I’ve recently purchased the Apollo AIR-1 sensor and unfortunately now I know that VOC in my bedroom is higher than it should be. So I’m looking into buying an air purifier. Can anyone suggest a product that more or less fits the following criteria?
quiet enough for a bedroom
strong enough for an area of 30m² (320 ft²)
HEPA filter (H13 or H14)
“dumb” and controllable via a smart plug or “smart” with a HA integration
available in Europe
Preferably the device has a local setup without cloud and preferably it’s rather cheap, I don’t need the bells and whistles of internal sensors or a complex display.
I went with the Levoit 200s (have not tried to flash as I am not sure if the one I have can be) since I did not have the budget at the time for the 300s that was suggested which has been great so far but if you have the budget get that 300s or 400s for the ability to reflash it to be local only:
Others may suggest something more out of the box for you they have experience with.
I have an automation to set the fan mode to silent on it when its turned on either manually, through my bed sensor when in bed or have it automatically turn on when the Air Quality Index for my area is above 50 and it lets me track the filter life directly in HA so I know when its time to replace it:
Robert, thanks. I’ve actually spent some time searching the Levoit website for information about HEPA and found nothing for the 200s (and many others), which lets me assume they don’t meet the cleaning requirements for fine particles. This lead me to creating this thread.
As my issue is with VOC and not PM<1 (or PM<10), from all I was able to read it seems I should specifically search for HEPA H13 or H14 filters.
Does the Levoit 200s handbook or the device itself mention HEPA? Maybe it’s just a omission on the website? Not even their own comparison chart mentions HEPA, as if that standard doesn’t exist (but maybe it’s not an international standard, so they don’t care?).
Below article from the MIT states VOC pollution can best be removed by activated carbon filters. HEPA filters are all about filtering tiny particles, but VOC is gas, so HEPA filters would not be of help for that.
Also, good old fashioned regular ventilation is likely to be more effective, unless the VOCs come from outside. But usually they are from indoor materials.
I just purchased one of these from Amazon. I’m not sure if it’s available in Europe though. It’s Tuya based (so can be controlled through localTuya) and seems to be functioning pretty well. The PM2.5 sensor on my Aqara sensor claims the air quality is good, so it’s working? There’s some other Tuya based air purifiers that I’m looking at as well. In HA, the integration gives me fan speed, PM2.5 sensor, filter life, etc. It does get LOUD though when the PM25. goes higher than 600 (which has happened a few times when I come in from outside). So far, I haven’t been disappointed with it. There are also smaller ones as well.
Robert, thanks. Interestingly the preview of the link for the replacement filter still mentions “H13”, but the page itself doesn’t. Levoit support informed me that they test for the standard “IEST RP CC001.6 Class H, tested per IEST RP CC007.3” and not for HEPA. Wikipedia writes:
“Some companies use a marketing term known as “True HEPA” to give consumers assurance that their air filters meet the HEPA standard, although this term has no legal or scientific meaning. Products that are marketed to be “HEPA-type,” “HEPA-like,” “HEPA-style” or “99% HEPA” do not satisfy the HEPA standard and may not have been tested in independent laboratories. Although such filters may come reasonably close to HEPA standards, others fall significantly short.”
I will have to find out how the standard Levoit tests for compares to HEPA.
@code-in-progress Bill, thanks for your suggestion. The Morento website unfortunately does not mention any standard their devices are testes for.
@Edwin_D Thanks for that link and differentiation. So I will focus on VOC air purifiers with activated carbon filters. I thought that HEPA includes activated carbon filters, so when buying something with that standard it will also work for VOCs, but I will now also try to find out how to identify good activated carbon filters. Oh, and yes, the VOCs here are from indoor materials, but ventilation in winter is limited, I can’t keep the window open all night, so I’d need to set an alarm clock to every 2-3 hours to keep the window open for 2-3 minutes. And that I won’t do.
You can control it locally through Wi-Fi, and I previously had it automatically change suction depending on time of day, amount of particles in the air and if any windows were open.
After setting it up, I blocked it’s connection to the outside through my router.
I stopped using it recently, as I have moved to an area with much less air pollution.
