Understanding the UV Air Purifier

   

If you are an allergy sufferer, you may have heard that a UV air purifier can help with your condition. This is certainly true. Molds, fungi, spores, even dust mites and their feces can all be removed from the air. In addition to this, an ultraviolet light air purifier can help keep you from coming down with common illnesses such as a cold. Here is an overview of how a UV air purifier works, and certain issues you should be aware of.

The most important feature of a UV air purifier is the bulb. Air passes though the UV light and any bacteria, mold, fungus, virus or other living material is subjected to a lethal dose of UV light. Don’t worry, this isn’t harmful to people, but is deadly for small life forms. You want to find a bulb that puts out UV light rays in a very specific spectrum to ensure that they are being as effective as possible at killing and cleaning organic material out of the air. You also want to make sure that the lifespan of the bulb that goes in the unit is at least a year. UV air filter bulbs can be expensive to replace and if you are churning through one every three months this can add up really quick.

Along with killing off particles directly, the UV light also starts a chemical reaction that makes ozone and hydroxyl, which will break down most organic material on contact. The UV light basically converts the moisture in the air into hydroxyl so that it can do its job of breaking down the harmful irritants. Hydroxyl is not damaging to people so you do not have anything to worry about here.

You should be aware that a wide band bulb can create too much toxic ozone and will cause problems beyond the ones that it was trying to fix. A quality UV air purifier will have a limited UV spectrum and minimize the amount of ozone that is produced. These high quality units will use UV light at an effective wavelength to generate hydroxyl particles.

Another important feature of any purifier is how much air flow and volume it can handle. You need to make absolutely sure that the unit will be able to clean the air you have going through it. If it is inadequate then you will have made the purchase for nothing. In addition, if it can clean far more air then is going through it then you are wasting money by buying an unnecessarily large unit. Make sure that the specs on the unit match up with the area in which you plan to use it.

There are different technologies available in air cleaners these days, from ionic air purifiers to the UV air purifier. Learn how to get the the right model for your needs at Home Air Purifiers: The Facts.

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