How Long To Run Air Purifier In Bedroom

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While a residential air purifier provides you with much better air quality, you should know whether or not there are limits to its use. One of the limits is the question of how long you should keep it on in your bedroom while you’re sleeping.

We will take a look at this device and whether it will improve or impair sleep quality if you keep it on for too long. Some people may decide to start it up when they go to bed and let it run until it is dry or the whole night.

Keep on reading and find out whether you should keep your air purifier running all the time while you sleep.

Table of Contents

For How Long Should You Keep the Air Purifier On?
- How Large an Area Does It Need To Purify?
- How Long Does It Take To Purify the Air?

For How Long Should You Keep the Air Purifier On?

Some people believe that you should keep an air purifier running the whole day to get the best benefits. Others may claim that running it for at least 12 hours should provide you with clean and healthy air.

Then there are those who believe you should only run the purifier in your bedroom for one to two hours at night. There are many factors to keep in mind when it comes to these devices that clean the air from airborne pollutants.

Investigate with us all the factors that need to be considered to keep the air in your home – especially in your bedroom – healthy.

How Large an Area Does It Need To Purify?

To determine how long you should run an air purifier, you must know the size of the room and the extraction rate of the device. In most cases, a purifier will take about 30-120 minutes to complete the air exchange cycle for the square footage listed by the manufacturer.

If your purifier can clean 120 square feet in one hour, it will purify the air of a 240 square feet room in two hours. You should look at the device’s specifications and measure the room you want to purify to calculate for yourself.

This calculation will help to determine how long it will take to remove most of the airborne particles from the air in a room.

How Long Does It Take To Purify the Air?

Most people ask how long air purifier units will take to clean a standard-sized bedroom. In order to improve indoor air quality, your device should run long enough to clean the air from all airborne pollutants and airborne irritants.

To be safe, you need the unit to run for at least six hours per day so it will complete more than one air exchange. You can run it the whole day if you change the speed of the unit to run slower at some point of the day.

You may need to run the device longer during pollen season to eliminate most of the airborne particulate matter. The aim is to improve the air quality level in your home and specifically in the bedroom for good quality sleep.

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Keep in mind that many high-end purifiers come equipped with an air quality indicator to inform you of the current status of the air.

Modern air purifier in the bedroom by the bed

Should You Sleep With the Purifier On?

Most people prefer to sleep with the purifier on all night while they sleep to get the best benefit from it. If you are a light sleeper, this might be a problem if the purifier is too close to where you sleep.

It is also safe to sleep with the purifier on to have a more peaceful sleep at night. Many purifier units come with a setting to auto switch off after one or two hours to give you a chance to fall asleep.

It is good to sleep with it on so it can work all night to purify the air and remove all pollutants from the air. Leaving it on will also help reduce the chances of congestion and irritating effects of allergens in the indoor air.

If your purifier unit comes with a silent mode, nothing stops you from having pure air to breathe all night long.

How To Improve The Effectiveness Of Your Purifier

There are a number of methods you can use to increase the benefits you get from your purifying unit.

It is not advisable to move the purifier around from one room to another; keep it running in one room only.

Keep windows and doors closed to reduce the number of indoor air irritants by preventing low outdoor air quality from interfering with indoor air.
You should keep the purifier unit running for as long as possible so it can circulate the air a few times.
Keep the purifier away from corners so that the four sides and top are not obstructed; place it in the middle of the room.

It would be best if you also kept it in a place where it will be more effective and where the air moves the most.
When you are not home, you can keep the purifier on but let it run at a slower speed to be more energy efficient.
Your purifying unit is over 30 percent more efficient if you keep the windows closed in the room where you want clean air.

Keep your carbon filters and Hepa filters clean; you should clean them at least once a week to be safe.
To improve circulation in the room, you can use a fan with the purifier to increase the effectiveness.

Will It Use A Lot Of Electricity?

A purifier unit uses about 40 watts and up to 200 watts at the highest fan settings, which is not that high compared to other devices. If you think about it, a standard light bulb uses between 60 and 100 watts, and they are on most of the time.

Your laptop uses about 50 watts and a refrigerator uses 150 watts. If you run your purifier unit at a low setting, it uses little power. When running it at the lowest fan setting, the purifier will use 10 to 30 watts.

Running the purifier all day will add only about $4 to $15 per month to the electricity bill. You can see it is pretty energy-efficient, so it will not have much of an impact on your electricity bill.

Hints To Keep Indoor Air Clean

If you’d like to make the job of the purifier unit a bit easier, there are other ways to help keep the airborne pollutants much lower. Using these methods may help increase the air quality level in your home and lower the chances of allergic reactions.

Use blinds instead of curtains in the bedrooms and living room because they attract much less dust and air pollutants.
To reduce the amount of dirt coming in from outside, you can encourage people to remove their shoes before entering.
You can also place a floor mat in the entrance to the room you want to keep clean from air contaminants.

There are several methods to add indoor air cleaning options for those who have an HVAC system in their homes.
Regular cleaning with a powerful vacuum cleaner will help remove dust mites and other dust-related contaminants from the carpet in your home.

Summary

As you can see, it is safe to run an air purifier unit all night long in your bedroom if you prefer to do so. It will not increase your electricity bill to have healthy air to breathe while you sleep.

So, keep it running and enjoy a peaceful rest while your purifier cleans the air.