Air purifier or home appliance standard

In recent days, many cities in China have been hit by haze. For a time, air purifiers have become popular. Appliance analyst Liang Zhenpeng said that although sales of air purifiers continue to be hot, the industry is currently facing the status quo of lack of supervision: the old regulatory standards are lagging behind and the new national standard is still blank, which makes the corresponding market chaotic. However, Liang Zhenpeng also said that if the haze weather continues, this will promote the development of the industry, and air purifiers will also become standard household appliances in the home.

Wide prospects, lack of supervision

Although the sales of air purifiers are hot, it may take time to become a home appliance standard. In October this year, a research report from Dongxing Securities showed that the current home ownership rate of air purifiers in China is less than 1%.

However, from another perspective, the outlook for this industry is quite broad. Liang Zhenpeng said that at present, the concentration of air purifiers is very low, and new brands will be added one after another in the future. In the next few years, the industry will continue to grow at a high rate.

Liu Buchen, a senior observer of the household appliances industry, said: “The air purifier is a new industry. I estimate that the market will increase by 50 million units in three years. If we calculate it at 3,000 yuan per unit, we will have a market share of 150 billion yuan.”

Because air purifiers are emerging industries, there are many problems in the industry. According to media reports, some air purifiers in the market currently have the phenomenon of expanding propaganda, and the actual area surveyed is only half or even less than the nominal area.

An air purifier store customer service said that the area where the imaginary label is applied is no secret. How is the applicable area calculated? The customer service said that this is not clear, all the standard production standards. Recently, the Shanghai Bureau of Quality Supervision announced that the quality and safety risk monitoring results of air purifier products showed that among the 20 batches of samples monitored, there were 7 batches of non-standard applied area.

Liang Zhenpeng said that all companies have their own standards and have their own arguments, so that the market looks very confusing.

In addition, air purifiers still have a problem of high prices, and some media reports that a product priced at 7,000 yuan does not cost more than 2,000 yuan. In this regard, Liang Zhenpeng said that this situation exists, this industry is currently a profit-making industry, the profit rate is above 100%.

Liang Zhenpeng also said: "The difference between the good and the bad is an obvious feature of the current air purifier industry. In terms of supervision, the related industry standards have lags behind the actual industrial development. There are also some reasons for the price turmoil. Therefore, it is not necessary to regulate the industry. strengthen."

Expert: Air purifier will become the standard home appliance

Although the popularity of air purifiers is still low, the potential of the industry cannot be ignored. A few days ago, some media quoted experts from the Ministry of Environmental Protection as saying that if urban pollution control is not in place, the haze will continue for at least a decade or two. Liu Buchen said that in the future, air purifiers are expected to be popular in the home like color TVs.

Liang Zhenpeng said that in places with severe air pollution, air purifiers must be favored by consumers.

According to data from Taobao, last week, the number of air purifier transactions reached 146,436, an increase of 74.1%. From this point of view, more and more people began to pay attention to air quality. Some media even reported that some parents in Nanjing proposed installing air purifiers at schools to ensure that children’s learning is not affected by haze.

Although air purifiers can optimize air quality, they are limited to interiors and people’s lives are inseparable from the outdoors. Some experts suggested that people usually have more contact with nature when there is less smog. Also, some experts pointed out that smog should be treated fundamentally, that is, "emission reduction."

What are the standards of air purifiers?

For the standards of air purifiers, Lu Jianguo, director of the comprehensive inspection department of the National Household Electrical Appliances Quality Supervision and Inspection Center, said that there are three types of standards in the country, namely GB4706.45-2008 "Special requirements for safe air purifiers for household and similar electrical appliances." (hereinafter referred to as "special requirements"), GB/T18801-2008 "Air Purifier" (hereinafter referred to as "empty net standard"), and GB21551.3-2010 "Antimicrobial, sterilizing and purifying functions for household and similar electrical appliances. The special requirements of the device (hereinafter referred to as "antibacterial standards") and other three categories.

Lu Jianguo said that all air purifiers should meet one of the special requirements and vacancy standards, and those products marked with antibacterial or bactericidal functions should provide proof of antibacterial standards. In addition, assuming that companies have their own air purifiers have the corresponding clean air rate, noise and other indicators, it must meet the relevant requirements of the air clean standard.

Lu Jianguo also said that if you want to choose an air purifier, it is best to look at the product's CADR, which is how many cubic meters of clean air the product can handle per hour. If an enterprise claims to have a CADR value of 98%, and the consumer goes to a professional testing agency to detect that it has not reached 90% of its marked value, he or she has the right to ask the company to explain. At the same time, when purchasing an air purifier, its marked life expectancy is worth paying attention to. Some products with a 3-year life expectancy are basically not in line with the actual situation. In general, the life of an air purifier may be about 300 hours, and some are slightly longer. If the life is reduced to less than 50%, consumers should consider replacing the filter element and other equipment, or the effect of purifying the air is not obvious.

Hua Li, general manager of the filtering technology group at Freudenberg (China), said that some air purifier companies are not scientific about the "99% removal of 0.01 or 0.001 micron particles."

“There is false propaganda here. The performance of the air purifier is not based on the ability to remove very small particles. In fact, the current 0.1 to 0.3 micron particle is the most difficult to remove, but PM2.5 particles are easily caught. Live.” Holley thinks.

High-efficiency air filters have high efficiency air filters (HEPA and ULPA) values ​​of 99.7% (that is, 99.7% of 0.3 micron particles are blocked), which is the best among multiple filters. However, if we want to achieve this efficiency, we need a lot of wind.

In China, the so-called definition of “high-efficiency air filter” is lower than the EN 1882 standard in Europe, and may be only 85% (ie, the effect of blocking 0.3 micron particles is 85%). Therefore, when purchasing this kind of commodity, you can pay attention to this indicator. Assume that an air purifier manufacturer only advertises its own product as a high-efficiency filter product, but there is no corresponding indicator for reference. This is also a false propaganda.