The most efficient way to filter household air is through the house's forced air heating or central air conditioning system. The filters are integrated into it. A central air filtration system is perfect for cleaning the air throughout the house. Choose between oven filters, inlet UV systems, or whole house HEPA filter systems.
There is a lot of misinformation about “whole-house air purifiers”, some air purifiers are marketed as such, but they are actually large portable units. While they can filter relatively more air, larger portable filters don't actually clean all the air in the house. The HVAC system incorporates a true air purifier for the whole house. It could be as simple as a filter through which the return of air enters the oven (which is primarily intended to protect the oven components from dirt, rather than purifying the air), or it could be an electronic system integrated into the duct network.
For it to truly be considered a whole-house air purifier, the filter must be placed in the airflow of the ducts of your HVAC system. The 3- and 5-ton versions of the Perfect 16 only differ in the amount of air they can filter per minute. AprilAire's original whole-home air purifiers are specifically designed to work with your AprilAire air filter. Choosing the best whole-home air purifier system depends on your willingness and ability to perform the necessary maintenance, as well as the specific contaminants you want to remove from the air.
Remember that, while an entire household unit may be cheaper, its filtration capacity may be limited by other external circumstances, such as the size of the ducts, whether or not the oven fan is on all the time (it can only filter the air that passes through it) and duct cleaning also works. Portable and whole-house filters trap dust, pollen and more to clean the air and improve indoor air quality. The air inside your home circulates through your home's return ducts (sometimes called cold air returns) to the heating and cooling system and then returns to the rooms in your home. Some manufacturers are addressing the problem of noise with so-called smart filters that use an optical sensor to determine if the air is relatively clean and then switch to a lower fan setting.
A whole-house air purifier is a device that is installed in line with the residential air conditioning system that traps or destroys dust, pollen and other harmful contaminants to clean the air and improve indoor air quality. In addition, this model only filters moving air, such as when the heater or air conditioner is operating (although most HVAC systems have a “fan on” mode that keeps air flowing through the ducts even when the heater or air conditioner isn't working). Some air filters are hybrids that combine both methods, and some include activated carbon elements to combat odor. In fact, these filters are designed to protect the oven from large dust particles and, while they can keep the surfaces of the house a little cleaner, they don't block the microscopic particles that irritate the lung tissue the most.