Home Air Cleaners
If you want a portable air cleaner, there are two kinds of cleaners on the market - small tabletop units and larger console units that can be moved from room to room. Small tabletop units will not provide many benefits in a large room but are ideal for small office areas if your work at home. Room sized air cleaners provide better cleaning in any room but not as much as an air cleaner designed for your whole house.
What your need to look for in portable air cleaners include is the clean air delivery rate, which is based on removal of smoke, dust, and pollen particles. The CADR refers to the amount of cubic feet of clean air delivered per minute.
The standard filter you use in your furnace is not designed to remove fine particles or all the dust. Use a replacement filter made of a pleated, paper like material to increase the efficiency or your furnace. They are easily purchased from hardware stores and are inexpensive, and provide modest, but improved filtering capability. These filters will block air flow as they accumulate dust, so they will need to be regularly checked and replaced every few months during operation (they only filter the air while the blower is operating). Some of these filters are made of a charged material (electret) to enhance particle capture.
Using a vacuum cleaner a lot just doesn't cut it. The air that is sucked up by the vacuum is blown back into the room, with a small amount of dust. In most cases it is the smallest of dust particles that are re-circulated into the air, that give allergy and asthma sufferers the most problems.
