Air purifiers have done big business during the pandemic as people seek to make indoor spaces safer and pull dangerous virus particles from the air.
But while air purifiers can be costly, one expert says most people can easily make their own at home for less than $50.
"They’re really just fans and filters," said Thomas Talhelm, Associate Professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and founder of SMART Air, a company that aims to make clean air accessible to all.
While Professor Talhelm’s background is as a psychologist, he says he became interested in air purifiers when he experienced a major air quality crisis while living in Beijing and saw many people recommending a purifier that cost $1,000.
"So I just made my own purifier using a fan and a filter that I bought locally, and it cost me about $30."
Talhelm said that while manufacturers have a clear incentive to raise prices, when it comes to products aimed at improving your health, consumers are also afraid of ending up with a subpar product and will often opt for a more expensive model.
"We often infer quality from the price," he said. "Surgeries are scary, they have to do with your health. Do you want to go out and find the cheapest surgeon possible?"
But he said in this instance, there is little connection between the cost of an air purifier and its effectiveness.
SMART Air has studied the efficiency of different air purifiers and their respective prices and found "honestly, that correlation is close to zero. There’s basically no relationship between what you’re paying and what you’re breathing. Which is in some ways crazy but in some ways fantastic news, right? If one of the cheap ones works just as well as one of the $1000 ones, then great."
Talhelm said there was just one factor that dictates both price and quality of a product: size. Air purifiers that are larger tend to be more expensive, but are also more effective at cleaning air in larger spaces.
Smart Air regularly publishes analysis on its website explaining how air purifiers work and why they do not need to be costly.
Their website also includes free instructions on how to make your own air purifier at home.
Related
