People don’t buy an air purifier as a novelty purchase. They buy one to make their home a healthier living environment or to meet a specific health need such as reducing allergy flareups and asthma attacks. Some people are hesitant to run their air purifier all day, citing energy usage as their main concern.
Nationwide, electricity costs increase yearly. With annual incomes not rising in kind, people have become more conscious of their electricity usage. Can you limit your air purifier’s hours of operation, or will that cancel out its ability to reduce airborne allergens? In general, non-stop usage is recommended, but there are some exceptions to this guideline.
Do Air Purifiers Use a Lot of Energy?
Every air purifier consumes a different number of watts. Those with a variable-speed fan use more electricity at higher speeds, and the amount of power they consume depends not only on the fan speed but also the number of hours it runs. The average wattage range for air purifiers is 45 to 105.
Running non-stop, an air purifier could cost anywhere from 14.39 to 33.57 cents per day, which doesn’t add much to your electricity bill. How did we arrive at these figures? Using the average national cost per kilowatt-hour (kWh) from the U.S. Department of Energy, we multiplied 45 watts and 105 watts by 24 (hours).
These calculations came out to 1,080 and 2,520. We then divided these numbers by 1,000 (the number of watts in a kilowatt), which gave us 1.08 and 2.52 kWh per day. Finally, we multiplied both kWh by the national kWh average cost of 13.32 cents to get 14.39 to 33.57 cents.
How Long Does It Take for a Purifier to Clean the Air?
All air purifiers have an ACH, or air changes per hour, rate. The ACH is the number of times the air purifier can circulate all the air in a room of a specified size in 1 hour. The first time you start up your air purifier, it will need to perform 2 ACH to ensure the air is clean.
Once a few ACH have taken place, the air purifier simply has to maintain the air quality. Every time you turn off your air purifier, it has to start over with the purification process. This means the fan will run at high speed and subsequently use more energy.
Will an Air Purifier Work With the Windows Open?
An air purifier will still clean the air to a degree even if there is a window open in the room. However, the air purifier will have to work harder to keep up with the influx of air. In turn, you’ll need to run it on the highest fan speed, which means the purifier will consume more electricity.
If the window is open often, the air purifier’s filters will need to be replaced sooner since the purifier will be exposed to outdoor air pollution. On days when the outdoor air quality is good, it’s fine to occasionally open the window while your air purifier is running, so you can get some fresh air.
Is It Okay to Run an Air Purifier Overnight?
There’s no harm in running an air purifier all night. There are fewer allergens stirred up at night because nobody is awake and moving around, but you don’t want to wake up with a stuffy nose or congestion. Therefore, you should keep it on at night to get the maximum benefit from your air purifier.
If you’re sensitive to noise when you sleep or want to reduce your energy usage, there is a happy medium between turning off the air purifier and running the air purifier on full blast. Simply put the air purifier on low speed or sleep mode, and the purifier will consume fewer watts and stay whisper quiet.
How Can I Be Sure the Air Purifier Is Working?
If you have allergies or asthma, you will notice fewer symptoms. You’ll need to dust less often because the air purifier is trapping dust particles. If you’ve had issues with mildew and your air purifier has a carbon filter, you won’t smell a musty odor in your house anymore.
Assuming your air purifier is equipped with one, the air quality indicator provides definitive proof that your air purifier is working. The particle sensor in an air purifier detects the presence of airborne contaminants in real-time, displaying that information via an onboard light or a smartphone app.
What Speed Should the Fan Run?
Each air purifier is rated for use within certain square feet, but you can’t always get efficient filtration from a purifier on low fan speed. Efficiency depends on several factors, including the room’s square footage.
Let’s say you have an air purifier that’s designed to work efficiently in 1,000 square feet. If you run the air purifier in an 800-square-foot room, you’ll probably need to set the fan to high speed. On the other hand, you can put the same air purifier on a lower speed in a room of 500 square feet.
Auto mode takes the guesswork out of choosing a fan speed. If your air purifier has an auto-fan function, you can engage this mode to make the air purifier change the speed based on the allergen count measured by the air quality sensor.
What’s the Best Location for an Air Purifier?
You can run your air purifier day and night on high speed in a closed room that’s small enough for the purifier to handle, and it still won’t work efficiently if you put it in the wrong spot. You can set up the air purifier almost anywhere as long as you’re not blocking the inlets and outlet.
To be on the safe side, keep at least 6 inches of open space between the inlets and any objects/walls. Also, make sure the outlet is 12 inches or more away from the ceiling, the wall or any furniture. Otherwise, you’ll impede the airflow, and the purifier won’t be able to circulate the air adequately.
Should You Leave an Air Purifier on All the Time?
Generally, it’s best to run your air purifier 24 hours per day due to the dust that accumulates in HVAC ductwork. If you suffer from asthma or allergies, continuous air purification is strongly recommended, particularly during the summer when pollen counts are at their peak and fall when ragweed reigns supreme.
If you don’t have any chronic health ailments that are triggered by allergens and you’re away from home a lot, it may not make sense to leave your air purifier on constantly. Similarly, if the air purifier is going to be used in a vacation home, you may only want to run it when you’re there.
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