There are few places in the world where the air is as clean as it is in the Swiss Alps. While this air is virtually free of allergens, chemicals and pollution, the air we breathe in our cities and rural towns is full of pollutants, traffic, factories, and agriculture. While outdoor air may be bad, indoor air is far worse. In fact, studies from the Environmental Protection Agency indicate that indoor levels of pollutants may be two to five times, and occasionally more than 100 times higher, than outdoor levels. And, since we spend over 90% of our time indoors, indoor air quality is of particular importance to our health and comfort.
While there are many steps you can take to improve indoor air quality, air cleaning can be one of the simplest. Many different brands of air cleaners promise to improve indoor air quality.
Several technical terms come up when comparing air-cleaning systems. But none is more prevalent and misused than "HEPA technology". HEPA technology is used in hospital operating rooms, high tech microchip manufacturing and other critical environments. Several manufacturers state that their air cleaners use HEPA technology, without providing HEPA performance. In fact, many HEPA-based household air cleaners advertise efficiencies of 99.97%. However, these claims are based on filter efficiency, not the total system efficiency of the air cleaner.
Most air cleaner manufacturers make filter efficiency claims of over 99%. Those refer to the efficiency of the filter inside the air cleaner, not the total system efficiency. Due to leakage, that total system efficiency is many times closer to 50%. IQAir, on the other hand, refers to efficiency in terms of total system efficiency only. And that efficiency is guaranteed at 99.5%. This means that the air returned to the room will be at least 99.5% clean.
