Air Cleaner Shopping? 3 Things to Consider

With fall allergy season on the way, you may be considering an air filtration system for your home. While Florida residents are fortunate that ocean currents help clear some of nature’s irritants, an air cleaner can still be practical for managing indoor air pollution.

You want to choose your new air cleaner carefully – not all models are the same. If you purchase a unit that includes or scores well with the following criteria, you’re sure to come home with a quality product.

HEPA Filtration

A HEPA filter works the same in an air cleaner as it does in your vacuum cleaner – it captures tiny airborne particles before they have a chance to settle in the room. According to the federal EPA, HEPA filters are the most effective type of filter for mechanical air cleaners.

Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR)

Check the CADR of air cleaners to see how many square feet they can handle – the CADR is a numeric rating assigned by the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers that tells you the volume of air treated by an air-cleaning system in a certain amount of time. You want to make sure the filter is adequate for the size of the room it will be in, and choose a unit that will remove three primary pollutants from your environment: dust (10 to 400 CADR), pollen (25 to 450 CADR) and tobacco smoke (10 to 450 CADR). The air cleaner’s basic technology is irrelevant – the CADR measures only the machine’s output.

“Asthma and Allergy Friendly” Certification

This rating, awarded by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, guarantees that the air cleaner will remove allergens from the air – as opposed to just filtering and redistributing them into the environment. You may need to look a bit harder to find an air cleaner that meets this qualification. Since it’s relatively new, few machines have earned the certification thus far.

Please contact us at NisAir Air Conditioning and Heating today to talk about air filtration system options for your home. We’ve provided friendly and reliable service for the Martin, Palm Beach and Indian River county areas since 1973.