How Many Air Purifiers Do I Need?

How many air purifiers do I need? At first, you may think that this is a simple question, but there are a variety of factors to consider. 

We understand how annoying it can be to get to the bottom of this question. So, we wanted to create a comprehensive article about air purifier sizing.

If you want to find out how many air purifiers you need in your home, keep reading. 

How Many Air Purifiers Do I Need?

Unfortunately, we cannot give you an exact number of how many air purifiers you need. 

That’s because the number is based on room numbers and dimensions. 

What we can do is go through a variety of factors that you need to consider to determine how many you want in your home.

When it comes to determining the air purifier count, people often view their options in two ways. 

They either get one big air purifier or multiple air purifiers for a room. 

In either case, the air purifiers will benefit the air quality of your home. The two options will have varying costs and efficiency levels, though.

One whole-house air purifying unit will cost much more upfront. These can cost as much as $6000. 

Not to mention, you will have to have it installed by an HVAC company. 

Portable units are much more affordable, but they won’t be enough for your entire home. You’ll need to buy more than one.

Also Read: Best Air Purifiers Under $150

With that in mind, it’s definitely a better idea to get multiple portable air purifiers. This will be a much more economic option. 

It also ensures that the air quality of most of the rooms is clean and clear. But how many do you need exactly?

We recommend adding one or more air purifiers in every room you spend a lot of time in. 

This includes your living room, bedrooms, and kitchen. The exact number will depend on how many rooms you use regularly and their size.

For example, I live in a small, two-bedroom home. I spend almost all of my time in my living room or one of my bedrooms.

I only have an air purifier in these two rooms for this reason. I see no point in adding an air purifier to the unused rooms since I don’t go in there.

Do You Need An Air Purifier For Every Room?

If you want every room in your house to have optimal air, you can put a device in every room.

This is the only way to ensure that every single room has the same quality of air. 

However, this is not necessary for most homes.

Whenever you’re at your house, you typically use a couple of rooms way more frequently than other rooms. 

For example, you probably spend most of your time in the living room, bedroom, and kitchen.

In contrast, you spend much less time in bathrooms or storage areas.

Since you don’t use every room equally, you don’t necessarily need to put an air purifier in every room. 

If you focus on the rooms you live in the most, the air quality will be substantially better. 

If you have severe allergies or asthma, you might want to add one to every room, though. 

Nevertheless, adding an air purifier to every room will likely be a waste of money and time for most people. 

Even though you are in those rooms briefly, most people aren’t in them enough for an air purifier to make that big of a difference. Just put them in the rooms you actually live in.

Can An Air Purifier Be Too Big For A Room?

Technically, an air purifier can be too big for a room, but it won’t lead to any negative consequences. 

Whenever an air purifier is too big or strong for a particular room, all that is going to happen is that the air is cleaned and cycled faster.

 As a result, your returns may not be as worth I, but your air will be clean.

Still, there aren’t going to be any negative results of an air purifier being too big. It’s not like it’s going to suck away the oxygen or lead to the opposite results that you’re looking for from an air purifier. 

So, you don’t need to be worried if an air purifier is too big for a room.

Nevertheless, there definitely are advantages to making sure your air purifier is not too big.

For starters, bigger air purifiers are more expensive. Opting for an air purifier that adequately fits the space provided will help you save a couple of dollars.

Additionally, big air purifiers are likely to be louder than smaller ones. This won’t matter in all rooms, but the noisiness will definitely make a big impact in rooms like your bedroom. 

Opting for a smaller air purifier may take longer to clean the air, but it will help you sleep easier.

Will A Small Air Purifier Work In A Large Room?

As with most of the other questions in this article, this one is tough to answer. 

Sometimes, a small air purifier will clean the air in a large room. Conversely, there are other times when it will not be up to the task.

If you place a small and low-powered air purifier in a large room, it won’t work very well. 

This is especially true if it’s a lone wolf. That’s because there is simply too much air for the air purifier to purify adequately. 

If you add two or more small air purifiers in a large room, however, they should get the job done together.

Additionally, some small air purifiers have a lot of power. If your air purifier happens to be small but packs a lot of punch, it might be able to handle medium- to large-sized rooms. 

If you use two powerfully small air purifiers in a large room, they should do the job.

Can You Have Multiple Air Purifiers In One Room?

Yes! It is okay to have multiple air purifiers in one room. In fact, the size of the room may require you to have more than one. 

For example, extremely large rooms will require more than one air purifier 9 times out of 10.

Instead of just throwing as many air purifiers in one room as possible, you should determine approximately how much clean air delivery you need. 

This will be based on the individual room’s square footage.

If your room is 700 square feet or more, you will likely need two or more air purifiers. 

Anything over 1000 square feet will almost certainly need 3 air purifiers combined.

For rooms under 500 square feet, however, you should be able to find a single air purifier that can get the job done on its own.

How Big Of An Air Purifier Do I Need?

What sized air purifier you need depends on your room size in square feet.

It is important to note that a bigger air purifier does not necessarily mean more powerful. 

Instead, you should look at the clean air delivery rate, or CADR, to know the power behind the air purifier.

The higher the rate, the “bigger” the model.

For specific room dimensions, there are CADR recommendations.

This clean air delivery rate will give you an idea of how big or powerful of an air purifier you need for your individual home and rooms. 

Here is a general guide for CADR recommendations based on common room sizes:

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How Do You Measure A Room For An Air Purifier?

Measuring the room for an air purifier is simple. 

Simply look at the room’s square footage.

You can determine a room’s square footage by multiplying the length by the width, assuming that your room is a square or rectangle shape.

For example, assume that a room measures 10 feet in length and 11 feet in width. You would multiply 10 by 11, which equals 110 square feet. 

You would then determine the CADR based on the square footage. 

In this case, the CADR recommendation would be below 190. You can easily find a single air purifier with this output.

Some calculators will be more extensive and multiply the height by the width by the length. That’s because a room is a cube, not a flat square. 

Air fills up the entire space, not just the surface area on the floor. Today, almost all ceilings are nine feet high. 

Because the height of ceilings is so standardized now, most calculators consider that in their results.

If you have a different ceiling height, you should certainly factor in that footage to get the most accurate results. 

Select a calculator that can allow you to manually change the ceiling height of the room.

Final Thoughts- How many air purifiers do you need in a house?

So, how many air purifiers do I need?

Once again, we can’t give you an exact number simply because we don’t know your home’s dimensions. 

We recommend getting enough air purifiers for your living room, bedroom, kitchen, and any other frequently used room.

Remember, having too powerful of an air purifier won’t hurt you. If you have your choice between an underperforming air purifier and an overperforming one, opt for the overperforming option. 

It will ensure that your air is clean without leaving you with any nasty consequences.

We hope that this guide has helped you figure out exactly how many air purifiers you need in your home. Good luck! 

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