Does an air purifier help prevent the spread of Covid disease?

As part of the study, the air purifiers were tested, which were equipped with a top HEPA filter of the H13 class, ie exactly the same as our Airbi SPRING, Airbi SPACE, Airbi GUARD or Airbi SPONGE purifiers. These purifiers were located in one of the school classrooms in Wiesbaden, Germany, along with a very sensitive indicator of airborne particles. As a result, the scrubbers removed up to 90% of all aerosols the students exhaled in 30 minutes. And given the risk that these aerosols pose as potential carriers for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, this is very important information for anyone moving in a closed environment with other people.

The figure describes the effect of individual levels of filtration in a school classroom with a size of 186 m³.
Blue line - the air purifier is switched off
Green line - air filtration effect 4x per hour
Black line - air filtration effect 5.5x per hour
Red line - air filtration effect 8 times per hour

Of course, in the case of air purifiers, it always depends significantly on the air output, resp. on how many times the purifier can filter the air in the room in one hour. Research shows that if 5.5 per hour can do this, the concentration of aerosols in the air is reduced by more than 95% after only 37 minutes and the risk of infection is six times lower. The researchers tested the efficiency of the purifiers at different air outputs, and found that in order for the filtration effect to be sufficient, it is necessary for the air in the room to be filtered 4-10 times per hour.

Therefore, if you share an office of 50 m³ (approx. 20 m² at normal ceiling height), you should purchase an air purifier with an air output of at least 200 m³ / h to be able to clean the room air 4 times an hour. However, we ideally recommend purchasing an Airbi SPRING cleaner, which has an air output of 320 m³, so it cleans your office 6.4 times per hour. For larger spaces, we recommend the Airbi SPACE cleaner with a capacity of 800 m³ / h, which is more suitable for school classrooms and classrooms or open space offices.

Vysokokapacitní čistička vzduchu Airbi SPACE

However, it should be emphasized again that the use of an air purifier is most effective if it is complemented by regular ventilation and sufficient hygiene habits. The virus is unpredictable and there is no 100% protection against it.

Source: J. Curtius, Testing mobile air purifiers in a school classroom: Reducing the airborne transmission risk for SARS-CoV-2,
online: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.02.20205633v2.full.pdf