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Air Conditioner: Did you know?
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Pollution level [Indoors] >5 times Outdoors!
 

A room with a view (read as providing cross-ventilation) in modern homes is a rarity. Rapid urbanisation has forced us to huddle around in small, confined spaces. Given that it is summer, one is tempted to keep the windows open to let the cool breeze in. However, the invading insects may disrupt your peace. Most of us spend close to 75% of our time indoors air tight! Confined rooms breed pollutants in the form of tiny particulates. These are at times seeded by exposure to the outdoor air as well! So much so that research indicates that indoor air may be 5 times more polluted than outside air! (Source: EPA Study). What does that say of how hygienic the air you breathe is? Will getting an AC be good enough?

Exposure to pollutants in the form of tiny particles or gaseous substances can trigger allergies, and common ailments that make us feel sick and unproductive. These types of pollutants are suspended in the air we breathe and enter our lungs causing respiratory disorders. Particulate and gaseous pollutants are typically resident in common household belongings:
  1. Rugs or carpets, emit Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)
  2. TV, Computers, Plastic products emit Chemicals substances
  3. Dust, dirt, smoke from human activity
  4. Droplets from Aerosols
  5. Stoves, chimneys produce Carbon Monoxide - combustion particles
  6. Furniture and pressed-wood products emit Carcinogens
This is why it is not enough to having any kind of AC to fight the summer heat. You need an AC that gives you pure, unadulterated healthy air as well! An AC with the right Air Filter and Purifier should get the job done. Air filters and Purifiers play a vital role in maintaining the quality of indoor air. Air Filters, filter and extract most particulate pollutants. In order to seek and tackle gaseous, particulate & biological pollutants you would need to complement it with an Air Purifier.

Necessity is the mother of all inventions, and that has indeed been the case with Air Filters & Purifiers as well.

Who invented Air Filters, Purifiers & why?

The first Air Filters were built by Fire Fighters (who else!) John & Charles Dean, way back in 1823 –to help fire Fighters breathe better in the circumstances that they have deal with. Post that, many people experimented with variations and improvisations for varied applications. Finally in 1963 Germans Klaus & Manfred Hammes developed the world's first residential air purifiers – this was triggered by yet another necessity – Manfred suffered from chronic asthma. Due to the cold climate people largely used to burn wood or coal to remain warm in their homes & these largely triggered particulates in the air. Their air filter purified the air by removing these particles. This contraption had a filtering pad, attached to small magnets that held it to residential coal ovens – reducing the hazardous effects of coal dusts

Fig-1: AC filters and Purifiers

Types of Air Filters & Air Purifiers:

Air Filters:
  1. Mechanical Air Filters: These are mesh-like filters that remove particulate pollutants & come with special anti-bacteria coating that destroys air borne bacteria that passes through it
  2. Electronic Air Cleaners: These remove particulate pollutants. There are 2 types of Electronic Air filters:
  1. Electrostatic precipitators: These work on the principle of Electrostatic attraction to latch onto the charged particles (pollutants) and through the process of ionization these are converted into electrically charged particles that get collected in filter plates or a separate collecting box.
  2. Ionizers: Ionizers work similar to the Electrostatic precipitators except that they do not have a collecting box. After they couple with the polluting elements they settle down on surfaces – walls or furniture.
  3. Gas Filters: Gas filters use materials that attract pollutants in the form of gas/liquid molecules to any available surface. They settle down as thin film on the filter surface. Each gas filter is made to eliminate specific set of gases and hence they may not be effective to manage all sorts of gaseous pollutants.

    Since Filters only capture or release the pollutants, modern ACs also come equipped with Air Purifiers that enable destruction of pollutants.
Air Purifiers:

These Air purifiers make use of Ultraviolet radiations generated from a UV (Ultra Violet) lamp. UV is a set of electromagnetic waves having higher frequencies and is invisible to humans. These UV rays bond with particulates and microbes invisible to the human eye and bond with it causing chemical reactions. At higher energies they ionize (When an atom (particle) is ionized, that means that it is sharing one or more electrons with another atom, and hence becomes vulnerable and easy to dispose or decompose) and exterminate these microbes and pollutants.

Fig 2: Illustrates how ionization help eradicate particulate pollutants

Here are the types of Air Purifiers:
  1. Ultraviolet Cleaners: These use UV (Ultra Violet) lamps that exterminate pollutants such as air borne bacteria, gaseous pollutants & molds typically seen on damp surfaces or places with higher moisture density.
  2. Photo Catalytic Cleaners: These also use UV (Ultra Violet) lamps along with a photo-catalytic material such as Titanium apatite) that reacts with the light. These have advanced absorption powers and decompose the gaseous pollutants by converting them into water or other by-products.
  3. Ozone Generators: These also use UV light however; it intentionally produces ozone to fight pollutants. Ozone by composition is 3 atoms of Oxygen – the first 2 form the basic construct of the air we inhale and that which is safe. However the 3rd atom has the ability to dissociate itself and react with external molecules to make them more harmful to humans. Also, it has little or no effect in removing most indoor air particulates and hence is not recommended.
Air Filters & Purifiers in Air Conditioners:

Leading brands of Air Conditioners have deployed several Air Filtering techniques – Triple layer of filters, High density filters, filters with anti-bacterial coating etc. their efficiencies vary from 25% to 90%. Also, Air Purifying technologies such as Plasma-based ionizers are also said to be equally effective.

While these filters and purifiers may not entirely rid of all pollutants they are effective in managing most of the pollutants and effective hygiene steps needs to be initiated to manage allergy free indoor air. Ensuring proper room ventilation, periodic dusting of furniture, cleaning of all exposed surfaces, vacuuming of carpets, cleaning of filters in ACs etc. would go a long way in keeping pollutants under control – thereby improving the indoor air quality.

 

 
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