You just bought an air purifier which is great because you are going to start breathing clean air into your body.
The next question that will pop into your mind is:
How long do I run my air purifier?
The ideal answer is always 24 hours a day if you are always at home. However, if you spend most of your time at work, you should click here to read the guide for using an air purifier occasionally.
This also means that you should run your air purifier all day and night long without turning it off.
The reason is very simple. As the clean air will get contaminated again within 3-4 hours’ time if you had left your air purifier turned off.
Therefore, it is highly advisable to run the air purifier 24 hours a day.
How much does it cost to run an air purifier?
An air purifier works just like any electronic appliance in your home.
Below is how you calculate the cost of running an air purifier:
Cost = Power Consumption of the unit (kW) x Rate of Electricity ($/kWh) x Hours of Operation
where:
Power Consumption of the unit (Watt) – This information can be found in your air purifier specifications.
The rate of Electricity ($/kWh) – You should be able to find this information in your electricity bill.
Hours of Operation – Pretty self-explanatory.
For instance:
The cost to operate an air purifier which has the power consumption of 40W (o.04 kW) for 30 days (720 hours) with the rate of electricity at 0.10 is:
Cost: 0.04 x 0.10 x 720 = $2.88
Should I run my air purifier if I am not at home most of the time?
First and foremost, I advise you to calculate the cost of running the air purifier all year long above to see if the cost is acceptable.
This is because the air in your room will get contaminated again once you turn off the air purifier and you will have to start with the air cleaning stage and maintenance stage after again.
Therefore, if you can afford the air purifier to turn on all year long, remain it that way.
However, if you are not at home most of the time and figured out that you could save some money by switching off your air purifier, you can get a smart air purifier where you can power up your air purifier an hour before you reach your home.
This way, you will get clean indoor air when you are at home.
Step #1
When using the air purifier in contaminated air, power up your unit and set the speed to the highest.
This should remain for at least 1-2 hours and is highly dependent on the coverage of your air purifier.
If your air purifier is designed to cover 500 square feet, then it will take about an hour to cover half of that area and it is advisable to run this twice to completely cover the area.
Step #2
After cleaning the air, you can switch your unit to medium or low speed to maintain the surrounding air.
You should never turn off your air purifier if you want to maintain it at medium or low speed.
Whenever you have to leave your home for a long period of time, you can consider turning it off but once you return back to home, you should repeat step #1 first before setting your air purifier to the medium or low setting.
Should I turn off my air purifier when I sleep?
No. Simply because when you are asleep, you are still breathing.
If you ever want a good quality sleep, the air you breathe while you sleep is very important.
By powering up the air purifier, it helps you to get rid of bacteria, pollen, and dust during your sleep and helps you to improve your sleep quality.
As a result, it is strongly advisable to leave your air purifier on during your sleeping time.
Should I open my windows with my air purifier on?
This question is very subjective because it depends on the air quality surrounding your home.
Keep your windows closed at all times if the air is very polluted and just let your air purifier to do the job.
However, if the air is not polluted, it is encouraged to let fresh air flow into your house from time to time and then close the window back after.
Conclusion
Remember the air purifier is not a magic tool.
You can’t have clean air in your house with just an air purifier.
You need to have a good habit of keeping yourself clean to prevent polluted air into your home.
If you are serious about having clean air in your home, you should consider these cleaning tips to maintain clean air in your home.
You should also consider checking the air quality in your home to ensure that your air purifier is working as it should be.
Last but not least, do check out my post on the best air purifier in the market.
Thank you very much for this info.
I’ve purchased a hepa filter for the furnace,,and I’ve replaced the filters in my floor vents,,
Thank you for the terrific article
This is truly helpful, thanks.
I really good information about finding an air purifier. I want to find a good one to use because I have terrible allergies. I like that you pointed out that I should find a unit that I can have run while I sleep.
I bought one from Home Depot that has a sleep mode on ot
Thanks for the wonderful article
This is truly useful, thanks.
Thanks for the terrific guide
I’m thinking of buying a medical grade purifier from an online store. However, I’ve been thinking about how long I should run it. As you’ve mentioned, the ideal amount is as long as I’m at home, so I’ll make sure that it’s running if I’m at home.
i have 6 cats indoors many odors, cat box’s other ongoing all day smells, bacteria, if i turn it of or down, would it still clean the air? for it’s the 24/7 cats preducing most of it.
It’s really a great article about air purifier. Thanks admin for providing so much info about air purifier’s. You must also check Honeywell Air Purifier For Better Results.
Always wandered if I should run the air purifier all day. Thanks for the good advice.
I have not asked this before so don’t say I have..If you don’t have essential oils, can you use a little vanilla in the air purifier?
As you mentioned, it is a good idea to run your air purifier 24 hours a day. I didn’t realize that air can become recontaminated within 3-4 hours of turning off the air purifier. My son seems to have many allergies, I will have to see if running an air purifier in the home will help with them.
This helped a lot. Thank you very much.
How long should an air purifier be run, power consumption and cost of changing the filter are few of the basic queries potential customers have in mind. This article is worth a read before buying an air purifier for your home.
How do I keep the air purifier on 24 hours?
How do I run my air purifier for 24 hours? What do I need to do. Right now I set it for 8 hours but when that runs out it does not come on automatically. Please help.
Hi Zariah
Which Air Purifier you are using? Probably the timer doesn’t work for you.
Great article! I found it very interesting because it talks about good information about how long we should run the air purifier. But we need to put in mind that it is also important to make sure the purifier does not overheat. Thanks for the information.
Thanks!
Thank you for an excellent article. I just received my first air purifier Toshiba CAF-W36USW. I put it together and found it simple and easy to do. Upon looking though, I found no directions on how to use this and for how often! As a new person on this I had no clue. I am thrilled that I found your informative information! Also the recommendation to have it turned on a couple hours prior to returning home, was helpful as I don’t like leaving things on due to a lightening bolt hitting a sugar maple next door. It then traveled to my house and blew out all appliance that were plugged into the front wall. So, as am happy you gave another person a suggestion if they don’t want it running 25 hrs a day. Thanks again!