What is a good air purifier for a cubicle?
My fiance works for a large airplane manufacturing company and is often miserable because of his cube conditions. He is looking for some kind of fan or ionizer that is very small (like desk size), quiet, and preferably runs off of the computer’s power. He isn’t allowed to take in anything the size of a regular fan (like a tower fan) and would need something super small. I saw the Day-Timer Ionic Air Flow Fan with Clock on Amazon.com, but after searching the internet, I couldn’t find any actual reviews of the product. Has anyone used anything that they would recommend?
Kim: Don’t let him waste his hard earned money on that piece of junk. Besides, if the air quality is poor, an ionizer really won’t work as they don’t get rid of particles, they cause them to become heavy and fall. Since they produce ozone as a byproduct, it is not a good idea to run one in such a small area as a cubicle. The problem with which he is faced is that in order to clean the air, you have to be able to move it…and in order to move it you have to have a pretty good motor and fan. Even for a small area you want something that moves at least 200 CFM, especially if the area has high ceilings. Remember when cleaning air, you are cleaning cubic feet and not square feet (you are cleaning the volume of air, not just the air on the surface of the floor)
I would recommend the small Austin Air HealthMate Junior, because it will move enough air to clean a cubicle…but it won’t fit on the desk top. But…..anything that fits on the desk top isn’t going to work…and if it doesn’t work then it has no value…no matter how much or how little it costs!
I am including a link to an article that will tell you how to evaluate the many kinds of filters out there, how the select the right one based on the size of the area (it even includes the formula for the calculation) and what it is you want to remove. I will also put a link for the HealthMate Junior in case you want to check it out. I am sure that if he talks to his HR department and has a note from the doc, the type or size of machine will not be an issue….but he should talk to HR.
If he could get a doctor’s statement saying that he needs the fan/purifier he might be able to get a larger one because of medical reasons.
As for small fans you can get them that run off the usb port.
http://www.vat19.com/dvds/usb-table-fan-usb-desk-fan.cfm
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=ET-06B&cat=GDT
Air purifier
http://www.everythingusb.com/hardware/index/USB_Air_Purifier.htm
Some on Amazon have reviews, so you might want to check there, too.