A portable air cleaner can be an asset if you do not have a whole house filtration unit.  It can also be easily moved from room to room, depending on where you spend most of your time.  But if you are unable to see most of the particles in the air, how do you know if they are adequately being removed?

The effectiveness of air cleaners is measured by clean air delivery rate (CADR).  This method was designed and currently used by the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) to evaluate the amount of clean air produced by a unit.

It is difficult to measure a CADR value when your air cleaner is used in different sized rooms but it does give manufacturers a scale to compare to other units so you know how good your unit is compared to competitors.  For example, given the same conditions, an air unit may be tested and deliver a rate 100 cubic feet per minute of contaminant free air.  A similar sized model with the same size fan may deliver a rate of 250 cubic feet per minute.  The larger the cubic feet measures, the more effective the unit.

You can find CADR values on the Internet by visiting www.cadr.org to make the best choice in portable air cleaners for your home.