HEPA filters have now become an essential part of any cleaning equipment wether it is your vacuum cleaner or Air Filter.
Airborne allergens are an ugly part of life and 99 percent of these are invisible to the naked eye.
I personally have suffered quite frequently from the effects of hayfever with a runny or blocked nose, irritable eyes and an annoying cough which just won't go away.
You can't really tackle the problem whilst outdoors but you can do something about it at home.
Lets see what these HEPA Filters can do for you in your home to fight the invisible nasties that cause some people incredible discomfort and can even lead to hospitalisation for some.
ALL home contain airborne allergens such as pollen, dust and Feces from dust mites - YUCK, what a thought! HOW DID HEPA FILTERS BEGIN? These amazing Filters were originally developed by necessity in the 1940s to capture airborne radioactive particles as part of the Manhattan project.
These benefits of these incredible filters were then commercialised in the 1950s and the name HEPA was trademarked.
What is a HEPA Filter? It is a filter is composed of a mat of randomly arranged fibres, much the same a fibreglass.
These fibres are made primarily from fiberglass with minuscule diameters of between 0.
5 and 2.
0 micron.
The key factors that effect the performance of a HEPA filter are the diameter of the fibre, the thickness of the filter and the face velocity.
The air space between some HEPA filter fibres is much greater than 0.
3 μm.
A common assumption made by many is that a HEPA filter acts like a sieve and that particles smaller than the the largest opening are allowed to pass through.
This is incorrect.
These Filters are designed to target the smallest partciles and airborne pollutants which when passed through the filter, are trapped via a system of combination of three separate mechanisms: INTERCEPTION Interception a process where particles following a particluar line of flow in an air stream come within the radius of a particluar fibre then adhere to it.
IMPACTION Impaction is a system where the larger airborne particles are physically unable to avoid the HEPA filters fibres when following the curving contours of the air stream.
As they are unable to follow the airstream, they are then forced to embed in one of these fibres directly.
This effect then increases with diminishing fibre separation and higher air flow velocity.
DIFFUSION Diffusion is a mechanism whereby particles of below 0.
1 Micron in diameter are forced to collide with Gas mollecules.
This collision thereby impedes and delays the pollutants path through the HEPA filter.
So lets RECAP! DIFFUSION - is effective in capturing particles with a diameter of 0.
1 Microns or less.
IMPACTION and INTERCEPTION - effective in capturing particles above 0.
4 Microns DIFFUSION and INTERCEPTION - work in conjuctions to eliminated particles between 0.
1 and 0.
3 Microns I trust that this explains why HEPA Filters are the BEES KNEES when it comes to helping you cope with household airborne allergens and dust.
I wish you the very best of Health and hope to see you at our Health Shop Megastore soon! YOURS IN HEALTH DEAN CATO