Although Air Purifiers seem like a new innovation, they have actually been around for more than 200 years! They started out as protective masks for firefighters and have evolved over the years to highly effective and efficient air filtering devices that remove various types of particles from the air.
So, how do these small machines protect us from potentially dangerous airborne particles?
Air purifiers have very fine sieves that filter particles out of the circulating air. The finer the sieve, the smaller the particles it will trap. High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters are the benchmark for air purifier filters, which are guaranteed to trap 99.97% of airborne particles larger than 0.3 microns in size. Microns are the standard unit that is used to measure the size of particles in the air. Each micron is equivalent to 1/25,400 of an inch. The naked eye cannot see anything that is smaller than 10 microns in size, so pollutants like bacteria and viruses cannot be seen.
The more that air passes through a HEPA filter, the cleaner the air will become. The room capacity of a HEPA air purifier will determine whether the air cleaner can handle your needs and/or if you require multiple air purifiers for your space.