When you live in the city, you quickly realize how much black dust you breathe in every day. Especially when you discover a good layer of this dust in the recesses of a piece of furniture. Most often, this is the soot that comes from car exhaust pipes. Even more serious, if some of this dust seems to glow, it can come from metal particles from the brakes worn by road vehicle users. This is all the more true when you live on the edge of a crossroads, or on a hill, and vehicles have a greater need to accelerate.
External solutions
First we have solutions that we can put in place outside the apartment. With for example a yarn that has very fine stitches. The problem is that it will give you a feeling of suffocation and that you will lose in brightness, just as it can demoralize if you can no longer see the outside.
A second, smarter solution is to set up a natural barrier with the installation of plants such as medium-sized shrubs (eg laurels). These plants will absorb a large amount of CO2. There too we lose visibility but it is a less extreme possibility than a net.
A third, much more radical solution is to install a bay window on the balcony. It will nevertheless need aerated from time to time. This possibility is on the other hand much more expensive. But it's the one that will cut pollution the most. We can add plants on the balcony that do not fear the greenhouse effect. Bamboos will do just fine.
Internal solutions
Nowadays there are even more interesting internal solutions than those just listed. The first is to opt for an air purifier. This technology is widely developed and is now affordable.
The advantages are efficiency, high capacity (360 m3 / h), silence (only 18 dBA), ease of use. These devices are capable of filtering 100% of fine particles and allergens. There is a large particle pre-filter, an activated carbon filter (for bacteria), an anti-allergen filter, a fine particle filter (for pollution). The disadvantages: you have to change the filters once every 6 months. Digital buttons are a problem if you have cats or small children (but this is true with most electronic machines these days).
We quickly see that this type of device is effective when a bad smell is generated, when cooking, when a cat comes out of the litter box; the air purifier then comes out of its ultra quiet mode to activate and filter the air as well as possible; odors then evaporate more quickly. Overall, you have the impression that the air is cleaner, fresher and lighter in your apartment. The most efficient device on the market today is the Rowenta PU6080F0 purifier.
Another very radical solution is the installation of aerators at the floor level of the apartment which will suck up all the particles. But this requires a lot of resources, since it will be necessary to redevelop the whole apartment, the electricity network, etc.
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