Air Purifier is Essential For Your Home: Here is How You Can Beat The Pollution

The polluted times we live in, air purifiers for homes are no longer considered a luxury. It has now become a necessity—pretty much as essential as food, water, and air. We have just celebrated the festival of Diwali, and this usually ushers in the cooler temperatures of the winter months. With those temperatures and atmospheric changes comes to another big problem. Pollution. Air pollution. The air quality outdoors becomes worse since the pollution that is generated from various sources gets trapped because of differences in air pressure, moisture, and wind speeds. We are constantly hearing reports of extremely poor AQI levels in most Indian cities, irrespective of the vehicular density (as the general perception is). When the same poor-quality air streams inside our homes and remain trapped, we need a solution to deal with the dangerous cocktail brewing inside our homes. The general perception is that the air inside our homes is clean and fresh. But, it isn’t. The outdoor air combined with pollutants and allergens such as residues, fungal spores, indoor smoke, paint fumes, varnishes, pet dander, etc., are now causing what is known as the Sick Building Syndrome. While your house may look clean because you dust it nicely every day, chances are it still has a very high concentration of pollutants.
In May 2018, a World Health Organization (WHO) report suggested that more than 4 million people die premature deaths because of indoor air pollution. Household air pollution causes stroke, ischaemic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and lung cancer. Of these premature deaths because of indoor air pollution, 27% are because of pneumonia while 18% is because of stroke and 8% because of lung cancer, to name a few.
If you already haven’t, it may be time to buy an air purifier for your home. However, how you do pick the perfect air purifier for your home specifically? It is branded galore, as we speak. Hullaard, Philips, Honeywell, Sharp, Dyson, Blueair, Samsung, Atlanta Healthcare, IQ Air, and Xiaomi to name a few. They all claim to be the best, all specify really powerful cleaning performance and most look the same too. Here are some tips to remember.
Size and space: Has to fit like a glove
An air purifier has to be the right fit for the room space. The best way of going about it is to match the size of your room and the coverage area of each purifier—this is usually mentioned in square feet (sq. ft). Buying one that is too small for your room will mean that the purifier will be unable to clean the air completely and also keep it clean constantly. It is better to err on the side of caution and get one that is slightly larger in capacity. Brands have different air purifier sizes in their range. For instance, a Hullaard AT 11 (around Rs6,999) air purifier is ideal for a small bedroom or a study room, a larger AT 21 (around Rs9,999) purifier works best in larger rooms such as a bedroom or a living room, while the even larger AT 191 (around Rs31,999) is designed for big spaces such as a combined dining and living room. Air purifiers work in the room where they are kept. If you keep it in the living room and expect it to also be able to clean the air in the bedroom, that will not happen.
Power: The more, the better
A lot of manufacturers claim very high clean air delivery rates (CADRs), but there really is no industry standard. However, if you have a very small-sized purifier claiming a CADR rate comparable to those which are double in size, that should perhaps raise a red flag—the laws of physics don’t necessarily change, no matter how good the design or the tech or the size of the fan throwing out clean air. An air purifier needs to be able to draw in and throw out at least a certain amount of air to fulfill the CADR promise. The thumb rule with all air purifier purchases is simple—more is better. Particularly if you want to cover a large area. For instance, the Hullaard AT 191 (around Rs31,999) is essentially two air purifiers in one. It has two sets of filters stacked vertically, and they can take in double the dirty air compared with most other air purifiers, and that means the air quality in larger rooms improves much quickly—and stays that way even if there are activity and an occasional stream of outdoor air. This will also be more efficient than having multiple air purifiers running in the same space.