Whole-House or Portable? Which Air Purification System is Best for Your Home?

Are you looking for ways to breathe healthier air at home? If you’re already taking advantage of routine duct cleaning, air purification systems can significantly boost your indoor air quality. At Dust Doctors, we offer a variety of air purification solutions designed to meet the needs of the discerning homeowner. Below, we discuss the difference between whole-house systems and portable air purification devices, so you can select the unit that best meets your needs.

What is a Whole-House Air Purifier?

A whole-house air purification system is designed to improve the air quality throughout your home by trapping microscopic particles that can pass through your standard HVAC filter. This type of purification device installs directly into your home’s heating and cooling system, where it filters the air that passes through your ducts.

A whole-home air purification system typically contains ten times the filter surface area of a standard HVAC filter. This increased surface area provides more robust filtration, which adds an extra layer of protection against particle dispersion throughout your home. Most whole-home systems can also be fitted with ultraviolet technology, which works to kill bacteria, viruses, fungi, dust mites, mold, and mildew on contact.

What is a Portable Air Purifier?

A portable air purifier is also designed to improve your indoor air quality, though it is limited in terms of the square footage it can cover. Portable air purifiers feature high-quality HEPA filtration systems, which are proven to trap 99.97% of all airborne particles that are 0.3 microns or larger in diameter. To put that in perspective, one strand of human hair is approximately 50 microns in diameter—166 times wider than the particles that a HEPA filter can capture.

Modern portable air purification systems are quite small and can be transferred from room to room as necessary. However, due to their size, they may not be as effective as a whole-home system.

Whole-House Air Purifier: Pros and Cons

When considering whole-house air purification, it’s helpful to know whether this type of system is well-suited to your needs and is compatible with your existing HVAC design. Advantages of a whole-house unit include:

●        Improved odor elimination from within your ductwork

●        Autonomous operation

●        High-quality air purification for the entire house

●        UV light helps eradicate health-harming bacteria, viruses, mold, and dust mites.

Disadvantages of a whole-home air purification system include:

●        More involved installation process

●        Advanced systems can be pricey.

●        Must be compatible with your existing HVAC design

●        More consistent filtration near the vent return versus other areas of the home 

Portable Air Purifier: Pros and Cons

If you’re on the fence about air purification systems, you may want to try out a smaller unit before opting for a whole-home system. Like their more involved counterparts, portable air purifiers offer a variety of benefits, including:

●        Easy transportation between different areas of the home

●        Ability to filter the air in the rooms you use most frequently

●        Affordable when compared to whole-home systems

●        High-quality HEPA filtration removes particles that are virtually invisible.

Drawbacks of portable air purifiers include:

●        Can only filter limited square footage at once

●        Multiple units are required for whole-house filtration

●        Potential for ozone emissions

●        Cannot absorb odors from within ductwork 

At Dust Doctors, we know how critical indoor air quality is for the health of everyone in your home. That’s we offer a variety of air purification solutions to reduce airborne pollutants, dust, bacteria, and viruses in your home. When you spend substantial time indoors, you can’t avoid inhaling these health-harming particles, but with our help, you dramatically reduce their presence. To learn more about air purification solutions or how duct cleaning can improve the air quality in your Twin Cities home, contact our team today. You can also give us a call at 651-319-9777, or click here to request your free quote.