, the cheaper the filter product, the cheaper its parts and its construction. We believe that a quality air purifier should be in the $800 to $2,000 range if you are looking for quality and years of dependable service. This could be either a portable or centrally connected system. In our professional opinion, we have not seen a less expensive air purifier that can deliver the same consistency.

CADR:

The Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) is only one aspect of rating an air purifier. The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers developed the CADR as a tool to measure overall performance for portable air purifiers and is not utilized for centrally installed air purifiers or HEPA air cleaners. The CADR represents how much volume of air can be cleaned and uses smoke, dust and pollen as a reference over a 25 minute period.

Drawbacks of CADR:

CADR does not include odours, gases or VOC's Many quality air purifiers and HEPA systems also reduce or eliminate these toxins.CADR tests the filters only on the highest setting. It is unlikely that you would run a portable air purifier always on the highest setting.It can only provide data on when the filter and filter media is brand new and clean. It does not take into account the quality of the filter media, the motor reliability, quality of air seals and overall construction of the air purifier. The CADR also does not provide any data on how effective the filter is with any dust accumulation or how it will behave over time.CADR basically tells you the fan capacity and overall efficiency. It does not provide exact data on how efficient the filter is at the smallest dust size such as 0.3 microns. Is it 50% reduction, 80% reduction or 90% reduction of dust and particulates in the breathable air? You could have a low efficiency filter that does not filter very well combined with a high capacity motor and get a good CADR.CADR does not take into account energy usage.CADR also does not take into account the noise level of the air purifier.

We believe that to properly test the effectiveness of a portable as well as a centrally installed air purification device, the following should be examined:

Top 10 Ways To Judge an Air Purifier.

How effective is the unit at cleaning the air in the room or application that it is placed? What were the 0.3, 1.0 and 2.0 micron levels of airborne particles when the unit was placed in the room and what was the end result? Also, what level of particle reduction was observed coming out of the air purifier. Is it really HEPA efficiency or not? How long did it take to clean my air?Can it also absorb VOC's and odours?How much noise does the unit make?How expensive are the replacement filters?Will it continue to operate when filters are 50% full?How well is the unit made and how long will the unit last? If it's $1,000 but lasts me 10-15 years or is it $200 and I need to buy a new one every year.How much power will it use? Will it be costly to run?Does it produce ozone? This is a carcinogen.Can it do the whole house or just the room that it is in?Is it CSA approved, for electrical safety?

At Verify Air Quality we test your indoor air quality first, then we determine what air purification products you need. We can then advise you on what brands and types of air quality equipment you need for the air quality issues you have.

Call us today and we will be happy to help you with your indoor air quality Toronto needs. We love to talk to our clients.