Air Purifier Glossary: H-L

With so many acronyms and terms, the air purifier space can get confusing. Here are some frequently encountered stumbling blocks which begin with the letters "H" to "L." with my attempts at definition.

Acronym for High Efficiency Gas Adsorption, an Austin Air Purifiers trademark.

HEGA is not a different kind of HEPA, it's a carbon-cloth type gas/odor filter.

See HEGA verses HEPA in Austin Air Purifiers for details.

HEPA

Acronym for High Efficiency Particulate Arrestance. Many web sources misquote and misunderstand HEPA, which is a particle filter efficiency standard, not a specific kind of filter.

For details, see HEPA filters explained

HEPASilent

Not a filter standard - Blueair's trade name for their combined mechanical/electrostatic filters.

House Dust

Particulate matter, both airborne and settled, in a house. The constituents can vary from relatively harmless to deadly, and airborne particle density can vary enormously from room to room and over time.

HVAC

Acronym for Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning. Often pronounced "H-vac."

HyperHEPA

Not a filter standard, this is an IQAir trade name applied to their very efficient filters.

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IAQ

Abbreviation for Indoor Air Guality

Ionizer

Rivals HEPA for most misused term in air cleaning.

An ionizer is any device that electronically disperses negatively and/or positively charged ions into the air.

Many "ionizer air purifiers" are actually electrostatic precipitators.

In-Duct

Applies to air cleaning devices added to the HVAC internals, i.e. inside the heating or air conditioning system.

Often applied to ultraviolet lamp installations.

Ionic Silver Stick

An Air-O-Swiss trade name for a device designed to reduce microorganism growth in their water reservoirs.

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LCD

Acronym for Liquid Crystal Display, the silver-on-gray digital readout common on air cleaner controls.

LED

"Light Emitting Diode," the small red lights often used in digital displays.

Lifetime HEPA

Not a filter standard. Several manufacturers have used this term to apply to longer lasting filters.

Loading

Accumulation of pollutants in filters. Different types of filters have different loading characteristics. This influences filter life and costs. Chemical filters are especially affected, as adsorption rates for various sizes, shapes and polarities of molecules vary widely.

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