Are you wondering, “Can I use air purifiers and dehumidifiers in the same room?” An air purifier is a machine that filters out approximately 99.97% of common airborne contaminants to produce fresh, clean, breathable air. There are all different kinds of air purifiers that you may see marketed at online or retail stores. The best ones can remove allergens, bacteria, mold spores, pet dander, dust, and smoke from the air. Filtering out these contaminants will make breathing easier and reduce your risk of respiratory illnesses.
A dehumidifier transforms humid air into dry air. In other words, it removes moisture from the air and reduces the humidity within the immediate environment. As you may know, humidity attracts mold and microbes, which are microorganisms that can cause you to get brutally sick or suffer severe allergic reactions. So, using a dehumidifier can keep the air dry to prevent the growth of microbes and mold in a room.
However, you may be wondering if you can use an air purifier and dehumidifier in the same room. This article will cover if it’s a good idea to use both in the same area and any things you should consider.
Is it Okay to Use an Air Purifier and Dehumidifier Together?
Purified, dry air in a room may seem perfect for establishing a healthy indoor environment. On the other hand, you may wonder if it is okay to use an air purifier and dehumidifier together in the same room to produce purified, dry air.
Theoretically, you can use an air purifier and dehumidifier together in the same room because they each have different functions. The air purifier cleans the air, while the dehumidifier dries the air. So, one machine will not affect the other’s primary functionality.
However, there are some considerations you need to make to ensure both appliances perform their functions at maximum levels without impeding one another. Below are the top considerations before setting up an air purifier and dehumidifier in the same room.
1. Consider the Placement of the Appliances
The locations where you place your air purifier and dehumidifier in a room will factor a lot into their effectiveness. One important tip is to keep a distance between your air purifier and dehumidifier. Don’t keep the appliances too close together because one appliance may interrupt the airflow going in and out of the other.
Think about the area of your room where you spend the most time, such as your bed or computer chair. Putting an air purifier in this area would be a great idea to keep the air purified around you. Then, keep the dehumidifier on the other side of the room to extract the humid air and turn it into dry air.
2. Do You Really Need Both Appliances in the Same Room?
If you only have one dehumidifier and air purifier, use them where they are most needed. For instance, the basement is the most common area of a home to suffer extreme humidity. So, placing a dehumidifier in your basement is critical to eliminate the higher humidity levels it often suffers.
When humidity levels have been high inside a room for too long, you can expect mold spores to be in the air already. A dehumidifier may remove moisture, but it will not remove the mold spores in the air or the mold growth on your walls.
First, you need to clean your walls to mold growth. Next, you should use an air purifier to remove the mold spores after dehumidifying it. If the room is aboveground, keep the windows open to ventilate the room and prevent more humidity. But if it is the basement underground, you must dehumidify and purify the air regularly.
3. Do You Have an HVAC System?
Most people don’t realize this, but HVAC systems have some air purification and dehumidification functions. For example, every HVAC system has an air filter that blocks large debris particles from circulating through your indoor environment. An HVAC system can also cool off the air, dry it out, and prevent mold growth.
Unfortunately, an HVAC system can only do so much when purifying and dehumidifying the air. Although it can filter out large airborne contaminants, the HVAC system’s air filter cannot filter out smaller particles of dust, mold spores, and other debris. It also cannot fully dehumidify a room suffering from high humidity levels.
In this case, you will still need to install air purifiers and dehumidifiers in rooms that need them the most.
4. Use Separate Electrical Outlets
Air purifiers and dehumidifiers are both major appliances. If you put one of each in the same room, it is best not to plug them into the same electrical outlet. Otherwise, the energy consumption could overwhelm the circuit breaker and cause it to trip.
For this reason, plug the air purifier and dehumidifier into separate electrical outlets when putting them in the same room. Then, you don’t have to worry about changing a fuse or resetting a circuit breaker after setting the appliances at their maximum speeds.
5. Consider the Noises from Both Appliances
Some air purifiers and dehumidifiers are less noisy, but not all are. One of the most annoying things about using an air purifier and dehumidifier in the same room is all the noise you might hear coming from the fan mechanisms of the appliances.
If it is a bedroom, you will probably want to sleep in a different room because of all the noise. Either that or you could run the appliances in the room during the day when you are not in it. Then, when you come home in the evening, you could turn off the appliances to eliminate the noise before you go to sleep.
Conclusion
You can definitely use air purifiers and dehumidifiers in the same room. Both appliances may cycle air in and out of them, but they treat the air differently. Air purifiers filter out airborne contaminants and debris particles, while dehumidifiers use cooled coils to absorb water from the air and dry it out.
All you need to remember is to position your air purifier and dehumidifier in separate locations in the same room. There must be enough distance between them to use different electrical outlets and ensure each appliance doesn’t disrupt the other’s airflow. If done correctly, you can enjoy the purest and driest air in the same room.