Having clean air in your home is essential for the health and wellbeing of you and your family. An air filter can help to remove contaminants such as dust, pollen, dirt, mold, animal hair, bacteria and more. Over time, germs and dirt will clog the filter, so it's important to change it regularly to keep the air in your home clean and reduce the risk of health problems. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), air purifiers with HEPA filters can remove 99.7 percent of airborne particles (PM) that circulate in your home environment.
This can result in several immediate and long-term health benefits, such as improved sleep quality and longer life expectancy. Before investing in an air purifier, it is recommended to invest in a home air quality test to determine what contaminants you have in your home. In the Pacific Northwest, having clean HVAC air filters is crucial to keeping the air clean and protecting your health and that of your family. The best option for filtering particles is a HEPA filter device, which is designed to collect at least 99.5% of airborne particles that are 3 microns in size or less.
Some technologically advanced air purifiers include a combination of two or three types of filters. You can also look for purifiers and air filters that are certified safe for asthma and allergies by the American Asthma and Allergy Foundation. It's important to have adequate indoor air filtration to combat these elements and improve the air quality inside your home. If the air filter doesn't seem to be clean and you see some degradation in the airflow, it means that it's not working properly, which could have consequences for your family, such as allergies, coughs, flu, and respiratory illnesses.
Not only do dirty air filters not clean the air, but all those trapped harmful particles accumulate in the air conditioning system. A review of research concluded that air filters have little significant effect on dust mite allergens because these allergens lodge in larger particles that settle quickly on surfaces and are not captured by air filters. It all depends on what you want an air purifier to do in your home and how well you adapt the specific air purifier to your goals. One of the long-term benefits of an air purifier is the support it provides to your air conditioning system.
The ACH rating refers to the number of times per hour that the entire volume of air in the room is filtered. When you change your air filter regularly, you remove dirt and germs trapped in the filter and allow the air to be cleaned more thoroughly as it passes through. Pollen, dust mites and pet dander that float around the home are trapped in these nets so you can enjoy clean air.