A Comprehensive Approach to Testing Air Cleaning Devices Under Realistic Room Conditions

The classical decay method for testing air cleaner performance requires high initial challenge concentrations of pollutants and is performed during a transient pollutant concentration period. This does not reflect the device's usage condition where concentrations are significantly lower and remain relatively constant under a constant ventilation rate. Previous tests are mostly conducted under empty chamber with a single type of challenge pollutants, while different types of pollutants typically co-exist in the real environment. This study proposes a comprehensive approach to test various types of cleaners and pollutants under the realistic condition. A test procedure was developed involving constant injections of target and comparison of the measured concentrations with and without the operation of the device under a condition with realistic ventilation rate, typical interior surfaces, furnishing, and simulated occupancy. Results show that the procedure can effectively measure the performance of different types of air cleaners for removing the target pollutants including VOCs, particles and a virus surrogate (phi6).