Airborne particle in the home are often too small for a person to be able to see those particles. These small particles, however, are important to consider within the home because these small particles can have an impact upon the air quality within the home. HEPA filter are often used to capture these airborne particles.
HEPA filters are effective at removing these particles because they can capture many of different types of particles that may be in the air at once. Particularly within the particle size chart, there is different size of particles that are represented. The chart makes it clear that different sizes of particles will behave in different ways within the HEPA filter.
How HEPA Filters Clean Home Air
For instance, the HEPA filter will easily capture large particle, as the particles will be unable to pass through the dense fibers of the filter. However, there is one particular size of particle that is difficult for the HEPA filter to remove: particles that are approximately three-tenth of a micron in size. These particles are small enough to not directly hit the fibers of the HEPA filter, but they are large enough to not perform the random movement that would allow them to become ensnared in the fibers of the HEPA filter.
HEPA filter manufacturers use this particular size of particle to determine the effectiveness of the HEPA filter. The knowledge of particle size allow people to understand both why certain pollutant may remain within the room, as well as to understand how the HEPA filter functions. For instance, wildfire smoke contains particles that are of the difficult to remove size, suggesting that using only a cheap air filter will not help to reduce the smoke particles.
Similarly, both pet dander and mold contain particles of different sizes; only the smallest particles of these substances can travel into the lungs of those in the room. Thus, while it may be possible to remove the visible dust in the room, the small particles that remain in the air and do not settle on objects will still negatively impact the air quality within the room. A HEPA filter works through the use of three different mechanism to remove both large and small particles from the air that passes through the filter.
The larger of the particles will be captured through the use of the momentum of the particles to ensure that the particle makes contact with the fibers of the HEPA filter. The medium sized particles will be captured by allowing the particles to make contact with the fibers of the HEPA filter as the particles move in a curved path. Finally, small particles will be captured as a result of the random movement of those particles; the smaller the particles, the more likely they are to make contact with the fibers of the HEPA filter as a result of their random movement.
Thus, the use of these three different mechanisms allows for the HEPA filter to protect the air within a given room from many types of pollutants. In order for a HEPA filter to provide protection for the indoor air within a room, the HEPA filter must be clean. The HEPA filter must be maintained to ensure that the HEPA filter can effectively move air through the HEPA filter.
Should the HEPA filter become clogged with particles, the HEPA filter will no longer be able to effectively move the air through the HEPA filter. Additionally, the HEPA filter may even work to push the particles that the HEPA filter captured back into the room. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the prefilter of the air purifier is inspected every month, and ensure that the HEPA filter itself is also replaced from time to time in order to allow for the HEPA filter to continue to provide protection for the air within a room.
Finally, not all air purifier are created equally. The placement of the air purifier within a room can have an impact upon the amount of clean air that enters the room. For instance, you should not place air purifiers in a corner within a room, or placed behind furniture.
Air purifiers should be placed in the center of the room, in an area that has clear space on each side of the air purifier. Additionally, bedrooms may be locations where air purifiers are particularly useful; because individuals breathe deep in their bedrooms, an air purifier may work to remove particles from the air that can enter the bedding of those who sleep in the bedroom. Beyond the HEPA filter, other components of the air purifier may work to remove additional types of pollutants from the air.
For instance, while the HEPA filter will capture many of the airborne particles, it does not capture gases and odor that may be present in the air. The gases and odors tend to pass through the fibers of the HEPA filter, as they are smaller than the particles represented in the particle size chart, as well as smaller than the holes that are present within the fibers of the HEPA filter. In order to remove these gases and odors, an activated carbon filter can be used.
Activated carbon filters work to trap the molecule of the gases and odors. Thus, using air purifiers that contain both HEPA and activated carbon filters allows for the removal of both airborne particles as well as odors of the air within the room.