The Haze, API and Air Purifiers

The air pollution index or API system that you have been hearing in the news normally includes the major air pollutants which could cause potential harm to human health should they reach unsafe levels. the API system closely follows the PSI system of the United States.

The air pollutants included in Malaysia's API are ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (N02), sulphur dioxide (S02) and suspended particulate matter less than 10 microns in size. FYI, one micron is one millionth of a meter or 0.000001 meter or 0.0001cm.

The index is categorised into various easily understandable range of values,

API DESCRIPTOR
0-50 good
51-100 moderate
101-200 unhealthy
201-300 very unhealthy
>300 hazardous

I stay in Shah Alam, one of the worst hit areas. My last check at the Department of Environment web site shows API reading at 430, up from 371 at 11am. Mrs. O called and said that it is the worst she’s ever seen. So I excused myself from work at about 4:00pm today and shopped around for an air purifier. There aren’t many choices – I ended up with Sharp Ion Plasmacluster FU-440E.

The Sharp Air Purifier is a portable floor standing unit, it measures 41.5cm wide x 58.5cm high and operates very quietly. It even has an air purity indicator – green, amber and red. The FU-440E is suitable for a room of up to 31 square metres.It has 3 layers of filtration, the dust filter, the activated charcoal filter (washable) and the HEPA filter. HEPA stands for High Efficiency Particulate Air filter. It is an extended surface mechanical filter having a minimum particle removal efficiency of 99.97% for all particles of 0.3 micron diameter, it will filter out tobacco smoke, pollen and most types of bacteria. My brother is an industrial engineer and he said HEPA is the stuff they use for the “clean rooms” at the wafer fabrication plants – where they manufacture microchips like Intel and AMD. The fliter can last up to 5 years under “normal operating conditions”. It’s got a Quick Clean function as well. The replacement for the 2 filters will cost approximate RM200, the HEPA filter does cost quite a fair bit. Unfortunately it does not filter out carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide.

The price ? Cost me a whopping RM1,499 and it was 5:00pm already, I was coughing and started having burning sensation in my eyes. The guy at the shop said that these units are moving real quick, they sold 8 units in the past 2 days! I loooooked suspiciously at him and asked whether is he artificially inflating the price or not! And of course he said no. Heck we don't expect him to say otherwise, right? Time was not on my side, so I took a deep breath and swiped my Alliance Bank card for a 12 month easy payment scheme, which works out to be RM125 per month. This thing looks good too. It has a very nice and sleek design, it looks high tech.



I was home by about 5:30pm, I took it straight into the master bedroom and set it up immediately. When the purifier starts up, it takes the first 30 seconds to check the air purity levels. The indicator was on amber and after operating for about 30 minutes, it turned green. As I walked in and out the room after that, the air smells different, the burning smell is no longer in the room. I then logged on to the web and checked around for prices - the thing retails in the US from about USD300 to USD499. So RM1,499 is just about right, I'll let him live.

By the way, the purifier also removes odours throught its activated charcoal filter. You will need to wash the filter with water once in a while.

Disclaimer – I do not work at Sharp nor do I sell any of their stuff.

Hope you’ll find this useful.