Clean air is an essential requirement for healthy living, but with the gradually depleting air quality, it is fast becoming a distant dream. We spend most of our time indoors in homes and offices and it’s a common fact that indoor air pollution is more threatening than outdoor pollution. Opening windows for extra ventilation is not a solution because the air that enters is also very likely to be polluted. What is the solution? Should we continue to breathe in polluted air and risk our health?
The best solution is to install an air purifier with a HEPA filter. It will help in filtering and cleaning the indoor air and make it suitable for breathing.
What Is a HEPA Filter?
HEPA stands for High-Efficiency Particulate Absorber and is considered as a standard for air purification. This filter has a potential to eliminate up to 99.97% of all the common pollutants that are present in the indoor air. These are dust mites, mould, spores, pollens, pet dander, ragweed etc. They are known to have a very high success rate in getting rid of impurities present in the indoor air. The efficiency of 99.97 percent indicates that if you send 100 particles through a HEPA filter it will filter out 99.97 of them.
Importance of HEPA Filter
HEPA filters are capable of cleaning the air in the room by removing the impurities present in it. You can consider HEPA filter as a mesh of tangled fibres This sheet of fibres is then folded into pleats. This is done to increase the surface area and also the filter life. The fibres, which are made of fibreglass, have diameters between 0.5 and 0.2 micrometres. When air flows through the fibres, all contaminants, which are up to 0.3 microns or larger in size, get trapped in it. The common pollutants found in indoor air has a size of more than 0.3 microns and hence the HEPA filter effectively filters them out of the air and makes it clean and safe to breathe. It is basically the size game that makes HEPA different from any other technology. This filter is designed in such a manner that it is very effective at combating the pollutants and particles, which cannot be removed by non-HEPA air purifiers. The quality of HEPA air purifiers is maintained because there are very strict government requirements that need to be met if any manufacturer wants to sell the air purifier fitted with HEPA filter.
They are best known as mechanical filters capturing 99.97 percent of all particles of 0.3 microns or larger in diameter. The best of the purifiers is known to use a multi-stage purification process to purify and clean the indoor air. This multi-stage process involves removal of particles, odour and then microorganisms like bacteria and other particulates. Thus, they also help in preventing the spread of any airborne bacterial and viral infections. The odours that spread due to cooking or tobacco smoke also get captured by them making the air fresh and odourless to breathe.
Considering the benefits discussed above, a HEPA filter should definitely be a vital part of the measures taken to improve your indoor air quality.