What are your thoughts on using Ventilation System, Air Purifiers in Urban Indian Homes?
Most urban homes in India rely solely on doors and windows for ventilation, which isn’t always sufficient especially in compact apartments.
If you’re sleeping in a airtight room with the AC or fan running,(as AC will only recirculate air like fan) CO₂ levels can build up overnight, may lead to dizziness, fatigue, or headaches.
On top of that, indoor air tends to accumulate dust quickly just look at how often surfaces and ceiling fans need cleaning.
I’m Curious to know:
What kind of ventilation setups or air purifiers are you guys using in your homes?
Any recommendations that have worked well for you?
I don’t think there’s a need for an air purifier here in the south, as the air quality is not bad it only gets worse during Diwali. However if you’re in Delhi or nearby, I think you should have one. Please consider having O2 indoor plants in the bedroom and living room that should be enough. Also, keep the doors open in the morning to allow fresh air to circulate. If dust is a problem, you can apply mesh screens on the windows and doors
The amount of dust in Hyderabad is crazy. Well there isnt much we can do to keep out so much dust.
I usually open the windows and doors in the mornings between 6am to 8am after which they are mostly closed.
The windows in my apartment are poorly made and so I had installed those dust proof insulation tapes you get on amazon. They do a good job of minimizing the dust.
I also run the air purifier for about 60 mins in each room when ever a full cleaning of the house takes place like once a month
What kind of ventilation setups or air purifiers are you guys using in your homes?
Ideally what we need are passive homes with ervs - energy recovery ventilators, but they are not widely available in India and their opex cost seems quite high. I looked into HVAC systems as well but they cost of 25L for good setup.
So, my plan right now is to visit an air filter manufacturer in my city, find out his most commonly sold filter, install L ducts of that shape in a few walls, add those filters to that duct along with 6-9 PC case fans.
I don’t think air purifiers are required in every city/town unless its smog around like when Delhi’s air index is labelled as the worse in the country during chilly winters.
I’m totally against relying on tech right form sleep to walking to air purifying and so on. People have become slaves to tech and that’s why bots are soon going to replace them.
Body should be immune to the bad air as well, to the dust and smoke.
Here we face hell of a dust issue from Oct - June, esp. that my society has a proper maidan/ground for playing and that my house is the prime victim due to the prime location.
Yet we follow the same pattern round the year- Keep windows/doors open from dawn to dust and then only the net windows to be saved from mosquitos and flying insects.
Point was to be habitual and not panic even at the slightest dust etc. The way people go panic these days is the reason for their low immunity and popping pills from early 20s till their last breathe.
Today almost everyone suffers from dust allergy but if you learn to counter, you can very well survive even in a dusty envi. without requiring the need of sprays and meds. I have exp. it.
If you have airtight windows and doors, then yeah although i am not sure how long it will take to be an issue.
Most of the time here there is lots of little spaces in windows and doors that leak in air. Atleast in my house it is the case and i dont think CO2 levels will ever be an issue. I do clear the room once a day atleast by opening windows, but probably not needed.
Air leakage will make AC/airpurifier less efficient. Curtains can probably help.
Have heard of ERV systems that can ventilate + exchange heat and humidity so it an air tight room that should be more efficient.
Dust comes in from outside generally. So ventilation brings in dust, not the other way around for the most part.
Airpurifiers are like ac and circulate air within the room. They don’t ventilate. You can ofc just stick a fan through the window and let it bring in air and have a filter in there and it will do the same thing.
Airpurifier + dehumidifier (Mumbai air is humid) has made a huge difference for me in alleviating asthma/allergy symptoms throughout the year but esp in winters when air quality is very bad because air in cities apparently gets trapped. I have had respiratory issues since childhood, this solved it.
If you don’t have these issues then it maybe doesnt matter, but ignore anyone saying that you need to build resistance and similar faulty logic. They don’t know what they are talking about.
Also note, that AP is not enough, also need to vacuum regularly, wash bedsheet/curtains etc.
I currently live in Hyderabad, where the outdoor AQI in my area typically ranges between 40 and 50.
However, I recently discovered that the real issue was the indoor air quality particularly due to dust in the room and a significant drop in air quality during cooking. We don’t have a chimney installed, so we usually just open the windows while cooking, thinking that would be sufficient.
A friend of mine with asthma visited recently. At night, he had a persistent cough while the fan was on. When I switched off the fan and turned on the AC instead, his condition improved a bit. That incident made me more aware. I’ve also noticed occasional allergic reactions myself, but I had been ignoring them.
The root cause turned out to be indoor dust. I live in a penthouse and usually clean the shelves and a hard to reach surfaces once every two months. The fan accumulates dust quickly, but I hadn’t realized how much that contributes to indoor pollution.
I recently purchased a Mi air purifier and did a deep cleaning of the rooms. Since then, I’ve noticed a significant improvement in air quality—the air feels fresher, and the room smells cleaner.
After getting the air purifier, I observed that the AQI inside the house spiked to 550 during cooking (with windows, doors open) even in a different room! Here’s a photo of the air quality slowly dropping back down after cooking.
This made it clear to me that simply opening windows while cooking isn’t enough chimneys are needed.
I also came across an article where a doctor mentioned that cooking in enclosed spaces without proper ventilation is one of the contributing factors to cancer in Indian households.
Which floor are you in? I find that being at a higher altitude can sometimes make one feel suffocated. Also, consider buying indoor O2 producing plants to help improve air quality
Air pollution = small particles in air. Also gases i guess, but primary issue is particles.
Increasing O2 will not magically make that disappear.
Plants inside wont produce enough anyway. I dunno why people keep repeating this.
For air to get thinner, you will probably need to be 1km above sea level or more. A building isnt going to do that.
What Air purifier does is move air through a particle filter, that’s it. Catches dust and smaller stuff. Dust can cause allergy for some, and smaller particles can be more harmful as they can get into lungs.
Can be asthma or panic attack too or something else. For a long time i did not even know i had asthma even though i had difficulty breathing/coughing on some days.
“Body should be immune to the bad air as well, to the dust and smoke.”
I agree, that’s why I smoke every now and then, just to keep them lungs used to the smoke, otherwise who knows they may turn cancerous.
“If you’re sleeping in a airtight room with the AC or fan running,(as AC will only recirculate air like fan) CO₂ levels can build up overnight, may lead to dizziness, fatigue, or headaches.
On top of that, indoor air tends to accumulate dust quickly just look at how often surfaces and ceiling fans need cleaning.”
O2, CO2 is not a problem unless you are living in AIR TIGHT room condition. The molecular diffusion will ensure that you will never have low oxygen or high CO2 levels. The problem in cars is different because the fuel vapors contain the volatile organic compounds, and the exhaust contains added CO all of which are poisonous (please note CO2 is not poisonous).
I use Honeywell air purifier to take care of the PM2.5 and PM10 pollution, which increases in Mumbai post monsoon, and increased drastically during winters (because the land to sea wind movement brings all the mainland pollutants to coastal areas).
How does the PM2.5 and PM10 pollution affect me? I experience continuous scratchy sensation in the back of the throat, nasal tract, red/dry eyes in the immediate short term.
