HEPA Air Filtration Systems
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HEPA stands for High Efficiency Particulate Air. It's a kind of filter that is used in air purifiers, as well as in many brands of vacuum cleaners. They are designed to filter out extremely small pieces of dirt / junk from the air, as small as .3 microns. To be a HEPA filter, it generally needs to be able to get 99.97% of all particles that are that size or larger. They are generally made from a collection of fibers, which allow air through but stop most particles in the filter. They've been around since the 1950's in one form or another, and used to be a specific brand name that was used in industries such as nuclear power. Now, it's just a general term that means any filter capable of meeting those performance requirements. Here are a couple of air cleaners that use this kind of filter:
Honeywell HFD-120 Tower HEPA Purifier with IFD Filter
This will work for smaller rooms, and can effectively cover an area of up to 200 feet. It goes for around $150. It's got a number of good features - an ionizer, which charges particles to get them to stick to the filter, as well as a pre-filter (the point of which is to clear out stuff before it hits the HEPA filter, which can be expensive to replace in some models). It's also got a little indicator light that tells you when you need to wipe down the pre-filter.
Hunter Quietflo HEPA Small-Tower, with Ionizer
This one is only about $100, and has a lot of features as well - an ionizer, quiet-run mode, and an LED light to tell you when you need to clean the filter. It can only clean around 150 square feet, though, so it's really more one to use in a specific area.
Hamilton Beach TrueAir Allergen Reducer
This one is the budget option. It's only about $50, and the filters are replaceable at a cheap $15 or so (sounds like a lot, but they're they most expensive part with HEPA cleaners). It has a few less features, but it meets the effectiveness standard of 99.97% and actually cleans a larger area (210 square feet). It can be kind of loud on high, though (luckily there's a low option for quiet-mode). If money is a concern, or if you need to clean more than 200 square feet, I'd go with this one - you could buy a few of these and stick them around the house as needed.
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