In today's challenging and aggressive business environment, providing comfortable and pleasant occupational surroundings has become essential to improve employee productivity and retention. Both customers and employees demand that their work environs be clean, healthy and comfortable. A crucial element of cleanliness is the air that we live in and breathe be free of impurities, allergens and contaminants.

In an industrial society, where activities of a business enterprise are carried out in the confines of an office, employees spend the better part of their day breathing the same recirculated air. Outdoor air and noise and air pollution inhibit us from letting fresh air through the windows and thus offices today rely on mechanical or electrical air purifiers to keep the air fresh, and free of contagions and dust.

Commercial or office air purifiers have the ability to undertake the most difficult air cleaning tasks. They are also designed to be used in large spaces like meeting rooms and offices and are able to remove a large variety of airborne particles like dust, pollen, and other allergens; pet dander; harmful bacteria and viruses; pet odor and other smells; mold and mildew; cigar and cigarette smoke. Since they are able to remove heavy odors from they air, they can make a previously undesirable space, like a smoking room, clean and pleasant to be in.

Air purifiers in the office also reduce utility costs by keeping the air conditioning coils clean and destratifying heated or cooled air. They are ideal for control rooms, laboratories, conference rooms, office areas, family rooms, recreational venues, hospitals and nursing home facilities. Also, because of their capacity to remove all types of odors, they are often used in hotel rooms, to deodorize meeting rooms and bathrooms and convert smoking rooms into non-smoking zones.

Air purifiers can be designed for individual rooms or for the whole office. You can even install an air-purifier or air-filtration system in the office heating or air conditioning unit. The effectiveness of the air-purifier is affected by the air-flow, so if the office is split into many rooms then separate air-purifiers may be needed for each cubicle or room.

How to determine the size of the air-purifier needed?

To determine what size of air purifier is needed, you need to look for the CADR (Clean Air Delivery Rate) number. This is a measure of air cleaning effectiveness and it computes how many cubic feet per minute of air are rid of three different sized particles: minute (smoke), medium (dust), and large (pollen). The higher the rating, the lesser the time that it takes the unit to remove these particles. Also, ideally the CADR number should be equal to at least two thirds the total square footage of the room the air-purifier will be required to clean.