HEPA Air Filters for the Whole House: Options, HVAC & Tips - Healthline
It's a commonly used acronym, and a typical way to purify indoor air, but what exactly is a HEPA filter? HEPA stands for high efficiency particulate air, and it's a way of categorizing the quality of air filters built to remove dust, pollen, pet dander, mold, bacteria, and other airborne particles from indoor air. A filter of HEPA quality used within heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems can greatly improve the quality of indoor air by filtering small particles of greatest health concern. Air filters work by trapping pollutants in the fibers of their paper-like material. A HEPA grade filter can, theoretically, trap particles as small as 0.3 microns (for reference a human hair may be between 17 and 180 microns in width.) That means that when placed in a filtration system, HEPA filters can remove 99.97 percent of particles from the air. Though HEPA filters are a highly effective way to clean the air, there are other types of filters, including electrostatic fi...