How Do HEPA Filters Work?

The HEPA filter in full is High Efficiency Particulate Air Filter, these filters comes in four types. These are the HEPA, HEPA like, HEPA type and true HEPA. But HEPA filters are the good and recommended because they captures the widest range of spores, pet dander, smoke, particulate matter that comes from outdoor pollution and some bacteria. In this article you will find out just How Do HEPA Filters Work?

How Do HEPA Filters Work

But in all types the true HEPA filter captures 99.9% of the particles as small as 0.3microns; therefore its efficiency is almost 100%. The quality of the HEPA filter is by air purifier is key and it is the most important element in the filtration process hence cleaning the air particles that are harmful to the health and releasing clean air.

This allows people with complications such as breathing problems like asthma, sinuses and pneumonia to clean in dusty areas with vacuum cleaners with HEPA filters.

How Do Vacuum Cleaners Work?

Areas where HEPA filters are used

This feature is used in many areas such as houses, houses, offices, operating rooms since it is safe and its gravity is extremely good. It keeps the moisture, temperature, dust and other elements in the environment balance and provides a healthier environment.

 

How to maintain the HEPA filters

When the filters are used in vacuum cleaners, air purifiers and HVAC systems, they can easily get clogged with dirt, and replacing them becomes expensive and also finding the replacement can be a hectic process. So we should maintain it such that the filter does not lose its effectiveness when clogged.

The filters are cleaned according to its type therefore, some HEPA filters are cleaned by rinsing it under cold water, and other HEPA filters marketed as “permanent” should be cleaned by gently using a vacuum cleaner to suck away dust and debris from the surface of the filter.

But the washable HEPA filters can be washed in warm water with detergent and soak it in there, like thrice, then rise it, this feature will be as clean as it was bought, but it should be dried in sunlight without drying it with a cloth because that may damage the HEPA filter.

What makes up a HEPA filter

These filters are made up from a variety of materials including course, glass fibers, coated animal hair, vegetable fiber, synthetic fiber, metallic wool and expanded metals and foils. The fibers are entangled together randomly and compressed into a paper like sheets. The sheets are pleated to increase the surface which the air passes through, and mounted into the frame made of cardboard, plastic, wood or metal.

Manufacturers may add other elements to the HEPA filters, such as the pre filter to screen out larger particles, activated carbon to help remove odors and gases or chemical treatment to make particles stick to the fibers.

 

How does the filtration work in the HEPA filters.

Most people may think a HEPA filter is like a sieve where particles are larger than the filtration media surface; this is a misconception that the particles compressed are bigger than the media pores.

So sieving doesn’t occur instead there are different filtration mechanisms that are responsible for capturing particles of a particular size and these include impaction, interception and diffusion.

 

How the HEPA filter works?

In impaction mechanism the un-cleaned air pass through the filter media, the heavier particles don’t follow the gas flow streamline, because of their large inertia instead move in a straight path until they collide with the fiber and are removed.

As for interception, it involved particles of smaller size that are large enough to follow the streamline. But when the radius of the particles is larger than the distance between the streamline and the edge of the fiber, the particle hits the fiber and gets stitch there and thus the particle is removed from the air.

Lastly of these mechanism is diffusion and it is the one that deals with the smallest particles, these small ones do not follow the streamline, they move randomly through due to collision with the gas molecules because of this random movement they are bound to collide with the fiber therefore the HEPA filter’s total efficiency is as a result of the three mechanisms.

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