Mar
A concern that some people have with using room air purifiers on a continuous basis is their power consumption. Are room air purifiers appliances that consume a lot of electricity, making them bad for your wallet and the environment? Let’s find out.
How much electricity does a room air purifier consume?
While the amount of electricity consumed by a room air purifier greatly varies by brand and model, generally speaking, they do not consume a lot of electricity as the primary method of air filtration is mechanical (fan and filter).
Power consumption depends on the speed setting of the air purifier. For example, the AirFanta 3Pro has six different speed settings. At its highest, it consumes 33.2 W, and at its lowest, it consumes 2.2 W. It is important to keep in mind that the speed setting is tied to air cleaning performance, meaning to say that the air purifier is at its maximum Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) at the highest speed, and the lowest CADR at the lowest speed.
Thus, while setting to the lowest setting may seem appealing, it will not be effective at cleaning the air in a room.
How does that compare to other household appliances?
Here is a list showing the average power consumption of other household appliances in watts:
- Air-conditioner (AC): 1,250 W
- Washing machine: 750 W
- Refrigerator: 500 W
- Standing fan: 60 W
As you can tell from the list, even when operating a room air purifier like AirFanta 3Pro at its highest setting, consumes 97% less electricity than an air-conditioner, and almost 50% less electricity than a standing fan.
How much does it cost to run a room air purifier?
Let’s calculate how much running an AirFanta 3Pro will cost you on your electricity bill.
We will make the following assumptions:
- The AirFanta 3Pro runs for 8 hours a day (240 hours a month)
- Power consumption is 18.9 W (setting 4, third highest speed)
- We will use Keppel’s FIXED24 plan (S$0.2887 / kWh after GST). The SP Tariff is S$30.65 as of March 9, 2025.
First, calculate kWh by using this calculator.
The result is 4.536 kWh.
Next, enter the power consumption (5 kWh, rounded up) in Keppel’s calculator.
The results are:
- AirFanta 3Pro monthly electrical cost: S$0.09
- AirFanta 3Pro yearly electrical cost: S$1.08
On the other hand, a 1,250 W air-conditioner running 8 hours a day costs:
- Air-conditioner monthly electrical cost: S$5.34
- Air-conditioner yearly electrical cost: S$64.08
That is almost 60 times higher than the AirFanta 3Pro.
Running the AirFanta 3Pro at the highest setting (33.2 W) for 24 hours a day is still much cheaper than running an air-conditioner for 8 hours a day:
- AirFanta 3Pro monthly electrical cost (highest setting): S$0.43
- AirFanta 3Pro yearly electrical cost (highest setting): S$5.16
Conclusion
As seen from the results, room air purifiers clearly do not consume a lot of electricity, and will not significantly contribute to your electricity bill even if you use them 24 hours a day.
In fact, using a standing fan or ceiling fan instead of an air-conditioner, or setting an air-conditioner to a higher temperature would help significantly reduce your electricity bill. Learn more energy-saving tips from NEA here.
Looking for the best air purifier? We got you covered
At dokuki, we strive to offer highly innovative products that substantially help to improve our customers’ quality of life without breaking the bank.
If you’re looking for a good room air purifier, we highly recommend the AirFanta 3Pro as it meets all four requirements for choosing the best purifier:
- It has a very high CADR for a consumer product, providing up to 702 m³/h of clean air in a room
- It is the most cost-effective air purifier among all room air purifiers in Singapore at 3.60 m³/h per Singapore Dollar. You’re paying S$195 for an air purifier that usually retails for S$1,000 or more.
- Noise levels range from 36 dB to 56 dB, which are within our recommendations
- In a 40 m² studio apartment, the AirFanta 3Pro (at its highest setting) cleans the air every 9 minutes (6.75 ACH). In a 15 m² bedroom, it cleans the air every 3.3 minutes (18 ACH), more frequent than most modern hospital facilities in the developed world.
Find out why the AirFanta 3Pro is so powerful or order yours below:
Room Air Purifier
