Air purifiers are devices that remove pollutants from the air and improve air quality. Air purifiers do this either mechanically, using air filters, or using ionizers or chemical reactions. Read more to learn about air purifiers, how to choose the best air purifier, and how they can protect against viruses, wildfire smoke, air pollution and PM2.5.
Studies have found air purifiers with HEPA filters are highly effective at filtering out COVID-19 coronavirus and even smaller viruses. But viruses can remain on surfaces for scarily long periods of time. It’s led to incredible-sounding headlines about how long viruses last. The thought of a virus stuck in an air …
In the other article‘Common UV Lights Aren’t Great at Killing COVID-19’, we explained how much doses do we need to kill coronavirus. Also, we talked about how UV-C light kills the virus. Also, the UV light we can find in the market is too weak to kill the coronavirus. So, …
UV light, or ‘ultraviolet light’, is a form of non-visible electromagnetic light. The main source of UV is the sun. There are three types of UV light: UV-A, UV-B, and UV-C. They’re differentiated by the wavelength of the light, with UV-A light has the largest wavelength, ranging from 315-400nm. UV-C …
UV light has surfaced as a potential solution for destroying the coronavirus and other viruses alike, but are common UV lights strong enough to be effective? How much of a dose do we need? We took a careful look at the data and came up with practical guidelines. Using UV …
When I started Smart Air in 2013, the cheapest air purifier I could find cost over $600. That’s why I started shipping a simple, effective DIY Air purifier that cost just $30. But since then, more and more purifiers priced around $30 have been appearing on the market. Here’s just …
Can a simple fan and filter really make air purifiers that can clean large offices? Seven years ago, Smart Air started when PhD student Thomas strapped together a DIY air purifier to survive a polluted Beijing winter. Founder Thomas Talhelm‘s first DIY air purifier Thomas published test data on …
After launching the world’s most cost-effective purifier (the Sqair), we started testing the HEPA lifespan. I’ve long been skeptical of the lifespan numbers purifier companies give because (1) they provide no empirical justification for the number and (2) they give the same numbers in Switzerland or Delhi. Yet clearly the …
In 2013, I made a DIY purifier to get through an apocalyptic Beijing winter. The DIY wasn’t pretty, but it worked. Hundreds of days of tests showed it cut tiny 0.5 micron particles in my bedroom by an average of 84% (1, 2, 3). The DIY proved that …
If you’ve heard about The Sqair, you should be suspicious. The Sqair puts out more clean air for less money AND it’s quieter AND more energy efficient? Either I’m lying, or there’s some logical reason how this is possible. There are three. 1. It helps my life become a little …
Here’s a radical idea: having one more app on my phone won’t make me happier. It feels like the world is rushing to app-ify everything these days. GPS and texting made my life a lot easier, but there’s a limit. The moment I saw this coffee mug, I knew we …
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