Air purifiers are used to improve the air quality in the room. Some people feel like their air purifier reduces the humidity in the house. However, in reality, an air purifier doesn’t have the ability to separate the moisture from the air. The special HEPA filters used in an air purifier can only catch the solid particles to make the air clean and healthy. This article will cover everything that you need to know about the workings of an air purifier and how it helps improve the air quality of your house.
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Why does the air feel dry?
Humidity is present everywhere. This humidity greatly affects how you feel about the environment inside the room. For instance, warm air in the room feels more humid than cold air. It is because hot air rises up and leaves moisture in the lower portion of the air. Similarly, cold air settles down, and this feels drier.
The problem is that people who use air purifiers for extensive periods feel like the air is getting dry. It is because air purifiers contain powerful fans that help circulate the purified air throughout the room. These fans act like ventilators to disperse the warm air of the room. This creates room for the cold air, and thus the air in the room starts to feel less humid.
Air purifier vs. a dehumidifier
An air purifier doesn’t come with the equipment required to separate the moisture content from the air. Therefore, the answer to ‘can air purifiers make the air dry?’ is very straightforward. No! air purifiers are not capable of making the air in your room less humid or dry. If you face moisture problems in your house, your only option is to use a dehumidifier. Some air conditioners are also equipped with a dehumidifier to drop the room’s temperature effectively.
The air purifier comes with several layers of mechanical filters. These filters catch different sizes of solid particles at different stages. For instance, larger particles like pet hair and dust are caught at the pre-filter. The HEPA filter catches the smaller particles. Smoke and odor get settled in the active carbon filter. In short, there is no way you should ask can air purifiers dry out the air. The air excreted through the output fan has the same moisture level as the collection point or inlet.
On the contrary, air dehumidifiers are very different devices. Their sole purpose is to remove the excessive moisture content from the air by using different methods. These machines also include a water tank that gets filled with the collected moisture with the passage of time. Similarly, some devices work in both ways, i.e., to dehumidify or humidify the air in the room.
Do air purifiers dry the air? Lab experiment
The number of people asking does air purifiers dry out a room is regularly increasing. This happened to the point that a scientist named Thomas Talhelm took matters into his own hands. He set out to test the effects of the air purifier on the humidity level of the room. Moreover, he tested the effects of different air purifier filters on the air in the room.
- First, he polluted the air inside a sealed room by burning several cigarettes.
- A particle counter was set up in the room to calculate the amount of moisture in the air constantly.
- An air purifier with a HEPA filter was allowed to run in the room for 25 minutes at high-speed settings.
- In the 20 minutes, it was noticed that the amount of air pollution was greatly reduced. The particle counter measured a pollution drop from 200 micrograms to zero.
- However, during this period, the sensors detected no change in the humidity level of the room.
This test was beneficial to prove that the HEPA filter doesn’t decrease the humidity of a room at all. However, most modern air purifiers have other filters besides the HEPA, such as activated carbon filters and air ionizer filters. Therefore, another test was conducted in the same room with identical pollution conditions.
- Cigarette smoke was released in the sealed room.
- The particle counter sensor was set up in the room to count the pollutant particles in the room.
- A modern air purifier with an activated carbon filter was allowed to run for 20 minutes.
- Activated carbon contains many Kgs of carbon molecules. The pollutants like formaldehyde, VOCs, NO2, and ozone get settled in this air filter.
- However, it is also possible that some of the moisture gets caught in the filter as well because CO2 combines with H2O to form HCO3.
According to test reports, the room pollution reduced from 200 micrograms to zero in just 15 minutes. However, another change was also detected by the sensors. The activated carbon filter caused a 2% decrease in the air humidity level. However, this dehumidification is negligible and not enough to make the room dry.
Effects of dry air
Air purifiers make the air breathable by removing harmful solid particles from the air. However, it doesn’t imply that you don’t need to keep the air in the room humid. Dry air can cause many diseases, including skin and respiratory conditions. Moreover, dry air can also trigger allergies activate the different viruses in the air. Similarly, if a room has dry air, the chances are that your body will get dehydrated very quickly.
Therefore, if you feel like the air in the room is less humid, do the following things. Firstly, you need to understand that an air purifier has nothing to do with the amount of humidity in the air. The air mostly feels dry during the winter because people keep the windows closed and use air purifiers as ventilators. Therefore, if you feel like the air is becoming dry, it would be best to open the windows to let fresh air in the room. Secondly, you can also choose to run an air humidifier along with an air purifier to keep a check on the humidity level in the room. The ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) suggests that you should keep the humidity levels in a room between 30% to 60% for comfortable breathing.
FAQs
Do air purifiers take moisture out of the air?
According to recent studies, air purifiers only take out 2% ai from the air, which is negligible. Therefore, it is safe to say that air purifiers don’t take out moisture from the air.
Can air purifiers dry your nose?
No! A dry nose is caused by low moisture content in the air. You should ventilate the room with fresh air from the windows or use an air humidifier.
Is it OK to use an air purifier and humidifier at the same time?
Yes, if you feel like the air is less humid in the room and you also need an air purifier to keep the air clean. You can use the air purifier and humidifier simultaneously because these two devices work independently of each other.
Choosing an air purifier
Air purifiers have become extremely popular in recent years. However, with so many different variations on the market, it can be difficult to pick the right unit for your home. Click on this link and I’ll walk you through how to choose an air purifier. I’ll also look at some of the pros and cons of each type of air purifier. Click on the link to learn more!
Conclusion
Air purifiers effectively clean the air from different solid pollutants. However, people often confuse air purifiers with dehumidifiers. Therefore, I explained scientific facts about how air purifier has no effect on the humidity inside the room.
