If you’re thinking about clean air at home yet want to save energy, you might wonder: how much electricity does an air purifier use? While most of us know the benefits of an air purifier to our health and well-being, energy consumption is something to worry about – especially if you are on a tight budget and need to run an air conditioner or heater as well.
We care about your health and budget, which is why we wrote this article for you to know better about the energy consumption of most air purifiers. This will help you decide on buying one for your needs and strategically placing them around your house, office, or any indoor space.
Despite having the general purpose of cleaning the air, not all air purifiers are built the same. By knowing the specs of an air purifier, you’ll know if it is energy-saving and well-suited for your indoor setting to clean the air efficiently.
Do air purifiers use a lot of electricity?
Not at all! The most common air purifier only runs somewhere between 10 to 40 watts – even less than a typical laptop or 19-inch TV. Of course, how much it consumes in your case depends on various factors in your indoor setting.
For instance, what air purifier speed are you using? What brand and model of air purifier do you have? What room size is the air purifier rated for? What’s the cost of electricity in your area? How long will you run the air purifier in your home or indoor setting? By answering these questions, you will have a rough idea of how much electricity your air purifier consumes.
Typically, an air purifier for large areas consumes more electricity because they need to clean a bigger space, so be wary of that. Even so, if you run it continuously, it won’t have trouble cleaning a huge chunk of dust when you restart it, which will help you reduce its power consumption (and conserve motor life!).
How much electricity does an air purifier use per month?
It usually costs less than a dollar per day to run an air purifier, but it varies depending on the factors mentioned above. To give you an idea, suppose we have an air purifier that runs at 40 watts on a certain setting. The typical cost of electricity in the U.S. would be $0.131, and you want to run the air purifier all day.
The formula for computing the cost of running an air purifier per day is: (wattage x cost per kilowatt-hour x hours) / 1,000. With this given formula, we will come up with $0.125 or $0.13 for the 24-hour cost of running an air purifier at 40 watts. If you have a large-room air purifier with higher wattage (such as 100 watts) then the running cost would be $0.31 if you run it all day.
However, what if you decided to run it only for 8 hours a day? The cost would then be $0.04 for a 40-watt air purifier and $0.11 for a 100-watt large-room unit. As you can see, the cost varies depending mostly on the wattage and how long you need to run it all day. If you live outside the U.S. and have a different cost of electricity then that will also play a role in the air purifier’s operating cost.
Whether you have an air purifier rated for small or large rooms, all you need to know is the wattage of the unit at different speeds. For instance, at low or eco mode, your air purifier could run at 15 watts or less. Then, at medium speed, it could consume about 30 to 40 watts. Finally, on the highest setting or turbo mode, an air purifier could run somewhere between 50 and 100 watts, depending on the model.
Do air purifiers increase electric bills?
Usually not – they are energy-saving because they consume very little electricity, as mentioned above. When cleaned properly and placed strategically, your air purifier won’t impact your bill that much. That’s because a well-maintained air purifier will operate at peak condition and won’t expend too much power – unlike when its filters are clogged.
For those living in small apartments, condo units, dorms, or rooms, a tower fan with an air purifier is a way to clean your room and keep you cool without sacrificing precious space. Usually, tower fan air purifiers only consume 55 watts more or less (depending on the speed) so they are good for saving energy. Most of these units are also Energy Star-certified.
Do you leave an air purifier on 24 hours a day?
From our personal experience, we think that it’s better to leave an air purifier running for 24 hours, if possible. When you keep running an air purifier, it will continuously keep the room clean, which means that your unit isn’t working too hard to clean up the air. This is good news for the motor and the filters.
If you stop an air purifier for a while and restart it again, it will have to start at square one when cleaning pollutants. By running it all day, you aren’t giving your air purifier too much workload, which will help increase the unit’s lifespan.
With that said, if you live in a house where there’s constant pollution coming from the outside world (e.g. open windows, guests coming in and out, etc.) then we recommend running your air purifier all day. This is also advisable if you’re in an urban or suburban area where vehicle and industrial pollution are inevitable.
Conclusion
Bottom line: whether you have the best and cheapest air purifier or a more expensive unit, what matters most is that it cleans the air – you just have to know their wattage, which is usually not a lot. Even if you run an air purifier all day, it won’t heavily impact your monthly energy bill, so it’s okay to sleep through the night with it! With that, you’ll wake up to breathing fresh air.
