In case you are considering buying an air purifier, one of the most common questions that might pop in your mind is, “Do air purifiers make the room cold?” This might be a major concern to you, since you might not want your room becoming cold. Or you might want an air purifier that can cool your room even as it cleans up your indoor air, probably because you live in a hot climate.
Well, the answer to this is a short no. And in this article, we will break it down for you. It requires understanding of how air purifiers function in order to get the answer to this question.
Are Air Purifiers The Same As Fans?
The short answer is no. There is a common myth about air purifiers, where people think they function in the same ways as fans, because they have a system of circulating air. But that is not the case.
The primary purpose for air purifiers is to clean the air you breathe. This will eventually make a major difference on the volume of air they will clean at a specific point in time. The standard electrical fan, on the other hand, has no restriction on the air it circulates. This allows the air to cool faster because the air is not under purification.
Air purifiers are basically a fan system that has a filter added in it. It will consist of between one to three filters. The more filters it has, the slower the air moves – and the less impact you will feel, because the purifier is filtering air over the course of several stages.
If you want to check the airflow that your prospective purifier can churn out in a span of time, you should check the CADR rating, which is an acronym for Clean Air Delivery Rate. This rating will tell you the strength of an air purifier when it is blowing air across a room through the flow of air, measured in cfm (cubic feet per minute).
There is an exception to getting an air purifier to cool a room down, and this is Dyson air purifiers. They will add extra cooling fan power that cools down the room, in addition to purifying the air itself.
Do Air Purifiers Make A Room Cold?
As we mentioned earlier, air purifiers are only meant to clean a room. So they will not cool down air. Neither will they act like air conditioners, whose main job is to lower the temperature of the air through the use of a cooling unit.
The only reason you might feel cold air through the purifier is because its system can actually pull and push air through its two-dimensional fan. Thanks to the circulation of air, the room will feel cooler. But that will only happen when the purifier has less filters to work with, or if its CADR rating is quite high.
Other Facts To Keep In Mind
In addition, not all air purifiers will use the system of a fan inside their structuring to pull air through and move it along the filtration process. Some will rely on other methods of purification, such as ionization of convection, in order to clean the air around them. In addition, the air purifiers that have fans might have very low CADR. This means that they hardly have any effect on the air temperature, because the air is pushing out with very little force.
This brings us to the classification of air purifiers, which are the following.
Air purifiers without fans and those without filters
There are a few exceptions to the rule, but many filter-less purifiers actually lack fans within the system. These include the UV and ionizing purifiers, which rely on UV rays and ionization to achieve the goal of air purification. This also means that they do not contain any cooling technology. So you can disqualify them from the list.
Air purifiers that have fans and those that have filters
If an air purifier has a filtration system, then they must have a fan that comes along with it. The purpose of the fan is to suck in air into the system, then move it along as the filters do the rest of the cleaning work. The clean air is then allowed to pass, as the fan pushes it out.
Now, while these will create some kind of breeze due to the airflow, it is important to note that they will not necessarily cool the air in general. Unless the fan is very strong, and creates sufficient breeze. In addition, convection will also have a role, as the hot air rises and cooler air replaces it. So the room will cool down if the purifier’s fan is strong enough to induce convection to a large scale. However, this is not the case for most air purifiers, because they do not have the same capacity.
Air Purifiers Lack A Cooling Unit
For a room to cool down on a particularly hot day, there needs to be some kind of cooling mechanism, which is why air conditioners exist. The air conditioner does not just blow air through the room. It will cool it down first, then blows it out repeatedly until the air cools down and the room becomes cold.
Air purifiers though, never come with cooling units in their systems. Therefore, you should not expect them on their own to cool down your room and lower the overall temperature.
Things You Can Do Instead
- Instead purchasing a purifier alone, add a basic fan along with the package and run both at the same time. However, make sure to switch off your fan when you go to sleep. The cool air can cause you to get a sore throat the following morning if you leave it on.
- Buy a portable air cooler along with the air purifier
- Buy a combo air purifier
Final Thoughts
Air purifiers cannot make your room cool on their own. So you will need to purchase additional cooling equipment if you wish to do so. The good thing is that this equipment is relatively affordable and portable, so you will not need to struggle with carrying them around.
