One major air filtration technique utilized by air purifiers, in general, is passive air filtration. Nonetheless, what air cleaning mechanism are you sure is known as passive air filtration?
Passive air filtration is the filtration technique that works by purifying air pulled into the filter. Most design specifications will include how many square feet per time a unit can filter.
The second main filtration mechanism is known as active air filtration. To find out more, you have to continue reading this article to understand the essential differences between them and how each technique operates.
What Is a Passive Air Purifier?
There are majorly two types of air purifiers installed in homes, and they both have their distinct purification processes. They’re the passive air purifiers and the active air purifiers.
Passive Air Purifier
This refers to the common HEPA filters integrated into homes. Here, the air is pulled into the machine, encountering the purifying filter. After removing pollutants, the clean air is released from the other side of the machine.
Active Air Purifier
These air purifiers emit cleaning agents into the atmosphere to screen the air, producing a healthy atmosphere.
What Is Passive Air Filtration?
There are numerous varieties of air purifiers currently available in the market. These air cleaners come in many unique sizes and have different price ranges.
Unknown to most people, what distinguishes these filters is the mechanism each applies in screening the air. Each type has its unique technique that operates in a different process. This should be part of your consideration when choosing the air purifier suitable for your space.
The most popular type of air purification process is filtration. This process is also referred to as passive air filtration.
The term “passive” is used because this process works by purifying only the air it can draw into the filter. Unfortunately, this limits its air screening efficiency, as it depends on the fan to pull air into the filter per time.
Most design specifications will include how many square feet per time a unit can filter. As a result of its limited coverage, it would require two or more units to cover an entire space. This means installing one unit per room in your house or office may be the best action.
On the other hand, active air purifiers apply a mechanism that duplicates natural cleaning agents. Instead, active air purification makes use of compounds created by nature.
Unlike the passive purification process, active purification has more expansive space and air coverage. This is because the process doesn’t depend on filters to screen the air.
The mechanism uses ionization, secure vaporized hydroxide, and active oxygen. These natural agents are released from the machines into the room to clean the air.
The active technology is also limited in the number of square feet it can cover. Still, this mechanism has wider coverage than the passive air filtration system.
Some air purifier models like the Aviche purifier necklaces use ionization technology. There are other designs that combine this mechanism with other filtration techniques.
When air particles are ionized, they gain negative charges and merge into clusters. As the clusters get heavy, they drop to the floor. This makes it easy to vacuum or wipe them off the ground surface.
Active oxygen is an extra mechanism configured to invade and remove offensive smells. It’s naturally efficient for eliminating odor causatives like VOCs, mold, and bacteria.
This means that aside from its air purification ability, active oxygen performs a double function of expelling odors. By doing so, it makes your indoor area smell nice and fresh.
Another mechanism that helps to separate and produce clean air is the vaporized hydroxide. The hydroxide disintegrates pollutant particles encountered in the atmosphere and on surfaces in the room. Doing this helps to minimize health-threatening agents such as molds, bacteria, pollen, etc.
What Is the Difference Between Air Filter and Air Purifier?
The difference between the two is a matter of the distinct processes used. For better understanding, I’ll explore each phenomenon separately in detail.
Air Filters
They act by screening out airborne contaminants like mold, allergens, bacteria, and dust. In the real sense, they perform similar functions as air purifiers. The difference is that they apply different techniques and processes altogether.
What Are the Types of Air Filters?
There are various types of air filters that you can employ in your living or work space. These air filters include the following:
Activated Carbon Filters: These filter types are extremely permeable and efficient at trapping air particles. They are most often incorporated as derivative or pre-filters.
Fiberglass Filters: This type of filter falls in the category of disposable filters. They operate by enmeshing airborne pollutants in several layers of fiberglass timber. Some of the fiberglass filters are electrostatically charged to boost the number of particles they trap.
HEPA Filters: These types of filters are popularly known to be the most effective and practical filter option available today.
HEPA filters catch about 99.89% of air particles, even as tiny as 0.3 microns. They’re non-portable air filters installed in homes and offices. Due to its effectiveness in screening air, HEPA filters are also utilized in medical facilities, including hospitals.
Washable Filters: They’re the least popular type of filters. These filters are also reusable, so the most affordable filter type is obtainable.
How Do Air Filters Work?
They have air cleaning mechanisms configured inside the HVAC device. When air flows into them, the microparticles from the contained pollutants are trapped.
The air cleaner is usually positioned between the air reversal tube and the air conditioner or fan. This way, it ensures that any air flowing indoors is filtered.
Most air filters have a standard principle of operation. This principle is “to permit the inflow of air but prevent the passage of atmospheric pollutants.”
The filters use either mesh, pleated paper, or active carbon to perform the function of a sieve. They trap contaminating matters smaller than the aperture through which the air flows. The steps of the operation are as follows:
- When the HVAC is turned on, it produces a constant air inflow. This air is pulled into the pipes and passed through the machine.
- The filter is located at the center of the air reversal pipe, and the fan processes the air. It does this by trapping impure matters into the system as the air passes through it.
- While some purifiers use HEPA filters to trap impurities, others apply electrostatic filter mechanisms.
- After filtration has occurred, the clean air is released back into the room; then, the whole process starts all over.
Air cleaners filter numerous air impurities, including pet dander, pollen, soil particles, mold, and fibers. They also filter dust mites, smoke, mildew, bacteria, fungus, and other microorganisms.
The fundamental role played by the air filter is to prevent debris from settling inside your HVAC system. This also implies that the air in your room is pure and safe to inhale.
Low-quality air filters are unhealthy and increase the air pollutants in a home. The reason is that they defile the atmosphere in your room instead. They also permit fungal growth inside your HVAC machine.
Dirty air filters result in a constant diminishing of the standard of the air you inhale in your home.
Air Purifiers
Similar to air filters, air purifiers are systems that eliminate contaminants from the air. As a result, they enhance the standard of the air you inhale in your home as well.
What Are the Types of Air Purifiers?
Ionizing Purifiers: They emit electrical ions, which are negatively charged particles that fasten to air pollutants. In doing so, they eliminate these impurities from the atmosphere.
Adsorbent Purifiers: They adsorb the contaminating matters within the purifier by utilizing active carbon. These purifiers are highly porous and so efficient in trapping microorganisms.
UV Light Purifiers: Radiation emitted by Ultraviolet light can render some particulate materials impotent, making them harmless.
How Do Air Purifiers Work?
Most air purifiers use emitted negatively charged ions to attract pollutants. However, some employ UV radiation to eliminate toxic impurities.
These purifiers have many means of combating impurities in the atmosphere:
They can trap them by pulling them into the filter. Another technique is to employ an electrical field to neutralize them. They can also remove them by employing ultraviolet light.
Air purifiers can filter out the same level of impurities as air filters, such as pet dander, pollen, soil particles, mold, and fibers. They also purify the air of dust mites, smoke, mildew, bacteria, fungus, and numerous microorganisms.
Both air filters and air purifiers are important additions to the home, especially with the current rise in harmful airborne diseases and escalating death rates.
Failure to incorporate either of them makes you susceptible to airborne illnesses and diseases. It also means that your body system is prone to seasonal illnesses like flu, sore throats, colds, and hay fever.