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I live in a very smokey and dry area where people are advised to use air purifiers. Since it's also dry I'm curious what affects, if any, adding a humidifier to a room with an air purifier would have?

When I looked into it, it seems like moisture can affect pollution and actually bring it down to the ground level e.g creating smog, so it seems like adding a humidifier to a room with an air purifier must have some effect but what that effect would be is hard to figure out.

  • Would the increased humidity cause particles to stick to the water and be easier to pick up by an air filter?
  • Would it just help my body absorb the pollution better and not the filter at all so it's actually worse?
  • Nothing, something, else?

Any concrete advice would, of course, be appreciated too, like:

  • Do NOT run a humidifier
  • Run a humidifier but only if it's an atomizer
  • Run a humidifier but only in front of your air purifier to pull pollution out quicker
  • Etc

Thanks for the time!

joeyfb
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1 Answers1

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This is an old thread, I found it while searching for the word "humidifier" (for another question).

This will not be an accurate answer, but I can share my experience as I have worked this out in my apartment and built several rigs that heat, humidify and purify the air.

It all depends what RH you need. If you want RH around 50%, I humidify before purification. If I want RH to be close to 90% (unlikely for you?), I run the humidifier after purification (but not the atomizer type -- see below).

I have a whole-apartment system that heats, brings the humidity up about 20% RH points to about 50%, then HEPA-filters the air, carbon-filters it, and redistributes the air into key places (the bedroom, for example). The RH50% makes the air comfortable to breathe, but not too high to cause mold growth. The humidifier is a steam type, and it runs inside of a "buffer room" which then filters the air and targets it wherever using ducts. Since RH stays under 50%, the rain-out does not happen. Efficiency of filtration is not affected (confirmed with an LPC)

I also have a smaller breathing device that first filters the air (HEPA and carbon), and then heats/humidifies it to 35C and to RH 85%. This air is then used in a breathing mask for exercise indoors (helps for people with lung inflammation to exercise on a stationary bike or a treadmill). This humidifier is the blow-over type (a large heated water bath). The air as it comes out of the humidifier is particle-free (confirmed with an LPC).

runcyclexcski
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