a short summary on air purifiers

Today's post will be a short one as I'm pretty busy this week. You've read about the 5 different types or technologies used in air purifiers - ie. HEPA, ozonizer, carbon-filter, ionizer, and UV light

Most modern air purifiers being sold on the market today are considered a hybrid air purifier - simply because they combined 2 or more of the 5 air cleaning technologies above.

For example, one of the more popular air purifier from Sharper Image Ionic Breeze combines UV light with the negative ionizer.

Negative Ionizers Air Purifier

The fifth type of air purifier technology is known as electronic air purifier ... or more popularly known as negative ionizers

There are 2 types of electronic ionizers, i.e. electrostatic precipitators and ion generators. An ion generator works by emmitting the ions into the air which will then cause the pollutants particles to clump together and fall to the ground. This type of electronic purifier requires frequent vacuuming and cleaning as the dusts and particles will settle on the surfaces and on the floor. Not recommended in dusty areas.

In the case of electrostatic precipitators, the pollutants and particles are charged (ionized) as they passed through the unit and they are then collected (stuck) to the metal plates of the air purifier which has the opposite charge. All you have to do then is to remove these metal plates and give it a good wipe.

The main advantages of negative ionizers is that they do not require any expensive filter changes and they're very effective, especially if coupled with the UVC lamp. Another side benefit of negative ionizers is the health benefits of negative ions - see this research study on negative ions