Real estate article: How Clean is Your Home?

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How clean is your home? Unless you already own a 'HEPA' approved vacuum, it could be full of dust, dust mite feces (!), dead human skin, pollen, pet dander, bacteria, mold spores and viruses! An efficient vacuum cleaner is one of the best tools you can have if you or your family suffers from allergies.

These days, science finds out more and more about lungs, pollution, dust and breathing, so it is worth checking out the latest ideas in floor cleaners if you have allergies.

The magic wording for anti-allergen help is HEPA, which translates into "High Efficiency Particulate Air Filters". The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has regulated this code so that a certain standard has to be met by all vacuums that carry this label.

The market is very crafty in this regard, as HEPA may be quoted on a vacuum but it will not meet the DOE criteria which asthmatics etc., will want to buy.

The reason it is easy to be fooled is because the vacuums will state such claims as: 'HEPA-type', '99% HEPA' or 'HEPA-like'. Naturally, you may think this sounds close enough, but it is not and that 'misleading' type of label means that it has not been tested in the same laboratories as the Department of Energy approved HEPA vacuums.

HEPA filters are sought after because they guarantee to remove 99.97% of airborne particles that are 0.3 micrometers in diameter. These are thought to be the most difficult size to trap. Smaller (0.1) and larger (0.4) particles are also trapped by the filter.

The HEPA vacuum uses three different methods to trap airborne particles. They are caught by interception, where the particle adheres in the fiber of the filter, or by impaction, where the force of air embeds a particle into the membrane, and finally by diffusion, where a particle collides with others and is delayed or impeded long enough for it to become trapped by one of the previous two methods.

The reason that these HEPA filters were originally engineered to such a high degree of efficiency is because they were masterminded in the 1940s to prevent the spread of radioactive contaminants that were airborne. Who would have thought that a piece of dust could be investigated so technically?

Since then, the HEPA filters have been used for hospitals, nuclear power, electronic micro circuitry and aerospace. The high standard of the original HEPA was categorized by DOE and has now become a registered trademark.

When a HEPA filter is used in a vacuum cleaner, it is particularly beneficial for asthmatics as the filter traps pollen and dust mite feces, which trigger the symptoms. The vacuum must have a more powerful motor than normal because of the density of the filter. It must also be designed so that all the air drawn into the vacuum is passed through the filter before it leaves the machine.

Many brands offer HEPA filters including some of the following: Sears, Eureka, Dirt Devil, Miele, Fantom, Air Storm and Bissell. The Allergy Buyers Club makes several recommendations for quality vacuums, and also carries a chart comparing HEPA vacuums on their web site.

About the author of How Clean is Your Home?

National Rental Properties is the premier online resource for bringing prospective tenants together with quality American rental property listings. Find Wyoming rental properties by visiting www.NationalRentalProperties.com.