Some purifier companies recommend running your air purifier all day. But is that really necessary? If so, isn’t running the purifier all the time a big waste of your filters and energy? Test Method To get to the bottom of it, I set a Smart Air Cannon on a timer to turn on for two […]
Tag: PM0.5
Do Air Purifiers Remove PM2.5?
When I was coughing through Beijing’s airpocalypse and thinking about buying an air purifier, I wanted to know something first–do air purifiers really remove PM2.5? I wondered because I saw lots of air purifier tests on pollen, but pollen is generally 10 microns or larger, whereas I was really concerned about the stuff […]

Do Chinese New Year Fireworks Pollute Indoor Air?
I’ve posted data before showing that outdoor air quality is strongly correlated with indoor particle counts (r = .71), but Chinese New Year gives nerds like me a great chance to see what happens when we get a momentary shock to air quality. The media made a big deal about people cutting back on fireworks this year […]

How Safe Is Indoor Air?
I recently did some research on whether indoor air is as bad as outdoor air. Before that, I had a conversation with a friend in Beijing that went something like this: Friend: I’m not sure if I can make badminton tomorrow. I have a basketball game in the day. Me: Oh man, do you play outside? […]
