Choosing the Perfect Air Purifier for Your Space: HEPA vs. Carbon

August 21, 2024 4 min read

Choosing the Perfect Air Purifier for Your Space: HEPA vs. Carbon

What is the Difference Between HEPA Systems and Carbon Filters? 

HEPA filters trap particles that get affected when people walk over the floor or when we sit on any furniture in our house. Carbon filters are amazing at trapping scents and fumes. Both filters could be improved with more accurate matter. HEPA systems and carbon filters provide great efficiency when it comes to reducing harmful toxins in your office or home, but at the same time, they have their fair share of differences. 

One might need both filters, so your decision should be based on what type of contaminant-free environment you want.

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All About HEPA and Carbon Filters.

You will see many toxins fill your home with the air that comes from looking at the sunlight from anywhere in your house. Substances like flooring fiber, dead skin, dust, and dust bites can be seen in the air inside your house coming from outside. You can see these substances from the naked eye, but stuff like viruses, particles, bacteria, and mycobacteria are hard to see and very harmful to your lungs.

No matter how clean you keep your home, dust particles remain. Humans biologically shed millions and billions of cells daily, but air purifiers can help clean most of them. 

A HEPA filter is a short form of high-efficiency particulate air filter that has gained a lot of popularity as it is the best for trapping particles that get affected when people walk over the floor or when we sit on any furniture in our house. HEPA filters are also used as a part of the exhaust of a vacuum cleaner by many users as the solid filtering body works to catch dust and sort pollutants not by one but by two different methods. 

The two methods of HEPA filter cleaning are:

  1. Catching dust and other larger particles and stopping them from passing through the holes in the filter.
  2. The fibers are very sticky, so if any dust particles or other things in the hole are smaller than the holes, they might get stuck when they pass through the filtering media.

HEPA rating only qualifies when the filter has to pass out at least 99.7% of all elements smaller than 0.3 micrometers in size. HEPA filters usually last very long and don't require much maintenance. HEPA filters will work better over time because they can ambush finer soots as more contaminants get trapped in the filter. 

If you plan to buy an air purifier with a HEPA filter, it is necessary to know that it is a real HEPA. When this is not true, companies often guarantee that their product is the same as the HEPA filters, which means that these filters won't remove 99.7% of toxins like the real HEPA filters. Depending on what brand of HEPA filter you buy, it should last a minimum of a year and a maximum of five years. Buying a Nispira air filter will help you in the long run of you will check its features.

It is important to understand the advantages and disadvantages of any machine you buy. No matter which kind of air filter you buy, some filters are better functional at removing different particles than others.

HEPA is the most viable at extracting bigger particles like bacteria, dust, irritants, pollen, allergens, mites, and other toxins. However, to remove odors, chemicals, gasses, and viruses, you will need a specialized filter to trap these small particles. The best filter to remove odors and gasses is the carbon-activated filter. Many systems carry 2 lbs, insufficient to remove strong odors and gasses, and will only last for a while. Systems that carry up to 15 lbs of carbon will effectively remove these small particles and last several years.

Activated carbon works by adsorption, which is when a gas chains to the end layer of a solid particle. When air passes through the filter, the chemical gasses and smells will react with the carbon and stick to it. The clear air then goes out of the system. Activated carbon acts like a sponge, and the more of it there is, the more adequately it will work. Thus, finding a cleaner with a respectable amount of carbon is important. 

Since both filters do a job each other cannot do, they are often used in conjunction. Many air purifiers carry a HEPA and an activated carbon filter in the purifier to clean a wide range of contaminants. We often have problems with odors and allergens and need help choosing one purification method.

How to pick the right air purifier for your space?

The two most important things an air purifier must provide are:

  1. The fan can scatter most of the air in a room through the filters many times per hour.
  2. The filters remove hazardous gases and elements.

EPA(Environmental Protection Agency) suggests that the air in your room must be processed by your air purifier at least five times per hour. 

Wrapping up

Manufacturers recommend a list to help you select an air purifier based on your room size and whether it'll work for you, and some will even mention how many air exchanges for the space per hour. So, when choosing a device for your house, select one that fulfills all your needs and works for your house, and the Nispira air purifier can be the right one here.

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