Whole House Air Purifiers

What is the best whole-house air purifier?  Quite simply it is the best purifier for the money that will do what it's supposed to do, which is purify the air throughout the entire house. In a sense, it's a larger version of a room air purifier. But which is best? That's where all the arguments start.

The best whole house air purifier, according to many manufacturers, is an electronic air cleaner that is attached to the heating and cooling system. This type of cleaner uses electrically charged cells or plates that attract dust particles as they travel through the ductwork system. This seems to make sense because it appears that all the air in the house is cleaned as it goes through the ductwork. But in reality, all the air in your house does not go through the ductwork. There are dead spots in every structure in which the air merely hangs out and does nothing. Obviously, this air doesn't get cleaned.

In addition, the charged cell grid of the air cleaner must be cleaned more often than is practical because once it collects a small amount of dust, it's efficiency drops like a rock and lets all the bad stuff get through. Not the best whole house air purifier in our opinion. They are expensive too, usually costing well over $1000 and must be installed by a heating and air conditioning contractor.

A more recent contender for the best whole house air purifier is the ultra-violet (UV) germicidal light system for installation in the air return side of the heating and cooling system. The theory is that the UV light kills bacteria and mold as the air travels through the ductwork. As stated before, not all the air goes through the ductwork and therefore is   not treated. The UV lights are mounted near the evaporator coil inside the unit. This does a good job of keeping mold and bacteria away from the coil but the effect is usually not strong enough to protect the ductwork, let alone the rooms in your house.
Also, some UV lamps produce large amounts of ozone. While ozone is a great sanitizer it needs to be controlled so not too much is introduced into the indoor environment. UV lamps can also be quite expensive, usually costing over $1000 installed and therefore may not be the best whole house air purifier for your situation.

A stand-alone air purifier that uses ionization with small amounts of ozone may be your best bet for a whole house air purifier. These units are available from several manufacturers and can usually be purchased for under $800. By using ionization to drop the floating particles from your breathing space and low levels of ozone to remove odors, these units are a good all-around  solution to cleaning up your indoor air. There are many critics of these types of machines because of the ozone that they produce but just remember that ozone is a naturally occurring element that is nature's sanitizer. Low levels of ozone are very effective in cleaning the air while high levels can be irritating or even dangerous. Promising new technology has also been recently  introduced that imitates the natural processes found in nature to clean the air.

Probably the best whole house air "purifier" for the money is a simple electrostatic air filter that replaces the cheap filter that comes on your furnace. They are made from multiple layers of plastic fiber that cause them to be electrically charged as air passes through them. They are very effective at grabbing dust and other particulates and generally cost less than $100. Keep in mind that these filters are not purifiers and still only have the ability to filter the air that passes through them.