Where to place your air purifier is an essential question as it determines how efficient your filters will be working later on.
A lot of people don’t think much of the placement of their air purifiers; nevertheless, if you fail to do it right, you’ll be sorely disappointed by the results.
You might end up with health problems, and it simply won’t eliminate the problem you’ve originally purchased the appliance for.
1. Different Rooms
One of the very first decisions that you’ll have to make is which room will have the honor of hosting the air purifier that you’ve just purchased. In order to make that decision, you’ve got to know which type of air purifier you have.
Whether it’s a stationary one; hence, it’s much larger in size and heavier in weight, or it’s a portable one, so you can actually pick it up and carry it around from room to room.
If it’s a stationary air purifier, then the best option to go with is to place it in the room with the most traffic, and that'd be used more often by inhabitants of the household. That can be your living room, playroom, kitchen, or even your bedroom.
You can also put it in the places that emit the most odors and are susceptible to humidity, dust, pollen, allergens, and pollutants in general. That could be your kitchen due to all of the produce and food, your basement since it’s locked up all the time with minimal ventilation, or even your bathroom due to all of the water vapor. However, we’ll touch on the bathroom point later on.
On the other side of the spectrum, if you have a portable air purifier, the easiest thing to do is just take it with you. If you’re getting ready in your bedroom, keep it there, you went to the kitchen to make breakfast, take it with you, then you headed into the living room to drink your coffee; again, take it with you.
Plus, you can even place it in the intersection between two rooms, allowing you to put it between the kitchen and the living room so that it’s working in both areas simultaneously.
2. Source of Trouble
Another aspect that you have to factor in is whether or not you’ve got a specific origin of trouble that you wish to eliminate. In other words, no one will ever know your house more than you do.
So, if your litter boxes are constantly creating odors, it’d be a good idea to place the air purifier near them. If your pets inhabit a certain rug in your living room and it’s full of hair, then put the device next to that rug, and so on.
If you’ve got a lot of storage boxes in your basement that've been untouched for so long, this kind of stagnation can cause the accumulation of bacteria and pollutants; hence, odors and mold infestations will find their way through. As a result, placing your device near these boxes is also a wise way to go.
3. Headboard Space
Let’s say you’ve decided to place your air purifier in your bedroom, even if it’s just for the night. As a matter of fact, air purifiers are designed to run 24/7 without your interference, so you can totally leave it on for the night.
Still, there are some precautions that you need to take in order to get the comfortable sleep that you’re aiming for. The most important one is to place the air purifier around 6 feet from the headboard.
The reasoning behind that is that the air purifier sucks the air in, cleans it, and pushes it back outside. This creates a constant circulation of air. You don’t want that airflow all over your face as the continuous blowing can easily cause health issues such as headaches of all kinds, dry throats, dehydration, and even chapped lips.
Also, if your unit is way too close to you, its airflow noises, even if it has a low noise level, will disrupt your sleep.
4. Room Size
We’ve just touched on the fact that you could place your air purifier in any spot you want according to your needs and preference. Yet, there'd one feature that you’ve to think about before moving your air purifier from one space to another, and that is the capacity of your air purifier.
You see, these units come in all sizes and shapes. An air purifier can work in a 100 square feet room, and it can work in a room that’s 800 square feet. All of that will be featured on its packaging and in the users’ manual.
So, it’s best that you place your air purifier in a room that it can actually clean. If you place an air purifier in a much bigger space than its workload capacity, you’ll be overworking the small unit for nothing as you’ll get minimal results out of it.
On the other hand, if you place an air purifier that can support much larger workloads in a small room, you’ll just be wasting a lot of power and energy when you could’ve used a lot less.
5. Air Inlets
There are two sides to this aspect, and it all depends on the strength of your device. If it’s a high-quality one that can deal with an impressive workload, then you can totally place it in front of your windows, doorways, and any air inlet.
That way, it’ll be immediately working on the air coming from the outside and acting as a safeguard against all of the pollutants and airborne particles attacking your indoor air quality from the outside.
On the other hand, if your unit can’t deal with such pressure, then you’ll be placing yourself in a loss-loss situation, as your unit can’t work on the air current coming from the outside, and it can’t really focus on the air inside because it’s constantly being replaced by freshly polluted air coming from the outside.
In this situation, it’s best to close your doors, windows, and air inlets and just enjoy the purified air inside of your house.
6. Humidity
We’ve mentioned before that you can place your air purifier in the bathroom in order to work on all of the bacteria, viruses, and dust that are commonly present in such a vicinity.
Still, bathrooms are one of the most humid areas in our homes, and the thing is, air purifiers and humidity don’t really go well together. High levels of moisture could easily damage the device.
So, if you still wish to place your air purifier in your bathroom, you’ve got to tackle the humidity problem first. That could be through installing an exhaust fan, a normal fan, opening the windows, or purchasing a dehumidifier so that the two devices can complement each other.
Final Thoughts
To wrap up, the answer to "where should I place my air purifier?" entirely relies on your own home, lifestyle, and the type of air purifier that you’ve got. The basics remain the same for everyone, though.
Try to situate your air purifier in the center of the room, and if you can, have it work on more than one space at a time, as long as it’s capable of doing that in regards to capacity. Plus, try to move it as close as possible to the source of any problem that you’ve got, and make sure to properly maintain the unit at all times.
