Clearing the Air

As some readers of this blog already know, our current residence is an apartment in a former Nashua, NH, textile mill. Did you know that over the decades, factories have become the top most popular building type to be redeveloped into rentals, now known as apartment homes?

One thing about living in an older repurposed building is the amount of dust that's everywhere. This post is about how we've been recently trying to keep it under control in our place.

Clocktower Place, Nashua, NH, formerly Nashua Manufacturing Company

In the 18th and 19th centuries, merchants built hundreds of mills throughout New England which produced paper to textiles. The region became a center of the American Industrial Revolution. As in Nashua, cities in many of these states were established as manufacturing centers. The mills used rivers and canals for energy. There were few environmental regulations and many production processes released toxic industrial chemicals into the air, waterways and ground.

By the mid-1900s, the manufacturing sector around New England fell apart. Labor was cheaper elsewhere. Companies moved operations to the South and overseas abandoning operations at the large mills. Cities struggled to address contaminants at the abandoned mills and find a new use for the buildings as environmental regulations started taking effect. 

Redevelopment from factories to housing took hold due to changes in local zoning codes that permitted residential development in formerly industrial areas.  Old buildings come with historic preservation rules. To defray the cost of cleaning up and renovating these large buildings, developers relied on expanded state and federal tax credits which rewarded them for preserving historical structures and creating affordable housing.

The Nashua Millyard is known as the center of Nashua’s historic industrial economy. It hosts three former historic mills converted to housing — Clocktower Place, the Apartments at Cotton Mill, and Lofts 34. All are adjacent to the Nashua River and within walking distance of downtown. Mills were built in the time when people walked to work.

Our apartment home is in the former Nashua Manufacturing Company, now Clocktower Place, which consists of 5 mill buildings. While living in a repurposed mill is very unique, and a great conversation topic, there are issues, not the least of which is dust which seems everywhere.

Dust magnets in our living room, black cabinets and TV

Dust is unavoidable, especially in older buildings. The black cabinets in our living room and the black TV are really dust magnets. That's why, last year, we (finally) bought an air purifier as these units can be effective in limiting indoor dust and improving allergy symptoms, which Patrick deals with seasonally. Among the various filter types, studies have shown that HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filters can remove many airborne particles, including pollen, mold, and bacteria, so we shopped for one which met that criteria, as so many do now. 

More dust magnets in another room, black computer desk and laptop PC

Of course, we also had a number of questions since an air purifier is a simple unit, a little more than a fan with a filter or several. Here were a few of our concerns:

Do air purifiers work? While air purifiers may not directly or immediately improve your health, studies indicate that such devices can help reduce exposure to harmful pollutants, which may have long-term health benefits. We are pet less, but air purifiers are reported to effectively filter dander from the air. According to many sources, a well-designed purifier can capture airborne allergens, like pollen, mold spores, bacteria, viruses and smoke.

Do air purifiers stay on all the time? The simple answer is yes, the advantages are significant. Running the air purifier all the time, you benefit from the best air quality possible, and the cleaner the air, the better for your health. Both our units are set to auto mode which automatically adjusts the fan speed needed to maintain a comfortable environment. Leaving the units on ensures they are continuously be exchanging indoor air and filtering impurities. That said, we will turn them off for extended periods when we are not at home.

Do they increase the electric bill? Of course, according to online sources, an air purifier roughly equates to a cost of about $120 annually if the unit runs continuously which it's safe to do. While the amount of energy consumed is small, we turn off most devices when away for longer times.

How does a HEPA filter work? A fan draws polluted air into the air purifier. The air drawn in passes through the HEPA filter and  air-borne pollutants get trapped into the fine meshes of the filter. The purified air is then pumped back to the room as the cycle of  air purification continues. HEPA air filters can be costly to maintain. They don’t last forever and require replacement. In heavily polluted areas this can be more often. Also, they don’t eliminate smells from the air. 

Winix 45500 air purifier

After reading far too many online reviews, our purchase decision was this Winix 5500, which was rated for 360 square feet room size, suitable for medium and large rooms. 

Placement of this larger floor unit was in a central location, between the living room and dining areas. In general, an air purifier takes 30 minutes to 2 hours to purify a room as there are aspects including room size, filter, speed to consider. 

Realistically, it's impossible to eliminate dust entirely, but the combination of cleaning and an air purifier has reduced some dust in our apartment.

Which led to us wondering, better to have one larger unit or several small ones? Many articles indicated that getting a larger air purifier could be most efficient. But, that to determine how many air purifiers were needed, you should consider where and how it would be used, whether for one room or multiple rooms. 

The larger unit was performing well in the area where it had been placed. That's why, a couple of weeks ago, we bought a second air purifier. Once again, this was after researching and comparing various brands, models and sizes. We opted to buy another Winix. This unit was larger than many other models, and the buying decision was partially based on our sartisfaction with the previous model.

Winix A230 air purifier

We bought this Winix A230 tower, rated for a room size of 230 square feet, perfect for our second BR and now computer room. This room has black desks and our computers, including a recent addition, a black laptop computer that replaced an older and now recycled desktop. 

In case you didn't know, you can take older Apple products, especially ones that no longer have any trade-in value, to an Apple store for recycling. Remember to first completely erase the hard drive.

Both Winix units have a fine mesh pre-filter, a charcoal filter and HEPA filter and feature what the manufacturer calls, PlasmaWave. 

Smart sensors gauge the air quality and auto mode adjusts the fan speed. Filters, aside from the HEPA filter can be vacuumed and/or washed and should be completely dry before reinstalling. The charcoal and HEPA filters are rated for one year of use before replacement is needed and we recently replaced the one in the floor unit even though the replacement light had not alerted us, yet. 

Just to be clear, specifying the brand of air purifier which we purchased is by not means as a purchase recommendation or endorsement, as everyone's needs and preferences differ.

Since I'm on the topic of clearing the air, here's a few topics related to blogging. All of these choices are strictly my own preferences. You rightly have your own choices.

Avoid hot topic posts. This blog steers clear of many current issues, especially politics, as blog administrator, that's my decision. This exclusion applies not only to not posting about such issues, but also to comments which stray into this arena, thankfully there have only been a few. Going forward, I reserve the right to delete comments that I consider off topic, again a personal decision. 

Avoid centered text. My career was in the editorial field, perhaps that's why my dislike of centered text is remains intact. When text is centered, the starting place of each line changes. This forces readers to work harder as without a straight left edge, there's no consistent place they can move their eyes when they complete each line. Left justified text has a standard starting place where all lines of text start, so reading is easier for other bloggers.

Yes, as with everything, there's exceptions, for example, if text fits on a single line in headlines, titles, captions, quotes, short lines of text or poetry. Readers can follow these easily when lines are short, scannable and don’t require repeated eye movements. If there's not a good reason to center text, it's best to skip it.

Avoid small images. As a blogger, I want to share imagery, my own and those from Internet finds. When there's something for others to see, why not upsize it? Small photos often can be quite annoying at times. If something is important enough to include, why not make it larger?

Please recognize that I do not expect agreement on these items. We all have our opinions, beliefs, dislikes, hang-ups, fears and prejudices. The above only applies to my hangups and dislikes. Your decisions are your own, which is as it should be, your blog, your choices.