​​​​​​​​​​​Air Cleaners for your Home

Indoor air can be as much as 5 times more polluted than outdoor air! CenterPoint Energy’s Home Service Plus (HSP) offers a variety of home air cleaners that will remove up to 98 percent of pollutants from your home’s air. Learn how home air cleaners work and which type of air cleaner is best for you.

Indoor air pollution is one of the five biggest environmental health risks, according to the EPA. Airborne contaminants – like dust, dirt, pollen, mold and smoke – can create potentially serious health concerns. Many household products contain potentially harmful particulates, from aerosols to nail polish.

An electronic air cleaner uses electrical charges to remove pollutants from the air and collect them, a process known as electrostatic attraction. In this process, the electronic air cleaner draws air through it, giving an electronic charge to airborne particles. These charged particles collect on a series of plates holding opposing electrical charges.

Electronic air cleaners work remarkably well and don’t drag down the efficiency of your furnace or central air conditioner. Honeywell recommends that homeowners clean their electronic air filters regularly. Many of the new models feature a helpful LED, indicating when it’s time for a cleaning.

Cleaning the electronic air filter isn’t a big task – it can generally be done with a dishwasher or by soaking it in water – but your electronic cleaner will not remove those tiny particles from your air unless you keep it clean!

Interested in an electronic Honeywell air cleaner from Home Service Plus? Contact us for product info, or call 612-342-4610 in the Minneapolis/ St. Paul metro area; 877-HSP-1664 in Greater Minnesota.

Media air cleaners have been around a long time and use a filter to trap particles as air moves through your home HVAC system. They rely on your heating-and-cooling system to force air through the filter. This can make your furnace or air-conditioner work harder to distribute air, decreasing its efficiency. The effectiveness of media air cleaners varies among systems and filters, but they generally do a good job trap larger air particles. However, a media air filter often fails to capture the smaller-sized particles that electronic air cleaners trap and collect.

Electronic air cleaners are more effective at removing smaller particles than media air cleaners. They do not decrease furnace and air-conditioner efficiency like media air cleaners, but do require homeowners to clean them regularly (as discussed in above section). The dirtier they get, the less effective they work.