Whole home air purifiers are specifically designed to work with your existing air filter to remove harmful particles from the air in your home, such as mold, pet dander, airborne viruses, pollen, and odors. Unlike portable air purifiers, whole house air purifiers require professional installation and are connected to your HVAC system. This means that they will only filter the air when the air conditioning or heating system is turned on, or when the fan is turned on. According to the EPA Home Air Filter Guide, HVAC systems only work about 25 percent of the time during heating and cooling seasons. Running the fan or running heating and cooling longer can increase electricity costs.
A whole house air purifier installs directly into your existing HVAC system and works to remove contaminants (pollen, dust, VOCs, etc.) when the HVAC system is turned on. There are several types of whole-house air purification systems, and each purifies the air in a slightly different way. Generally speaking, they all follow a pattern of drawing in air from the room, passing it through a filter to remove contaminants, and then circulating it back into the room. This process helps to ensure that all of the air in your home is purified. The Winix 5500-2 is a direct competitor to the Coway AP-1512HH Mighty, as it has a nearly identical Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) and offers 5.1 Air Changes Per Hour (ACH) in a 350 square foot space. When it comes to residential air purifiers, the EPA says that “the most effective air cleaners, those with high air flow rates and efficient pollutant capture systems, are generally the most expensive.”The IQAir Perfect 16 is one such example of an effective whole house air purifier.
It uses HEPA filters and must be professionally installed in the ductwork of your HVAC system in order to be truly considered a whole-house air purifier. If your home doesn't have air conditioning or central heating, portable air filters are the most practical option. While they can filter relatively more air than smaller models, larger portable filters don't actually clean all of the air in your house. Additionally, there is no evidence that the fan function of machines makes them superior to other purifiers in distributing filtered air in a room. The use of ACH to classify air purifiers overcomes a common problem in how manufacturers rate their air purifiers in their advertising. In addition, Cabiclean and Durabasics filters fit snugly into the machine, hermetically sealing their edges to prevent unfiltered air from missing another important factor in HEPA performance.
The models listed are compatible with Clean Air MERV 11, Healthy Home MERV 13, Odor Reduction MERV 13CBN and Allergy & Asthma MERV 16 filter types.
