Maintaining quality air indoors can help keep asthma and allergies symptoms at bay. The air we breathe is full of toxins and pollutants, and often, these end up causing flu symptoms and other respiratory diseases.

That's why, as a homeowner, you should opt to install air purifiers or air cleaners in your home. These appliances have been proven to lessen the toxins and pollutants in the air.

Speaking of air purifiers, there are many types of air cleaners, with the latest ones being UV air purifiers with UV sanitizers. These cleaners, although very effective, are a little bit controversial because of the presence of UV light. Many people are sceptical that the UV light fitted into air purifiers can affect their bodies.

However, UV Air purifiers have been proven to kill germs, viruses, and bacteria in the air and are even used in hospitals.

If you are in the market looking for a new air cleaner and UV air purifiers have caught your eye, we have prepared a helpful guide that covers everything you need to know about UV air cleaners.

It is our hope that the information in this guide will clear the doubts you had about UV air cleaners and help you choose the best one for your needs.

Let's first discuss what exactly a UV air purifier is?

What Is a UV Air Purifier?

HVAC systems already come with an inbuilt method of cleaning the air and eliminating harmful contaminants from the air thanks to the HEPA filters or carbon filters that have been installed in it. These air filters screen the air and capture pet dander, dust, smoke, and any other element that may contaminate the air. However, they do not always kill bacteria and germs, and this is where UV air purifiers come into play.

These devices are placed in your HVAC systems and kill germs, bacteria, and germs. They use ultraviolet light with a specific wavelength that emits electromagnetic radiation that rewrites or disrupts the DNA of germs or viruses, thereby rendering them inefficient.

This means that air passing from an air purifier that is fitted with a UV-C light is very pure since the air filters remove dust particles, smoke, and other contaminants in the air, while the UV-C light kills or disintegrates the DNA of the bacteria and germs.

Why Would You Want to Install a UV Air Purifier In Your Home?

Before we discuss how these units work, let’s briefly talk about why you would want to use an air purifier that has a UV lamp.

As you already know, most air purifiers work by filtering unwanted pollutants from their air. However, they cannot filter very small micro-organisms, especially viruses.

This is why installing a UV-light lamp in your home or office air filtration system makes perfect sense. The viruses, germs, and bacteria that cannot be eliminated by the standard air filters will get killed by the UV light.

UV air purifiers render viruses and bacteria useless by exposing them to UV light, which penetrates their outer coating thanks to the high-energy nature of light. The light destroys or rewrites the DNA of these organisms, which kills them or renders them unproductive.

We will discuss the benefits of having a UV purifier in greater depth later on. For now, let’s discuss how these units are able to purify air.

How Does Air Purifier with UV Sanitizer Work?

For you to understand the benefit of UV air purifiers, it is important that you understand how they work and what enables them to take air purification to another level.

As we have mentioned several, air purifiers produce ultraviolet light that has powerful radiation moving at high frequencies. This range of unseen and useable radiation is similar to those in radio waves and X-rays.

The UV light produced by these units damage and destroy harmful organisms such as bacteria, mildew, mold, and viruses that normally exist in the air.

In other words, any living organism in the air that can cause harm to your respiratory system can easily be removed using an effective and safe UV air purifier system.

This makes UV air cleaners for home ideal for people who have chronic health issues as well as those with respiratory problems. They are also ideal for any home, health care facilities, public areas, shopping malls, and areas where many people interact. Considering that at the moment, there is more danger of infection because of coronavirus, it makes sense to invest in these units for homes or businesses.

You may ask-if UV light can be that dangerous to micro-organisms, are human safe to use these units at home?

Well, the fact is that the radiations generated by these UV lamps in an air purifier are typically contained within your unit. It is not exposed to the atmosphere in your home as sunlight is.

By keeping the light within your air-cleaning unit not only ensures that it effectively cleans germs and viruses in the air pulled inside your unit but also prevents UV radiation from reaching anyone at home. Therefore, we can say that UV light air purifiers are safe to operate at home or in areas where people tend to crowd,

It is important to mention that UV lamps come as separate units to your air filter, which means that they must be fitted by a professional in your air purifier. Therefore, we can say that the only dangers you could be concerned about are if the lighting system is not well fitted (not fully contained) and if it is not working as it should.

Overall, UV air filtration systems are very safe for home use and can help you kill any bacteria, viruses, and germs in the air that could, otherwise, have caused problems to your respiratory system.

What Are the Benefits of Using a UV Air Filtration System?

• ✅Helps to prevent illnesses that may have been caused by viruses or bacteria

When correctly installed and utilized, you can benefit greatly from a UV air filtration system. UV air purifiers have the capacity to destroy micro-organisms in the air by penetrating their cell walls and disintegrating or rewriting their DNA. Since DNA holds the cells together, when it is destroyed, germs or viruses cannot exist or reproduce within the body. This prevents diseases and illnesses that may have been caused by viruses or germs were they not destroyed.

In addition to eliminating viruses and bacteria, UV air purifiers also eliminate odors, viruses, and bacteria as well as mold. These are trapped by the air filters in the UV air filtration system. Therefore, there is no chance of any contaminants escaping from your air purifier. This ultimately helps to improve your indoor air quality.

• ✅Saves energy

Since the UV lamp will be working within your HVAC system, it means that you will be saving energy since, in addition to lessening the work your air purification could have done, it also eliminates the need to install multiple filtration systems.

In fact, these systems can be placed in any part of the air purification system. For instance, they can be placed in the first chamber of the HVAC system so that they purify the air before it enters through the air filters. This will make work easier for the air filters.

• ✅Silent operation

Regardless of where you install these units, you can rest assured that they will not disturb with noise. They operate silently in comparison to other filtration systems that work by drawing in air. Therefore, you can install them in any room.

What's more, these machines can be used in any place where there are significant dangers of virus or bacteria multiplication, such as in houses where mildew or mold is prevalent or in healthcare units where people are battling chronic infections.

• ✅Prolong the lifespan of your HVAC system

Since these units purify air in a less strenuous manner, your HVAC system will be having less work since most of the contaminants have been killed by your UV-C lamp. The smooth functioning of both the HVAC system and UV-C lamp works in favor of the HVAC system in terms of prolonging its lifespan.

Downsides of Using Ultraviolet Air Purifiers

While air purifiers with UV sanitizers are effective at preventing illnesses, they have their downsides.

• ❌Cannot function as standalone units

UV lamps cannot be used as sole air purifiers at home. This is because they cannot remove dust, smoke, pollen grains, chemical gases, and other non-living contaminants. As we mentioned earlier, UV light destroys the cellular walls of cells or their DNA, thereby rendering living contaminants useless. However, these units cannot destroy non-living contaminants.

This means that you have to install them alongside HVAC systems for you to effectively clean the air in your home. This adds to cost, but in the end, they are worth the money.

• ❌Complex Installation

We mentioned earlier that one of the fears people have about UV-C air cleaners is that they can emit radiation that can affect their lives. However, when well installed, these units are very safe since radiation will be contained just inside the HVAC system.

What this means is that you have to call a professional to install a UV-C lamp in your air purifying system, which ads to costs. People who are looking for a plug and play system will find UV-C air purifier quite inconveniencing.

💭FAQ About UV Air Purifiers

Before we conclude this guide, let’s answer some of the popular questions people ask when considering to invest in a UV air purifier;

What does UV air purification mean?

This is the process of cleaning living contaminants from their air by using ultraviolet light. The UV-light kills the bond that holds micro-organism together (DNA), which in turn renders them useless. UV-C light systems or UV air purifiers can greatly reduce the pollutants and contaminants that pass through a regular HVAC system.

What kind of pollutants are eliminated by UV air purifiers?

The ultraviolet light added to the HVAC system makes it effective at destroying micro-organism. These include mildew, bacteria, viruses, mold, and fungi.

UV light also breaks down the molecular bonds of viruses. This process either kills them or renders them useless, which means that they cannot reproduce or spread. This helps to prevent these micro-organisms from infecting your home.

Why should a UV system go hand-in-hand with the HVAC system?

A UV system works in conjunction with the HVAC system. It cannot be used as a standalone unit. The UV lamp is mounted inside your air purifier. The role of the UV lamp is to kill micro-organisms while that of the HVAC system is to filter out contaminants in the air. Therefore, the two systems work hand-in-hand.

Is UV air purifier safe for home?

It is reasonable to worry about whether or not to install ultraviolet air cleaners. The truth is that UV air cleaners can produce ozone- Ozone can react with contaminants and break them down.

However, when in high amount, it can lead to major health issues. To prevent this, ensure that the UV lamp is installed by a professional inside the HVAC system. In addition, ensure that the UV light emitted by the specific UV air purifier you go for is at a safe wavelength. The safe UV light wavelength is in the 160-240nm range.

Is UV air cleaning effective?

A UV air purifier is very effective when it comes to cleaning air, and is one of the best methods of decontaminating air. When coupled with an HVAC system, UV air cleaning can deliver great results.

Bottom Line

For people who are focused on disinfecting the air in their homes, a UV air purifier is one of the safest and most effective choices. These units have been proven to be effective in clinics, hospitals, and also homes. They eliminate contaminants such as bacteria, viruses, and other living micro-organisms that may cause respiratory diseases.

While there are controversies revolving around their safety, these units, when professionally installed, are very safe. They can clean the air in your home and reduce the chances of you getting ill from airborne elements.

There are many brands making UV air purifiers, and you can choose the right one for your needs. We do hope that our guide has opened your eyes and will help you choose the best UV air purifier for your needs.

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