Where to Place Your Air Purifier

In today’s day and age, when staying at home is one of the best ways to stay safe, thousands of companies are switching to work from home, the government is imposing lengthy lockdowns, or people are just self willingly deciding to Netflix binge-watch instead of partying. As the reason behind this is for us to stay healthy, it’s becoming imperative for us to take our daily dosage of vitamins and breathe fresh air.

However, as indoor air can have higher concentrations of dirt, dust, or gases than outside air, it could cause health problems after prolonged exposure. To prevent this, people use air purifiers to help them remove those harmful components from the air inside their homes. But where to place your air purifier for best results? Let’s find out.

Where to Place Your Air Purifier

There are numerous places where you can place your air purifier to increase its performance and breathe fresh air during the entire day.

Move It From Room to Room

Outdoor pollutants from coal, kerosene, oil, or even tobacco products accumulate in your home – posing a threat to your health and comfort. No matter if you keep your windows closed, outdoor air can penetrate your house through either natural or mechanical ventilation, openings, spaces around windows and doors, and everything in between. This means that unless there is an air purifier in your home, it might be challenging to remove these pollutants.

What makes portable air purifiers best for removing these toxins is that you can easily move them from room to room during the day. After you finish with your day-to-day activities in the living room, you can move them to your bedroom to prepare a clean sleeping environment.

Place the Air Purifier Near the Source of the Odor

The first step towards removing lingering odors from your home is to discover the source. No matter if your neighbors’ smoking odors constantly seep into your home, an unpleasant musty basement whiff spreads around your house, or cooking smells linger in your kitchen for days on end – placing an air purifier near the source can significantly reduce the pesky odors.

This suggestion might do wonders for your home as you will prevent the odor from spreading through the entire house. For best results, look for an air purifier that comes with filters that are specially designed to reduce odors.

Place It According To Its Design

Depending on its design, you can set the air purifier on your table, floor, or even wall-mount it. While smaller ones require you to increase their floor-to-ceiling cleaning efficiency by raising them on a table, larger air purifiers usually come with moving wheels or are simply too big to be set on a desk or table.

Do note, though, that the design is not as good an indicator of where you should place your unit as your instruction manual is.

Place It Near Places With High Airflow

Notable for their pulling-in-air abilities, air purifiers require an abundance of air to clean it faster and more effectively. This makes placing a unit near a window or doorway an excellent option. On top of that, this will allow the purifier to reduce pollutants such as dust as can they easily enter your home through areas where there is moving air. This can be especially helpful if you have pets that are allowed to enter specific rooms in your house.

Place the Unit According to Noise Level

Depending on the operating speed or model, the noise level of air purifiers ranges. However, there is no completely silent purifier, which means that placing it accordingly can save you a lot of trouble when trying to rest.

For instance, don’t keep it operating at its peak in your living room while you’re trying to read or while trying to sleep. If it is portable, however, place it to run in another room in the meanwhile.

Place Your Device Safely

Wet surfaces can not only reduce your unit’s performance but pose the threat of electrocution – so, when setting your purifier, make sure there aren’t any wet areas nearby. This also means that you should position the unit away from your kids and pets to avoid a temptation for them to meddle with it.

Likewise, pay extra attention to whether there are any hot environments like direct sunlight as most purifiers are susceptible to overheating.

Where Not to Place Your Air Purifier

As you know the best places where to put your air purifier, make sure to avoid the following ones in order to boost its performance and prolong the lifespan of your unit’s filters.

Near the Dehumidifier

According to an article on the Influence of Humidity on Clogging of Flat and Pleated HEPA Filters, humid air can significantly reduce the capacity in filters (particularly HEPA filters) in terms of both pressure drop and efficiency. This means that although you can run an air purifier in the same room as a humidifier, try placing them as far apart from each other as possible. To allow your purifier to function even better, try keeping your humidifier on its lowest setting.

Another way to prevent your filters from absorbing moisture is to keep them away from moist areas such as a steamy bathroom or kitchen.

Behind Objects or in a Corner

Remember not to put any objects near your purifier as they can interfere with its airflow, reducing its potential to clean the air efficiently. A rule of thumb is to leave at least three feet of space in all directions for best results.

The same rule applies to secluded areas such as corners that have little to no airflow. Even though the device can purify the air near that corner impeccably, the air quality in other spaces won’t be affected equally.

Keep the Room Size in Mind

Before placing your air purifier in an enormous room, make sure it has the capacity to purify the space by reading the specifications on the room coverage number. The best way to do so is by determining the CADR (Clean Air Delivery Rate) which is a measure of the quantity of filtered air per hour for three specific pollutants (dust, pollen, and smoke) in cubic feet per minute. In a nutshell, the higher the CADR number, the easier and quicker the air filtration. Keep in mind that while you can’t put a unit that can purify as little as 100 square feet in larger rooms, it would also be a waste of energy to set a powerful purifier in small spaces.

Do note, though, that when two small-sized units are put strategically far from each other in a larger room – they may have the ability to clean the entire room.

Where to Place an Air Purifier in the Bedroom

In case you don’t mind a little noise while resting on your bed, the best place to put an air purifier in the bedroom is near your breathing zone. This means putting it on a nightstand near your bed to allow clean air to reach you faster.

In Summary

Air purifiers can certainly bring a breath of fresh air whenever you decide to spend your days – from freshening your bedroom to cleaning the air pollutants from your living room – these are a no-brainer when it comes to choosing the best device for improving air quality in your home.

However, knowing where to place your air purifiers can make a huge difference in increasing the quality of air in your home. This means keeping objects away from or placing them far from humidifiers to avoid reduced performance or simply moving them from room to room to keep the entire home purified.