California wildfires & Air purifiers

As wildfires continue to spread through parts of the Western US, more and more houses, families, or towns are being affected. Contrary to famous belief, however, it’s not only the areas that are in the path of the fires themselves that are being impacted. Regions that surround the main California wildfire tracks, involving San Francisco, are suffering from smoke, ash, and diminished air quality. These impacts can exacerbate a vast range of medical problems, including heart conditions or asthma.

As covered in a recent article by The Verge, ash, or smoke from wildfires are well known to worsen pulmonary as well as respiratory situations in those who have them, increasing the likelihood of severe symptoms or even death. Although there is nothing you can do to control the fires themselves, you can make a safe place for yourself and your family within your house by using a residential air purifier.

By doing so, you can limit the impacts of the smoke and give yourself healthy air to breathe unless the California wildfires are under control. 

Are Air Purifiers Efficient Against Smoke?

Likely yes, experts say. Wildfire smoke is made up of a mixture of gases and good particles from items like burning vegetation, building materials as well as other matter. Even some well-sealed home can yet allow for some of this smoke to make its way inside your house, Jess Le Dinh, Engineering Lead at Dyson, says. Having a purifier in your house may be an efficient way to decrease your exposure to any wildfire smoke that has found a way inside your house. However, how efficient the air purifier is depending on both the purifier itself and the pollution level of the air. Some air purifiers can eliminate a minimum of 99.97 percent of particles as small as 0.3 microns if they utilize higher-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters as the filtration media, Dr. Wei-Ning Wang, associate professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering at the Virginia Commonwealth University College of Engineering, says. That is the type of filter that is in the Dyson Pure Hot + Cool, which Kubiak says she is been running nonstop in her family's house for the last some weeks. The air purifier has helped keep the indoor air quality better, she says, adding that she believes it was a worthy investment in her health and comfort of family.

How to Select the Good Air Purifier for Wildfire Smoke?

Not all air purifiers are created equal that is certain features make most purifiers better at removing smoke from the air. One of those features is the filter. Higher efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters are best at filtering the particulate matter, but with very high smoke exposure an active carbon filter is helpful, Dr. Kelli Williams, an allergist, an immunologist at the Medical University of South Carolina, says. Another factor in the effectiveness of purifier against wildfire smoke is how well it circulates air. Be sure the full room has purified air by ensuring proper air circulation. Look for an air purifier that contains an air projection system like Dyson's Air Multiplier technology, Le Dinh advises. This pushes clean air into the room, circulating dirty air back to the machine for being purified. Without appropriate air circulation, you risk purifying a small place of the room.

What type of Air Purifier Do You Need?

When trying to combat the negative impacts of forest fires, what you require is an air purifier designed for heavy smoke. Not will you have gases or odors to deal with, but the organic matter burning will enter the air as good particles. So, the good choices for the California wildfires are units that provide both HEPA or carbon filtration. Most of our top units for heavy smoke may be found below: 

Dyson Pure Hot + Cool HP04

Dyson has improved on its famous air-purifying tower with the Pure Hot + Cool. It automatically senses or reports air-quality levels on an LCD and through the Dyson app. It may measure ultrafine particles (PM 2.5), allergens (PM 10), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), as well as nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Sealed HEPA and activated carbon filters capture pollutants and aid decrease dust, pollen, and other allergens. Plus, it functions as a space heater and cooling fan.

Green Tech Pure Air 3000 - Air Purifier

Pure Air 3000 is your indoor pollution solution for houses and offices up to 3,000 ft2. Utilizing advanced technologies including active radiant catalysis (ARC), ionization, activated oxygen, and pure air 3000 removes odors, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), smoke, viruses, pollen, dust, pet dander, bacteria, mold, and more from the air or surfaces in your space. Pure Air 3000 continuously cleans or disinfects exposed surfaces, including countertops, walls, clothing, ceilings, floors, carpets, and furniture. Pure Air products help to sanitize everything in your living space. The small, sleek design makes it an elegant addition to any space as well as a convenient remote control lets for easy purification level adjustment. The Greentech 3000 air purifier is a higher-end air purifier with a hefty cost tag as well as mind-boggling technology. It isn’t the stock standard purifier with a HEPA filter, carbon filter, or maybe a bonus filter. It pulverizes mold, viruses, odors, bacteria, and all types of things you do not need zooming into your lungs. This’s one of those machines which looks good on paper. It sweet-talks to the customer with all the right things to say. And maybe those promises are completely true. However, it is difficult not to take into account the concerns of other clients and those who have stayed well away. One thing’s for sure is that it is the type of appliance that you have to take responsibility for, and utilize it according to the adamant safety warnings.

Coway Air Mega 300 Air Purifiers

It’s a premium looking air purifier in the market. It is square-shaped, or it takes air from both sides. The air inlet grills are magnetically locked, which is convenient for filter replacement. It features an auto fan adjust mode based on the surrounding air quality, sleep mode, as well as eco mode. The initial filter is a true HEPA grade filter to capture particulate pollutants. It has an activated carbon filter layer to remove odors. Coway Air mega 300 comes with a multi three-stage physical air filter. The first stage has a permanent and washable net-kind filter. This filter blocks big pollutants (PM10) like pet fur, hair, lines, or dust. It protects the initial filter from getting clogged. After the permanent pre-filter, the air purifier has a combined HEPA as well as an activated carbon filter, which they have known as the Max2 filter. The HEPA filter may trap 99.97 percent of tiny particles like dust, mold spores, smoke droplets, and others as little as 0.3 microns. The honeycomb structured carbon pellets filled odor or gas filter can absorb household odors or VOCs. Coway claimed, it can eliminate 96 percent of multiple VOCs and gases. Coway Air mega 300 has an impressive Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) of 335 cfm. With this powerful CADR, it can clean a big 1256 square feet room twice per hour or a 500 square feet room 5 times an hour. With the airflow rate, the air purifier is suitable for eliminating smokes and heavy contamination where faster air cleaning is required. The air purifier has a dual air inlet system, which makes it a higher cfm air purifier. However, the CADR rating is tested on their own as well as not certified by AHAM. Coway Air mega 300 comes with a built-in air quality sensor, which detects particulates level (PM 2.5) in the air. It shows the real-time air quality status as a colored LED indicator. It determines the air as Good, Unhealthy, Moderate, and Unhealthy with Green, Blue, Amber, and Red lights, respectively.

Molekule Air

The award-winning Molekule Air combines a sleek design with dual filtration. Its pre-filter is designed to capture big pollutants such as dander as well as its PECO filter destroys very fine particles. The manufacturer claims this 2nd stage will destroy bacteria, viruses as well as other pollutants that are 1,000 times small than those that the average air purifier may handle. The PECO technology that Molecule utilizes can be innovative, but this means that there is less science attesting to its efficacy compared to standard HEPA filters. Wirecutter has reported on its inability to outperform HEPA filters by their testing standards before, or Dyson contested 26 of the advertising claims of the company. The National Advertising Division finally recommended that Molecule discontinue certain claims on PECO superiority, non-quantified pollution removal claims, allergy, and asthma symptom relief, but maintained that it is capable of destroying pollutants at a molecular level and break down smaller allergens.

Air free Lotus Air Purifier

Since it has no fans running to clean out the air, the Air free Lotus is one of the good silent filters less air purifier models on the market. Rather than fans or replaceable filters, it utilizes a patented Thermodynamic TSS Technology for cleaning all those nasty particles out of the air, making it clean and healthy for you and your family to breathe. This technology is quite perfect, pulling the air into the machine as well as then heating them to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Microorganisms such as bacteria, dust, tobacco, pet dander, mold, pollen, and viruses are destroyed by this heat. The air purifier then cools off the clean air as well as sends it back out into the room. Another advantage of this technology is that it’s safe for your family. It does not emit any ozone whatsoever and decreases any ozone in the air by around 26 percent, making it even safer for your family to inhale. It does not emit any UV light and ions, producing healthy air free of contaminants. The Air free Lotus consumes very small energy, so it is a healthy option for your wallet as well. The Lotus name comes from the fact that this model was designed with the lotus flower in mind. It has beautiful petals, which you can open up and leave closed. Within the petals is a stylish light that’s meant to calm or relax you while the machine cleans the air. This brightness of the light is adjustable, plus it has some color choices to select from, so you can make the ambiance you want. It makes a handy nightlight for any bedroom in your home.