The International Schools Review Forum

Hi guys,

So we have decided to move to Beijing for a couple of years. I have read all about the need to have good quality air purifiers in our apartment, however, no one has seemed to mention the monthly cost of running the air purifiers. I have been informed that it would be best to have 3 air purifiers (1 x living room and 1 for each of the bedrooms) and that they should be keep on 24x7.

What do you think the typical monthly cost would be to run the 3 air purifiers 24x7?

Thanks
Godfather

I encourage you to look at this page before you spend thousands of dollars on air filter machines.

http://smartairfilters.com/

Electricity is pretty cheap in Beijing. I pay about $25 USD a month on electricity and run two air cleaners.

The real question is the cost of not running them.

IAMBOG wrote:
> I encourage you to look at this page before you spend thousands of dollars on air
> filter machines.
>
> http://smartairfilters.com/

IAMBOG, have you used these smart filters? I've come across them before and the numbers are impressive.

I haven't. We're moving to Shanghai in August, so I started to investigate alternatives.

I am using these in my shanghai apt. They seem to work well.

Do you mean proper air filters or the ones in the link?

Apparently you can buy air particle readers on Amazon for a couple of hundred dollars if you want to check they are working.

I am Bog, I have already purchased mine from friends who are leaving Beijing. I happened to get a great deal. But there are definitely expat sites in Shanghai and Beijing to help locate units. Electricity is not expensive, you need the purifiers!!! You health is definitely worth keeping those things running!

Enjoy Shanghai, I will be visiting friends there next school year.

The purifier is the filter, not the box it sits in.

Very much looking forward to Shanghai, it seems a lots more vibrant and has more things to do than our current location.

We should be living in Minhang, just north of metro line 9 (Hechuan Road / Caohejing). I am told there is a bit of an expat community 20 minutes walk north of Caohejing Hi-Tech Park on Hongmei Road. Anybody know this area and care to give a bit more detail? Not finding much at the moment.

I really enjoy Hongmei Lu. Actually there is a large expat community and there are plenty of restaurants (especially when you include the pedestrian street), a City Shop, and the Pearl Market. The flower market is a 20 minute walk to the west and Carrefour is a 15 minute walk to the east over the Middle Ring Road. It sounds as if you will be living just north of the Metro supermarket, Decathlon and B&Q complex as well. Also there is a very interesting hardware "market" just to the west of the Middle Ring road and south of Caoxing rd. Line 9 will get you into the southern portions of the former French concession or out to Sheshan and of course you can make connections off of it to reach almost anywhere in Shanghai.

The monthly cost in terms of electricity is pretty low. I own 2 BluAirs, which are enough for my flat, and I run them 24/7 unless the AQI outside is below 90. The big cost is the upfront cost of buying the machines, which I'm sure you've already investigated. Additionally, the replacement filters for my machine run about 550RMB each. I replace mine every 4 months rather than the recommended 6 months. To me the cost is we worth it, because when I borrowed an AQI reader, the air in my flat was excellent.

Yet the moment you walk outside......and most people have no sense of smell and can't pick up which chems are actually in the air when it appears clean and 'smells' clean. You might as well smoke....

I have two little kids. We probably spend 12 hours a day at home. We currently live in a polluted city where no one ever talks about air pollution, or rather, nobody does anything to protect themselves against it. I'm not sure living in Shanghai is any worse than this. At least people in Shanghai are conscious of the pollution and using filters to protect themselves.

I'd rather stick my head in the sand somewhere in the uptight Middle East than subject my lungs to that chemical wasteland known as China. But to each his own...