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Air Cleaning
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The third key strategy for enhancing indoor air quality is to actually "clean the air", but this should be done along with source control and good ventilation. Some air cleaners are effective at removing particles from the air; however, most air cleaners are not very good at removing gases. For this reason, source control and ventilation are much better options for improving indoor air quality.
Main types of air cleaners available on the market are:
- Mechanical filters can be installed on your furnace or as part of the ventilation system. There are also stand-alone devices designed to capture particles from the air in room-sized areas. Filters must be replaced according to the manufacturer's instructions in order to be effective.
- Electronic air cleaners use an electrical field to trap particles. They can be a part of the ventilation system or a stand-alone device, and some even produce ozone as a by-product.
- Ion generators use static charges to trap particles and are only available as portable units. Some ion generators also produce ozone as a by-product.
- Hybrid models are air cleaners that incorporate two or more of the air cleaner types mentioned above into a single product and are becoming more and more common.
Eliminating pollution sources is the best strategy to improve indoor air quality.
