The market for home air purifiers like levoit air purifiers has undergone many changes, beginning as an affordable solution for indoor air quality in decades of history. With these changes, we have seen advances in filtration technology that may seem like the next revolution in air purification.
What should I look for in an air purifier?
Before critically analyzing the various air purifiers on the market, it is essential to have a solid understanding of what makes a good air purifier.
1. HEPA filters are an industry standard.
What is a HEPA filter?
High-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters use a dense, random array of fibers to capture moving particles from the air. HEPA filters use the physics of particles moving through the air to move them away from the airflow. Its operation is simple but very effective, and HEPA filters are standard issue with almost all air purifiers on the market today.
But that wasn't always the case.
Air purifiers have been around for over a century. The first air purification systems appeared in the 1850s in coal-based masks used by coal miners. They are designed to keep toxic dust out of the lungs. This technique was so successful that within 20 years respirators were added to these types of masks to prevent firefighters from inhaling smoke, chemicals and pollutants. Beginning in the 1940s, the US Atomic Energy Commission began experimenting with highly efficient particulate matter arresting, now known as HEPA, as a way to protect soldiers from atomic radiation in the field of World War II battle.
The HEPA filter did nothing to filter out radiation particles, but researchers soon realized that the HEPA filter could filter out many harmful contaminants.
In 1963, IQ Air founders Manfred and Klaus Hammes introduced the world's first residential air filters based on HEPA technology, which reduce symptoms of indoor pollution and chronic asthma. Shortly thereafter, due to the widespread use of HEPA, the US Department of Energy (DOE) needed to filter at least 99.97% of airborne particles to 0.3 microns with all filters sold under the name "HEPA". Air purification industry standard. HEPA from https://www.topairpurifier.org/levoit-air-purifier-core-400s-review/ is now used as a generic term for air filters, which continue to filter 99.97% of particles down to 0.3 microns.