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Comment by reedlaw | Hacker News Reader

I live in China and have a Laser Egg (1) in my home. It's extremely accurate, often matching the AQI reading found by online services. What I'm interested in is learning how to purify the air inside. I knew cooking was a major culprit in raising PM2.5 levels. But even when running two air purifiers sometimes the AQI just can't be lowered too much. I think it's leaky seals in the apartment. We're on the 18th floor and on a windy day can feel a huge draft from the front door and hear the wind escaping the balcony windows.

1. http://www.originstech.com/products/laseregg/

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If you haven't seen it, this TED talk on using plants for air purification is pretty cool: https://www.ted.com/talks/kamal_meattle_on_how_to_grow_your_...

I bought a top rated air purifier a couple months ago off of the recommendation from Wirecutter. I live in SF, not China, but it's dramatically improved quality of life in my apartment. It cleans out smokey air from cooking very quickly, and cuts down dust/particulates especially in the spring months when pollen is everywhere. Highly recommend.

Just curious, which purifier?

Probably Coway AP-1512HH Mighty.

http://thewirecutter.com/?s=air+purifier redirects to http://thesweethome.com/reviews/best-air-purifier/

Yes, the Coway. I've had it for a few months now and just leave it on all the time on auto/eco mode.

I have purifier with large HEPA filter, purifier with water filter, ultrasound humidifier, but the best result so far is by vacuum cleaner with water filter (Thomas with Auquafilter). Water works extremely well against tiny particles, much better than HEPA.

One thing I've never figured out about air purification is how to keep air both particle-free, and oxygenated. I don't want to seal all my doors and windows to run an air purifier—I immediately feel suffocated by the CO2 buildup from my own breathing. Is there a best of both worlds?

Fresh air systems are what you are looking for. They purify and bring in outside air (be warned, they lower HVAC efficiency), a lot of them with a high enough CFM to pressurize your house to, exhausting all of the air inside outward so that the leaky seals aren't an issue.

The problem is that these don't fit into most Chinese apartment rentals. Landlords could make some big bank by installing an HVAC, but they are missing even in new buildings where 90sqm apartments are going for more than a million bucks.

Yep. My little apartment (400m²) in a low-rise in Canada, built just five years ago, has no in-unit ventilation whatsoever. If I want a cross-breeze (and I always want a cross-breeze), I have to open the outside windows and the door to the hallway, and let a ton of dust and pollen flow into the unit from outside. I have no idea who thought building an apartment building today like this made sense, but it seems to be a common perspective.

400 sqm is a "little" apartment? Sheesh, first-world problems :)

That's why HRV systems exist.

Keep your environment's air clean while retaining the heat plus circulating fresh oxygen.

I intend to get a decentralized HRV like Lunos for my passive Tiny House. Any problem regular houses have with air quality, will be multiplied in a Tiny House without proper precaution.

Modern insulated houses (think Passive houses) have automatic heat recovering ventilation because everything is sealed. Many heat recovering ventilation systems that have an air purifier integrated. Many also vary ventilation automatically depending on the inside air quality.

More plants in your house. It makes a surprising difference.

I open the windows for 20 mins, twice per day. The rest of the time, the windows are closed and air purifiers are on.

You need good Windows. We switched our apartments in Beijing, and it made a world of difference in indoor air quality with our big blue air running. The problem that "purified air" becomes stagnant enough to be uncomfortable, even if clean, so we open the windows whenever the AQI is below 170 as long as a dust storm isn't going on.

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