I recently got an air quality monitor, which was eye opening.
Generally, the air in my area is pretty good (sub 10 on the PPM2.5); especially when it rains.
That said, on days where I get pollen alerts on the swiss pollen app, or when I … ahem… “overcook” something in the oven/toaster, this jumps up immediately. The worst seems to be the oven self-cleaning cycle, which sends the PPM count over 400.
I also saw the radon map that BAG produces: https://www.bag.admin.ch/bag/en/home…ebiete-ch.html
(hoping the image works)
I haven’t put a radon tester in the cellar, but I will do at some point… From what I can tell, this cannot be purified out, and can only be vented to the air with good cellar ventilation.
Which brings me to my next point - air purifiers.
What do people use? From the other thread, I saw the HP07 was popular, but it’s also about 4x more expensive that anything else. The IQ air one seems to be the best “medical grade” - but looks massive… and ugly…
I have a Philips Air+ and a Filtration Group Silentcare. The latter one is rather big though.
We open the windows regularly. Works fine for us.
It's a bugger if you're a hay-fever sufferer, though. My husband developed it about 3 summers ago and the air purifier in the bedroom is the only thing that gives him a peaceful night, and means he doesn't have to hammer the anti-histamines.
Which is exactly why we bought these as well. Opening the windows only makes it worse.
I think the most important things are that it is rightsized to the volume of your home (flow), uses HEPA filters, and noise.
If you own the place, you could consider investing in a mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery, like the ones in minergie houses, better if it has humidity control. It removes the need to open the windows completely.
Noise I wasn't considering, thanks!
I was also looking for something that captures VOCs (carbon filters) as it seems like that's the area I get the most impact from.
Opening a window is great, except that there's pollen + if you are near trains or roads or farms - the air isn't that clean
We have a Xiaomi Air Purifier 3 which costs a couple of hundred if you shop around, it is very quiet.
Replacement HEPA filters with active carbon cost from CHF 30.
As soon as we open a door or a window we see the ppm count shoot up.
My wife is a mild hay fever sufferer and quickly notices the difference when we step outside.
Edit: It not only has a digital ppm display but also temperature and humidity.
I have this one https://mi-store.ch/produkt/xiaomi-s…ifier-4-white/
We don’t really suffer from allergies, but this thing does a good job of filtering dust and such and is very quiet. We have it in the living room which tends to be really dusty especially when the windows are open. Since we got this we have to dust much less often and the air quality is quite good when it is running.
I have this Philips Series 800 air purifier in my bedroom, and it seems to clean the air very well when ran on high for an hour before bed (my room is 17 m2). It also has a low mode which is almost silent. I’ve been very happy with it. It can clean the air in a room up to 49 m2 I guess.
https://www.galaxus.ch/de/s2/product…E&gclsrc=aw.ds
I’m pretty sure it’s even cheaper on amazon.de, though then it would have a German plug. The HEPA air filter is supposed to be changed roughly every 6 months, but that depends on how often you use it. If you don’t use it daily, you don’t have to change the filter as often. There’s an indicator light that comes on to tell you when the filter needs changed.
I have 05. One in each room and yet I Suffer.....maybe because I live near a forest