The best air-purifying products: combat pollutants and allergens with the latest environmental homewares
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The air we breathe can be more harmful to our health than outside pollutants so it's more important than ever to keep on top of the air quality in our home.
However, there are some ingenious ways to monitor and do what we can to reduce air pollution inside the home.
From carbon monoxide detectors that double up as fire alarms to air purifiers that can provide five complete air changes an hour, some handy gadgets will help you keep on track and improve air quality.
Meanwhile, if you're looking for a more natural way to combat the chemicals, it's time to fill up your home with houseplants.
And if you're thinking of giving your walls a fresh lick of paint, a mineral based paint will even help neutralise airborne pollutants.
Read on for our guide to the best ways to clean the air you breathe...
NEST PROTECT
Carbon monoxide is a colourless, tasteless and odourless gas that kills about 50 people a year in the UK.
It’s produced when a fuel burns incompletely. So if you burn gas, oil or solid fuels — even if that’s just your gas central heating boiler — be sure to have a working carbon monoxide detector.
Prices start at £15, or buy this Nest smart alarm which does double duty as a smoke alarm, too. Priced £109.
AWAIR
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Indoor air quality is far worse than that on our streets: pollutants get pulled in as we walk through the door and there’s not enough ventilation to remove them.
We also contribute to the problem with everything from DIY to cooking.
Understand the air in your home with this device which monitors five things: fine dust (PM2.5), chemicals (VoC), carbon dioxide, humidity and temperature.
An app keeps track and offers advice. It’s £169.
DYSON PURE HOT+COOL
Dyson combines its air multiplier cooling fan technology with a fan heater and HEPA and carbon filters to improve air quality.
Built-in air quality monitors report back to a companion app and display a cute graph on the front.
It won’t improve air quality as much as a larger, dedicated air purifier, but it does make a difference and warms or cools you in the process.
Priced £549.99.
PEACE LILY
Boffins at Nasa tested houseplants in 1989 to find out which were best at improving indoor air quality.
All healthy plants help to clean the air, but the peace lily (spathiphyllum) proved one of the best, mopping up environmental contaminants benzene, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene, xylene and toluene.
If you’re concerned about chemicals coming from new furniture finishes, carpets and more, then this hard-to-kill plant will help.
Priced £10-£55.
BLUEAIR CLASSIC 680I SMOKESTOP AIR PURIFIER
The only way to truly get clean indoor air is a dedicated air purifier.
This one has an extra-fine 0.1-micron HEPA filter which removes more pollutants than most, including not just particulates but viruses and bacteria.
Meanwhile, its carbon filter is essential for absorbing the nitrogen dioxide from traffic fumes.
It’s powerful enough to provide five complete air changes an hour in larger rooms or a small apartment of up to 72 square metres.
For smaller rooms, look at the Classic 405 smokestop.
Both feature air quality sensors and can be monitored via app. Priced £839.
AIRLITE PURELITE INTERIOR
This interior paint is unusual in two ways.
Firstly, it comes as a powder that you mix with water to make a mineral, inorganic paint with high breathability.
Secondly, it improves your indoor air quality.
Activated by sunlight, the paint neutralises airborne pollutants — everything from nitrogen dioxide to airborne bacteria and mould.
Available in more than 180 colours, including primer, it works out at £3.70 per square metre.
Priced from £149 for 5kg.