With growing concerns surrounding air quality, air purifiers are becoming more and more popular with commercial business owners. While air purifiers are known for significantly improving air quality by eliminating harmful and sometimes hazardous air particles, many people are unsure what they do and whether or not they work.
In this article, we’ll discuss what air purifiers are, how they work, the several types of air purifiers that exist, the various benefits they provide, and whether or not they’re worth the investment.
Continue reading to learn more about how the commercial air quality experts at Design Mechanical can help you take the next step toward cleaner, healthier air in your commercial building.
How Do Air Purifiers Work?
Air purifiers are designed to remove pollutants, contaminants, and allergens commonly found in indoor air, making cleaner air healthier to breathe. Through innovative air purification technology, air purifiers draw air from the surrounding environment, which is subsequently passed through a series of filters, trapping various unwanted particles before recirculating clean air back into the environment.
Air purifiers are designed to remove the following types of air contaminants:
- Allergens
- Bacteria and Viruses
- Dust
- Mold Spores
- Odors
- Pet Dander
- Smoke
- Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)
Allergens
Allergens are substances that might cause undesirable immunological reactions, such as allergies or asthma.
Bacteria and Viruses
Microorganisms and submicroscopic infectious agents are capable of causing a wide range of infections, diseases, and health disorders.
Dust
Skin cells, hair, clothing fibers, germs, dust mite excrement, fragments of dead bugs, soil particles, and pollen are all commonly found in dust.
Mold Spores
Indoor mold particles, like allergens, can be harmful to those with allergies, asthma, and respiratory disorders.
Odors
Odors are created by one or more chemical compounds that have been volatilized and can arise from various sources, including cooking, smoke, and mold. Air purifiers can help remove odors such as these.
Pet Dander
A form of allergen made up of microscopic skin particles produced by cats, dogs, rats, birds, and other furry or feathered animals.
Smoke
Smoke is a complex mixture of various components, including microscopic solids, liquids, and gas particles, and can contain hundreds of different chemicals and gases, both visible and invisible to the human eye.
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are organic chemicals with a high vapor pressure at room temperature.
Common Types of Air Purifiers
There are several different air purifiers, each of which works differently depending on the type of filtration mechanism used. Let’s take a closer look at the most common types of air purifiers:
- Filtered Air Purifier
- HEPA Filter
- Activated Carbon Filter
- Ultraviolet Light Air Purifier
Filtered Air Purifier
Filtered air purifiers are the most effective and widely used in commercial settings. These air purifiers have one or more filters that catch and eliminate contaminants as they pass through.
HEPA Filter
HEPA filters are standard on most filtered air purifiers and are designed to catch up to 99.97 percent of airborne particle contaminants at 0.3 microns in size (microscopic particles are invisible to the human eye). If an air purifier contains a HEPA filter, it works by drawing air into a dense, woven filter and trapping particles inside, so they don’t float back into the air.
Activated Carbon Filter
Activated carbon filters are designed to capture and eliminate unwanted odors, gaseous contaminants, and VOCs. Activated carbon filters must be replaced regularly, typically once every two to three months.
Ultraviolet Light Air Purifier
Ultraviolet (UV) light air purifiers utilize a non-lethal form of radiation released by a light inside the unit that breaks down the molecular structure of germs, bacteria, and pathogens as they move through the air purification system, rendering them harmless to human health.
What Are the Benefits of an Air Purifier?
Air purifiers do much more than simply clean the air and use advanced filtration technologies to capture harmful particles in the air. Here are some of the numerous health benefits they provide:
- Reduce Asthma and Allergy Symptoms
- Reduces the Chances of Airborne Infections
- Protects Against Mold
- Longer HVAC System Life
Reduce Asthma and Allergy Symptoms
Pollutants such as pet dander, pollen, and dust mites irritate our airways, making breathing difficult for individuals with asthma or allergy symptoms. Although vacuuming your carpet and floors can eliminate some of these contaminants, others remain trapped in the air.
Air purifiers not only remove asthma triggers from the air you breathe, but they also disinfect the air, keeping your indoor air clean of pollutants lowering the chances of asthma and allergy-related breathing difficulties.
Reduces the Chances of Airborne Infections
Airborne infections such as the common cold are spread by microscopic bacteria that float around in indoor air. Luckily, these germs and viruses are captured by air purifiers, with many air purifiers including technologies that allow particles as small as .01 um to be removed from the air.
Protects Against Mold
While mold is sometimes unavoidable, deterioration can cause a threat is not. As previously mentioned, air purifiers absorb and kill mold spores, significantly reducing the chances of experiencing mold or mold growth.
Longer HVAC System Life
Lastly, another advantage of air purifiers is that your HVAC filters will be less burdened by air contaminants, resulting in an HVAC system with a much longer lifespan.
Learn More From the Commercial Air Quality Experts at Design Mechanical
To many people’s surprise, indoor air is often more polluted than the air we breathe outside. Because it can remove several types of contaminants and pollutants from the air, purchasing an air purifier is well worth the investment and one of the best ways to improve the air quality of your commercial building.
While choosing the air purifier that’s best for your business will largely be determined by your specific requirements, the experts at Design Mechanical can help remove some of the guesswork involved with the process.
At Design Mechanical, our primary focus is to ensure that your building’s occupants and visitors are breathing the cleanest air possible at all times. As the number one indoor air quality and purification service provider in the Kansas City area, we understand the importance of professional indoor air quality testing and purification.
Our team of air purification specialists is here for your 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to answer any questions you might have about how to improve the air quality of your commercial environment.
To learn more about our air purification systems and services, contact Design Mechanical today to set up a free consultation with one of our air quality experts and find the best air purification solution for your business.