Air purification equipment for classrooms in China: An overall indicator for selection based on health, energy consumption and cost

To effectively reduce the health hazards of indoor air pollutants, proper selection of air purification equipment is essential. The following factors are important for selection: removal efficiency, energy consumption, control cost and health benefit. For the first time, we propose a method for selecting air purification equipment. Our method yields an overall indicator, namely the coefficient of economic benefit (CEB). By quantifying health benefit using disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and integrating energy consumption and control costs, we can calculate the economic payback for given economic investment. We tested and verified the reliability of this proposed method with measured data. Based on this method, we have determined the most suitable of three types of air purification equipment for school classrooms in Beijing. Subsequently, we estimated CEBs of the three types of air purification equipment for classrooms in 31 cities in China. We found that the differences among them can be greater than a factor of 3. While for the 8 cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Chengdu, Taiyuan, Xi’an, Harbin, and Urumqi, fresh air systems without heat recovery are most suitable, air cleaners work best for all other 23 cities. The max CEBs for the cities were all above 1.6, suggesting that using air purification equipment is a cost-effective measure for improving air quality in classrooms. Our results show that the indicator together with the analytical method are satisfactory for optimal selection of air purification equipment in different cities in China.