How to Choose an Air Purifier

March 17, 2007 in Noteworthy | 2 comments

Tips given by Hunter Fan, I thought this was really helpful as a resource.

1. Measure the room where the air purifier will be used.

2. Click on the room size that most closely matches your room on the Air Purifier Selcection Guide.

3. Select the Hunter model with the CADR (Clean Air Delivery Rate)* performance rating to fit your room.

Things To Consider Before Buying An Air Purifier
How do you know that an air purifier is truly effective? Check the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) seal on the package. AHAM independently tests and certifies air purifier performance. All reputable air purifier manufacturers display the AHAM certification seal, which includes the unit’s Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR). CADR is the industry standard rating system for an air purifier’s effectiveness.

CADR: Real World Performance
CADR measures the amount of clean air that a purifier delivers into a room. It gauges real world performance, taking into account filter efficiency, airflow and room size. CADR is the single most important piece of information you need to make a head-to-head comparison of air cleaner performance.

What’s Changing?
Air Changes per Hour (ACH) is simply a measurement of how much air a unit moves, not how effectively the air is cleaned. Likewise, a filter’s “efficiency” measures the amount of particles that the filter material alone can capture in lab tests. These tests don’t incorporate real world factors like airflow design or fan speed. Remember, real world air purifier effectiveness is measured by CADR—not ACH or filter efficiency tests!

*CADR (Clean Air Delivery Rate) is an independently tested and truth about enzyte certified measure of how effective an air purifier performs in the real world.
Going too far for Air?

March 15, 2007 in Advertising | 5 comments

I was recently working on a press ad for air purification and came up with a more unique perspective of representing purification.

After working on countless press ads that had same ol’ company names and product line after product line, I felt like this artistic representation was a breath of fresh air. I got mixed reviews for it and hence am quite apprehensive about using it.

Those that didnt like it said because it was too graphic to represent a baby like this. Those who liked it, they said it was because it caught their attention and they felt compelled to stare at the poster for awhile.

I roll my eye-balls at society. tsk.
We don’t have to go outside to find the pollution

March 13, 2007 in Noteworthy | 1 comment

Carbon dioxide: Present in the unpolluted atmosphere at a concentration of about 0.03% percent but 5% of the air we breathe out is carbon dioxide so the level increases in inadequately ventilated occupied rooms. The level of carbon dioxide is therefore often used to assess the efficiency of ventilation. Outside sources include vehicle exhaust fumes or other exhausts.

Carbon monoxide: Produced by any process of combustion, including cooking and tobacco smoking. A major source of carbon monoxide is vehicle exhaust.

Formaldehyde: A colourless gas with a pungent odour. Found in hundreds of different products, including insulation material, ceiling tiles, particle board, plywood, office furniture, carpet glues, various plastics, synthetic fibres in rugs, upholstery and other textiles, pesticides, paint and paper. Levels of emission increase with temperature.

Ozone: Naturally present in the air since it is produced from oxygen by ultraviolet radiation. Can also be produced by electrical discharges and is emitted by some items of electrical equipment such as photocopiers and electrostatic precipitator devices used to clean the air by removing dust.

Most people don’t realize the gravity of indoor pollution. Heck, even I don’t take it seriously sometimes. When I hang out at a bar and I’m sucking in the smoking air, the various fibers, acoholic fumes, etc. everything. I dread to think of how polluted my body’s repiratory system is…
How clean were they?

March 10, 2007 in Interesting Finds | 2 comments

I was recently doing research on how operating rooms were set up in the past and wondered about its cleanliness, when I started reading about the oldest operating theater in the world in London, part of St. Thomas’ hospital (1822).

At the time when these public operating theaters existed, antiseptic and anesthesia had not been invented. Much of the surgeries that went on were mainly amputations because of the lack of antiseptic/anti-bacterial devices to prevent internal infections. It’s said that surgeons at that time could perform an entire amputation in under a minute to try and minimize pain and blood loss.

See the little box of saw dust underneath the table? That’s for collecting blood. Apparently most of the time the doctor’s coats were soaked with pus and blood that they became stiff!!

I think of the amount of bacteria that are allowed to grow and multiply, and travel through the air, I get highly highly grossed out. I wonder how many lives would have been saved with the difference of perhaps a simple ventilating mechanism or alcohol wash as an antiseptic. None of those existed for some reason.