Tag - clean air purifier filter

01 Nov

Air purifiers at traffic intersections: Experts call it mere band-aid fix

In a rather desperate move to counter the severe air pollution in Delhi, the government wants to install air purifiers at traffic intersections. But experts feel the idea is flawed on various counts. While this is more of a band-aid solution that doesn’t bring down vehicular emissions, the system may also not be as effective in “purifying” polluted air.

Each device, it is claimed, helps purify the air of up to 40% pollutants, including particulate matter, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons, over a 30-metre radius. However, the results when the New Delhi Municipal Council installed a similar air purifier in Connaught Place in 2010 weren’t great, and the machine was soon dismantled.


“It did not prove very effective. You have to understand that the air purifier has to have a huge capacity to be able to filter all the pollution,” an NDMC official told TOI. “We installed it more for demonstration and did not even pay the company then.” He, however, added that NDMC was now thinking of reassessing the effectiveness of the machine because air quality has deteriorated so much.

The air purifiers being currently considered by Delhi government are a bit different. They have been designed by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) and IIT Mumbai and manufactured by a Kerala-based company. These can filter particulate matter, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons. The team is working on filtration of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) too, but that may take over a year. Delhi government’s press release on Friday said though that they could monitor NOx as well.

Each purifier costs Rs 1 lakh or so. A busy intersection could require up to five of them, depending on the area being covered. On trial in Mumbai at present, the results could determine whether the Maharashtra government will deploy them in parts of that city. A Maharashtra Pollution Control Board official said the trial for a single installation cost them about Rs 20 lakh.

“The system also creates turbulence that helps pollutants to disperse, which is helpful in Delhi’s calm winter when pollutants tend to remain concentrated near the road surface,” elaborated Rakesh Kumar, director, NEERI. The purifiers run on electricity, but can be operated on solar power too. Each machine being test run in Mumbai costs just around Rs 30 a day. China is planning to operate similar purifiers in some locations on a pilot test.

Experts, however, are not too taken by the idea of using the machines. “Air purifiers are definitely not effective, though virtual chimneys that create turbulence may help a little,” said a scientist at an air pollution monitoring agency.

Another expert, Anumita Roy Chowdhury, head of the clean air campaign at the Centre for Science and Environment, said that the use of machines to purify air at a few traffic intersections was a cosmetic measure at best. “The money could have been used more productively to reduce pollution from different sources,” she said. “We cannot afford to make expensive mistakes.”

 

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28 Oct

Housing, education, immigration, healthcare: How smog alters Chinese lifestyles

Continuous haze over China’s urban areas is prodding more Chinese to mull their options in coping with the country’s air pollution crisis.

Beijing air pollution

Growing numbers of rich and middle-class Chinese are considering moving to less-developed areas in China or leaving the country entirely due to air pollution. Some have bought real estate in Hainan Island and western Yunnan province. Others have purchased houses in Jeju Island in Korea and Chiang Mai in Thailand as second homes.

Such real estate purchases cannot be correlated statistically with the bad air problem. But the heavy haze has undoubtedly made some Chinese cities and towns less suitable for living.

Some households who can’t afford to leave are also adopting practical strategies to deal with the problem. Electronic air cleaners, for example, have become indispensable items in places like offices, bedrooms, restaurants and cars. Some folks put on masks imported from abroad and change them every day. 

Some people completely ignore the haze because of financial limitations. Express delivery men, cab drivers, cleaning workers endure prolonged exposure to air pollution to keep their jobs and make ends meet. Under the haze, life is not equal in China. In theory, all people breathe the “same air.” But because of disparities in social class, haze-impacted lifestyles have become increasingly differentiated.

Schools for children from rich families have air cleaners

Air purifiers for sale in Chinese store

Now that breathing clean air has become a luxury, people with middle- and upper-incomes can pay to protect themselves. For example, the International School of Beijing has spent $50 million to build two brand-new gyms with air cleaning systems.

This allows them to exercise without being exposed to polluted air from the outside. The practice is being imitated by other international schools. Tuition in these schools ranges from 100 to 200 thousand yuan per year putting them within reach to only a limited number of Chinese. 

Five-star hotels in China such as Hyatt have begun to install air cleaning systems in their guest rooms.  Since 2013, some multinationals have also started to pay air pollution allowances for foreign employees. Their Chinese employees, however, do not enjoy the same benefit.

Children from poor families are exposed to polluted air

State-owned China Daily reported recently that it will take a few more decades for China’s Air Quality Index to meet internationally acknowledged standards. One parent said that “this means that children in Beijing will now grow up breathing polluted air.” These children will pay more for such exposure. For example, they will have to visit the hospitals often, won’t have the opportunity to exercise outside, and won’t be able to bathe in sufficient sunlight throughout the year. 

Insurance companies also see a business opportunity in the haze hazard. People’s Insurance Company of China (PICC) formerly offered Beijing residents insurance cover against health risks caused by air pollution, promising to pay out 1,500 yuan ($240) to policy holders hospitalized by smog.

he policy, available for people aged 10 to 50, also paid out 300 yuan when the city’s official smog index exceeds 300 for five consecutive days, a level considered “hazardous.” Regulators later fined PICC because it changed the insurance policy without official authorization and cancelled the insurance scheme and others like it.

Selling the family house in Beijing

Chinese film director Zhangke Jia has said he is determined to leave Beijing because of the haze. Places like Sanya, Dali, Xiamen, as well as Chiang Mai in Thailand, Jeju Island in Korea and Singapore have become popular destinations for Chinese people suffering from polluted air.

Despite a lack of government statistics on the subject, it is now common knowledge that the haze problem in northern China is impacting the local real estate market. An example is urban residents buying property in place like Hainan Province which faces the Gulf of Tonkin.

According to data from  the China Real Estate Information Corporation, the majority of new property owners in Hainan are from Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Shanxi, as well as other areas of northeastern China. House prices in Sanya, a resort area on Hainan Island, have climbed to 20 thousand yuan per square meter. Clean air is the obvious attraction. 

China’s elite increasingly relocates overseas

In addition to social mobility, educational resources and social welfare, the “no haze” factor has become a key motivation for Chinese immigrating abroad. According to Forbes, those eligible to be part of China’s rich classes numbered 15,28 million in 2015. These very affluent Chinese are stirring another wave of overseas immigration to escape polluted air in China.

In another revelation, a 2014 Hurun Report disclosed that 64% of Chinese people who have more than $1.6 million dollars to their name have moved or will be moving abroad. Pollution and food safety were given as the two most critical reasons for the exodus. 

“If environmental degradation continues, mid- and upper-income class (as well as low-income but younger age groups) will inevitably move abroad. This resembles the immigration wave during wartime. No one can stop it, because the need for security is the basic need of human beings,” said Chinese economist Dingding Wang.    

China’s model has made people richer, but air dirtier

Shanghai skyline

The country’s real estate and vehicle sectors have gunned the engines of GDP growth. But these industries have wrought irreversible environmental damage. Recent articles in the Chinese media have pointed out that investment in low-cost, high-pollution industries has contributed enormously to Chinese economy in past decades.

However, as the rich urban middle class has reaped the benefits, they are also paying the cost in environmental terms.

Responding the this situation, the Chinese government in 2015 revised its official manual on air pollution under emergent conditions. It was the first revision since the manual was published in 2013.

Currently, when the Air Quality Index surpasses a reading of 200 for 72 hours, the government will publicly declare a “red alert.” Under such conditions, industries will be encouraged to suspend manufacturing, vehicles will be placed under operating restrictions, and kindergarten as well as elementary and middle schools will suspend classes. 

The New York Times once pointed out that air pollution had made Chinese people more equal. Some Chinese media say the opposite is the case. For example, under the new “red alert,” children from lower-income families will be breathing polluted air, while those from the upper class will be able to turn on the air-cleaning system in their home. Even some rich Chinese people are buying fresh air by going to Canada. Who says money can’t buy happiness? For some Chinese, they think it can.

 

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24 Oct

One-quarter of air purifiers fall short of quality standard

One-quarter of air purifiers sold on the domestic market are substandard, an inspection by China’s top quality authority showed.

The inspection, conducted in the first half of this year, found 15 of the 61 batches of products were substandard, according to the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

Baoding East Railway Station is seen in Baoding, north China's Hebei Province, Oct. 19, 2016. A yellow alert for air pollution was issued on Wednesday in Hebei Province. (Xinhua/Wang Xiao)

This is the first time that the administration has organized a national quality inspection aimed at air purifiers, and the inspection covered most well-known air purifier brands available in China, said Zhang Wenbing, chief for quality supervision at the administration.

The inspection covered nearly 20 percent of China’s air purifier producers, and of the models by big enterprises, 90 percent were up to standard, much higher than average, according to the administration.

No products by big brands such as Honeywell, Samsung and Midea were found to be substandard.

However, purifiers made by Chinese firms Guangdong Jingba Technology Co. and Shanghai Xinsong Electronics Co. were found to be substandard, due to respective issues of failing to remove methanol and failing noise standards.

“Results of the inspection can provide the basis for consumers to choose air purifiers,” said Song Guangsheng, director of the National Quality Supervision and Inspection Center for Indoor Environment and Environmental Products.

With increasing demand for purifiers in recent years, the number of producers has also risen, but many purifiers on the market may not work as well as advertised, he said.

“Many air purifier brands claim to be able to remove methanol, but in fact, few of them are able to do so,” Song said.

In the first half of the year, 4.5 million air purifiers were sold in China, 58 percent more than the same period last year, according to media reports.

Zhang Xiao, an inspector at the National Quality Inspection Center for Household Electrical Appliances, said China has strict quality standards for air purifiers, and some key indexes include noise level, capacity to remove pollutants and purifiers’ toxic emissions.

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13 Oct

Outdoor Air Purifier Makes Your Wait for the Bus 40% Less Smoggy

China’s campaign to wipe out air pollution reduced the levels of dangerous particulate matter in the air by 11 percent last year, according to the Ministry of Environment. But the country still has a long way to go before the air its citizens breathe every day can be considered healthy. Only eight out of the 74 cities surveyed met basic national air quality standards.

OLS-K06C

In the meantime, public awareness is rising. Pollution masks are hot commodities and startups making new models for indoor air purifiers are driving prices down. Now, a new invention currently being tested in Hong Kong claims it can reduce air pollution in an open outdoor space by an average of 40 percent (h/t to Techweb).

Under the prototype of the patent-pending system, air is drawn into the system from the inlet located at bottom. The air current then passes through a bag filter, which is effective in removing fine suspended particles (PM10 and PM2.5), before coming out through the Louvre overhead.

Hong Kong has been testing 2 meter-by-3 meter purification station on one of its busiest streets, queen’s Road East in Causeway Bay, since March. Sino Green tells Tech in Asia one unit costs HKD 600,000 (US$77,400 million). (Update: an earlier version of this story referenced the Techweb article that said the project cost US$10 million to develop. Sino Green has informed us that figure is not accurate.)

Air quality at the station can be monitored remotely. Further planned enhancements include smart controllers to manage operating hours more efficiently, solar panels for energy, and a mist cooling system for summer months.

Techweb says the City Air Purification System will be tested at Beijing’s Tsinghua University next. If all goes as expected, it could expand to other mainland cities in the future.

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12 Oct

What to Look for When Shopping for an Air Purifier

A lot of people worry about the air they breathe. With all of the cars on the road and factories spewing out toxins, air pollution is pretty bad. What a lot of people don’t realize is that indoor air pollution can be even worse than the pollution outside.

Indoors we have to deal with things like dust, pet dander, mold spores, pollen, volatile organic compounds, fumes from cleaning products and other household chemicals, the list goes on and on. Some of the things floating around in the air inside your home can trigger allergic reactions, and some things can actually make you very sick.

K07透视5_副本

Because indoor air pollution is such a big problem, buying a good air purifier would be a wise investment and on this page we’re going to tell you what you should look for when shopping for an air purifier.

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03 Sep

How to maintain air purifier?

The pre-filter (typically back cover) after using for a long time, will gather some of the dust, thus affect air inlet and air purification effect. Therefore, need to use a vacuum cleaner to suck away the dust, or use a rag to clean up, or even water to wash.
The filters,some of the filters need to be periodically exposed under sun to better maintain the purification efficiency, such as activated carbon filters.
Deodorizing filter, some brands’ odor removal filter can be water washed. Can maintain longer filter lift time by washing filters with water.

The ion generator, generally it is built-in, does not require cleaning, ion generator with good quality can , it’s efficiency are high.
4. Air purifier dust filter dust collection plates need regular cleaning, general cleaning once a week. Wash dust filter or collection plates with soap, install it after they are dry to keep the airflow smooth and sanitation.

Olansi K15B Air Purifier

Olansi K15B Air Purifier

Need to clean fan or electrode when they accumulate certain amount of dust. General maintenance every six months. Use long-haired brush to remove dust on fan or electrodes. When the air purifier is not in use, should clean it and then packed into the box, stored in a ventilated, dry place. Usually should pay attention to moisture, so as not to reduce the efficiency due to damp or damaged.

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