Do Air Conditioners Affect Air Quality?

When it comes to manipulating the air in your home, there are a number of devices you can introduce — but importantly, they’re not all the same. For instance, air purifiers and humidifiers are different devices. The same can be said for air purifiers and air conditioners. What exactly do ACs do to the air in your home, and can they impact the quality?


Let’s explore!


Wait, How are an Air Conditioner and Air Purifier Different?


Great question. Air conditioners cool down the temperature of the air in a room. It does this through two processes:


  1. The AC cools down warm air by passing it across a coil that’s filled with refrigerant. This is what sucks the heat out of the air. As this process happens, the refrigerant turns from a liquid into a gas.
  2. The gaseous refrigerant enters yet another coil. The heat is released via the AC unit outside your home and the refrigerant returns to its original liquid state.

On the other hand, an air purifier has nothing to do with changing the temperature. Instead, it cleans the air by removing dangerous toxins. The Sans air purifier uses four layers of protection to cleanse the air you breathe: a pre-filter, medical-grade HEPA 13 filter, activated carbon filter, and pulses of UV-C light.


But Does the Air Conditioner Have Any Impact on Air Quality?


So, you now have a basic understanding of how air conditioning works. What does this mean for the quality of the air you breathe?


Consider the entire process of air that is circulated through an AC unit. As it circulates, refreshes, and cools down the temperature inside, it’s also helping to dehumidify the air. This means that to a degree, it’s removing moisture. Why does this matter?


Well, you want to keep your home around a certain humidity level. The general consensus is that the ideal humidity is between 30% and 50%. This is important because the humidity level of your home affects the quality of the air. If the percentage is off, it can encourage the growth of mold, bacteria, fungi, and mildew. It can even make your home a breeding ground for viruses. So, air conditioning can help you to avoid this. This is also why you should always crack a window or keep the door open after you shower — to let some of that moisture out. Outside of bathrooms, humidity can also be an issue in laundry rooms and kitchens — anywhere where there’s extra moisture.


Side note: While an air conditioner can help maintain better humidity levels in your home, depending on the climate you live in, you might also benefit from an additional humidifier/dehumidifier. For instance, people who live in a desert climate, like Las Vegas, often use humidifiers to introduce more moisture into the air.


Here’s another good question: Since your air conditioning unit is circulating air through these coils, does that means it’s also cleaning the air? To a degree, yes. Air conditioners have filters that can trap particles like dust and pollen as the air passes through them. This is why it’s important to change these filters regularly.


However, even with consistent maintenance, by design, an air conditioner is not meant to clean the air. It’s meant to cool it. If you want cleaner air to breathe, then you need an air purification system!


So, I Need Both an AC Unit and an Air Purifier?


Ideally, yes! They each serve different purposes and work nicely together. As you’re looking for an air purifier, keep these things in mind:


  • It should have multiple layers of protection. This is because filters that can capture larger particles can’t always adequately capture smaller ones, and vice versa. (Think about trapping a human hair versus a virus. They’re vastly different in size.)
  • It needs to be able to trap both solids and gasses.
  • Your air purifier needs to be able to neutralize the particles once it has trapped them.
  • It should use a replaceable filter, not a washable one. Needing to manually wash a filter means exposing yourself to all of the particles it trapped.
  • It should be stable and easy to move around. You might want your air purifier in the kitchen one day, and the living room the next.
  • It should be safe for children and pets.

Sans does all of this and more. Here’s how:


  1. The pre-filter comes first. This is responsible for catching larger particles, like hair and dust. The pre-filter makes it possible for the following layers to do their jobs better.
  2. The HEPA 13 filter comes next. This type of filter is medical-grade and capable of trapping 99.97% of particles down to 0.3 microns and 99.95% of particles as small as 0.1 microns. 
  3. Third up is the activated carbon filter. Activated carbon filters trap gasses, specifically. This includes volatile organic compounds (VOCs), chemicals coming from your cleaning products, and undesirable odors.
  4. The UV-C light helps to neutralize these dangerous toxins so that they can’t make you sick, grow on the other filters, or escape the purifier.

Additionally, Sans doesn’t produce any ozone, it has a child lock feature, and it’s whisper quiet, meaning it won’t disturb you, even when you’re asleep. Our SmartPure technology shows your air quality in real-time, and our device will always notify you when it’s time to change the filter.


Managing the air in your home requires a multi-faceted approach, and one of the most important pieces of the puzzle is air purification. This is the most reliable way to protect your health and keep your family safe. Shop with Sans today and feel the difference.