WHEN I was growing up, letting fresh, clean air into your house meant opening the windows.
That’s all it took. Of course, it helped that we lived in a small town with low pollution levels.
But given that many of us now live in the Klang Valley, air quality is a year around issue.
It can be hazy, dusty and sometimes, downright awful with the fumes from vehicles. But keep in mind that the inside of your home is not any better.
Studies by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicate that indoor air pollutants can be up to five times worse or higher than those outdoors.
Amway’s Atmosphere Sky air purifier aims to target the serious problem of indoor air quality homeowners face today.
I like the fact that it works on a wide range of pollutants, from dust and dusts mites to viruses and bacteria, pet hair and dander and even mould, fungi, tobacco smoke and cooking gasses and cooking odours. It is supposed to remove particles even as small as 0.007 microns.
This sleek looking air purifier while being very high tech, has one major benefit in my opinion – it’s very user friendly.
I do not like handling equipment that requires me to read and study a manual and fumble with instructions.
CLEANING UP
This unit, which I placed in one corner of my living room, didn’t occupy too much space, given its compact design and was easy to use on a daily basis.
Once you switch it on, the simple, uncluttered touch screen control panel lights up and you can immediately see the quality of air in your room by a colour indicator. Yellow means moderate, green signals good while red indicates poor quality air.
Most of the time I left the purifier on in “auto mode” in the mornings, so by the time my daughter returned from school at lunchtime, the air in our living room would be clean.
She suffers from allergic rhinitis and I wanted to observe whether the unit would help reduce her allergy episodes which are usually triggered by dust, mould or other common indoor pollutants.
For the most part, the unit’s colour indicator stood at yellow in my living room, indicating moderately good air quality. Occasionally, it would turn red for a brief moment before reverting back to yellow or sometimes turning green.
My daughter would rush excitedly to give me a “report” on our air quality each time she observed a colour change in the control panel.
The purifier also arrived at my house during a period when my immediate neighbour was doing extensive renovations to her home.
I was very concerned about dust from the renovation works entering my home and affecting my daughter’s health, especially given her rhinitis so I left the unit switched on every morning when the renovations works were in full swing.
FRESH AIR
The one thing I noticed after three weeks of use was that my daughter was sneezing a lot less. Her rhinitis usually results in a blocked, runny nose, teary eyes and sneezing.
I also moved the unit to the bedroom in the evenings to cleanse the air in her bedroom before putting her to sleep and I realised that she was sleeping a lot better with less episodes of nasal congestion which usually disrupts her sleep. The unit comes with wheels so one can easily move it around the house.
Another plus point of the Atmosphere Sky is the fact that it can effectively clear up cooking odours which is a problem if, like me, you live in a condominium where the kitchen and living room are close by.
After preparing a meal (even with shrimp paste mind you), I could switch on the air purifier, let it run for some time and the cooking smells would soon be gone.
Atmosphere connect, an app that complements the product also allows one to use a smartphone to control the unit from anywhere, as long as the unit is connected to the internet so you have the luxury of cleaning up the air at home while you’re still in the office for example.
What also made a difference for me was its high energy efficiency with low power consumption because I didn’t notice a jump in my electricity bill despite prolonged use for up to a month.
It made enjoying the benefits of fresh air so much better!
IMPROVE INDOOR AIR QUALITY
THERE are many simple things one can do to make the air inside the home cleaner and safer besides investing in a good air purifying system. These include:
*Vacuuming every week with extra focus on main pathways, carpets and furniture.
*Washing bedding and cushion covers regularly.
*Allowing fresh air into your home.
*Bathing pets regularly to reduce dander.
*Reducing smoke and chemicals inside the home.
*Keeping air purifying house plants inside the home.
Source: Amway