Cleaning the air intake grille and ionized air outlets every three months, or more often if necessary, is essential for proper functioning of an air ionizer. To do this, the air filter element must be removed from the top of the unit. Some ionization devices require airflow to work properly, while others do not. If the former is chosen, they must depend on the available airflow or include fans in their design.
It is important to determine whether the fans for distributing air ions are compatible with the working environment. Compressed gas ionizers will require a gas source (usually air or nitrogen) and filtration compatible with their area of use. The SARS epidemic in East Asia, including Japan, led to an increased demand for personal ionizers. Many products have been specialized to contain negative ion generators, such as toothbrushes, refrigerators, air conditioners, air filters and washing machines.
The National Health Service (NHS) in Britain investigated the effectiveness of anions for air purification and discovered that repeated acinetobacter infections transmitted through air in a ward were eliminated by installing a negative air ionizer; the infection rate was reduced to zero. The California Air Resources Board has a page listing air purifiers (many of them with ionizers) that meet the indoor ozone limit of 0.050 parts per million. Studies have shown that there is no consistent influence of positive or negative air ionization on measures of anxiety, mood, relaxation, sleep and personal comfort. However, there is weak evidence that negative air ionization is associated with lower depression scores, especially at the highest exposure level.
An air ionizer (or negative ion generator or Chizhevsky chandelier) is a device that uses high voltage to ionize (electrically charge) air molecules. Ionizers use electrostatically charged plates to produce air ions with a positive or negative charge (for example, N2+ or O2−; these primary ions immediately group together with other molecules in the air, such as H2O), to which the particles adhere. The fan-based ionizer uses its fan to circulate air around the room quickly but it is noisier and consumes more energy. On the other hand, those without a fan distribute air slowly which takes longer to purify the air but they are quieter and more energy efficient.
The CADR measures the amount of filtered air that circulates over a short period of time and was originally designed to qualify media-based air purifiers. Ionization decreases very sharply with distance (even in ducts), so air ionization is rarely used for this purpose and only for the elements immediately adjacent to the ionizer itself. Therefore, it is not necessary to have a specific type of outlet for an air ionizer installation.
