Do Cosmos Wall-Mounted UVC Air Purifiers Work?

Cosmos Wall Mount uses multiple air cleaning technologies to accomplish its goals: air filtration and disinfection. It boasts a CADR of 588 ft³/minute at max fan speed, medical-grade quality H13 HEPA filter, and seven 35W UV lamps – translation: it is an air filtration and disinfection powerhouse even for large rooms. Its different technologies work in harmony:

1. The fan circulates and draws indoor air into the machine,
2. the HEPA filter is the workhorse, trapping 99.95% of particles 0.1 microns in diameter,
3. Germicidal UV lights deactivate (AKA, kill) the trapped viruses, bacteria, and spores, and the remaining particles that pass by,
4. Finally, the carbon ionizer charges the remaining particles and dead microbes – whatever particles that made its way through the gauntlet will be grounded and no longer airborne

Keep reading below to learn about Cosmos Wall Mount's process of disinfecting the air.

HEPA Filter

In the Cosmos Wall Mount, the High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter does most of the work to catch and trap particles to be exposed to UVC light. The filter relies on the fan to move the air through the device. Cosmos Wall Mount’s HEPA filter is equivalent to MERV 16 and offers the highest available particle removal efficiency among other similar filters. It traps a wide range of particle sizes, even down to particles that are 0.1 microns in size. Most of us don’t measure using microns often, so here are some examples for scale:

• Fine beach sand: 90 microns in diameter
• Human hair: 50-70 microns in diameter
• Dust, pollen, mold, etc.: less than 10 microns in diameter
• Respiratory particle containing SARS-CoV-2: min. 4.7 microns in diameter
• Combustion particles, organic compounds, metals, etc.: less than 2.5 microns in diameter
• Respiratory particles containing influenza: 0.35 to 2.5 microns in diameter

The smaller the particle, the more dangerous it is to human health because it can enter deep into the lungs and even the blood stream. H13 filters will trap 99.95% of particles 0.1 microns in diameter, meaning only 5 out of every 10,000 of that size will pass through.

There are two issues remaining: 1. Bacteria or viruses trapped on the filter or the ones that manage to pass through are still capable of multiplying and replicating. 2. The particles which make it through the device will still be airborne potentially inhaled into the lungs. Keep reading to find out how UV light and a carbon ionizer finish the job of purifying the air.

Strong UV

UV 101: UV CAN’s Intro to Ultraviolet Light

UV (ultraviolet) light is one among many types of electromagnetic radiation, for example, visible light, x-rays, and gamma rays. UV light has three types (or wavelengths):

• UV-C from 200nm (nanometers) to 260nm,
• UV-B from 280nm to 315nm, and
• UV-A from 325nm to 400nm.

UV-A and UV-B are the wavelengths that pass through our atmosphere; UV-A causing sun tanning and UV-B, sun burning. Our ozone layer stops UV-C from reaching us on earth. This is good news for us because UV-C is absorbed by DNA. However, using technology, we can use this property to our advantage to inactivate bacteria and viruses. UV-C radiation disrupts their DNA and makes them unable to replicate and multiply. If a cell is unable to multiply and reproduce to infect a host, it is considered dead.

This is why UV methods of disinfection are called ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI): it reduces the number of viable microorganisms by deactivating them, whether it is applied to water, air, or surfaces.

Cosmos' UV Lamps

Cosmos Wall Mount applies this technology to fight against airborne disease spread. There are seven 35W UV-C lamps in Cosmos Wall Mount, adding up to an intensity of 245W. UV light disinfects based on lamp intensity, distance, and exposure time. To shorten the time needed for deactivation, you increase the intensity of the UV lamp and decrease the distance between the particles and lamps. Because the air passing through Cosmos has almost zero distance between the high-intensity lamps, it gets disinfected instantly.

Working together with the HEPA filter, Cosmos’ UV lamps inactivate viruses and bacteria trapped on the filter as well as the few that pass through. Now they are unable to multiply and replicate. However, in other air purifiers, particles that make it through the device’s filter will be expelled into the air to be breathed into the lungs. Cosmos Wall Mount doesn’t stop there.

Carbon Ionizer

The purpose of the ionizer is remove any particles that made it through the HEPA filter from the air once and for all. It does this using static electricity. Cosmos Wall Mount uses a carbon fiber brush, as seen in the above image, to charge the air molecules. The particles become charged so that when they pass through the device, they get attracted to surfaces in the room rather than stay airborne. Usually this surface is the nearest wall or ceiling. This process is quiet and consumes little power.

Air ionizers have also been used in hospital wards to prevent hospital-acquired infections. Researchers at the University of Leeds in the UK installed a negative air ionizer at the St. James Hospital in Leeds. They completely eliminated the infection rate from antibiotic-resistant bacteria Acinetobacter over a year-long trial. A consultant at the hospital named Stephen Dean stated, “The results have been fantastic – so much so that we have asked the university to leave the ionisers with us.”

When Cosmos Wall Mount uses these three technologies for air disinfection, HEPA filter, UV-C lamps, and carbon ionizer, it reaches a CADR (Clean Air Delivery Rate) of 588 ft³/minute at max fan speed. This is a key specification to look out for when finding the appropriate air purifier for your indoor space.

Serviceability

Cosmos Wall Mount has been engineered with ease of maintenance and the safety of servicers in mind. Cosmos should always be unplugged from its power source before service and maintenance. This is to protect the servicer from electric shock and exposure to the UV lamps. 

The UV light inside the device has negligible leakage of < 0.001mJ/cm² up to 1 cm from the unit. This means that it will take the leaked UV light 6,000 seconds to get to the threshold dose. That’s 100 minutes, or 1 hour and 40 minutes at a 1 cm distance from Cosmos. The measurable dosage decreases exponentially as distance increases. Therefore, any UV light leakage from Cosmos while the cover is closed is negligible and safe.

Easy Use Programmability

With Cosmos Wall Mount, you can automate your air disinfection routine. You can customize the settings yourself or use the system default: 1^st period automatically starts air disinfection at 6:00AM and stops at 8:00AM; 2^nd period is from 12:00PM to 1:00PM; 3^rd period is from 8:00PM to 10:00PM. If you want to run the air purifier in automated intervals, it is recommended that you customize the schedule and disinfection time durations based on the needs of your business, household, or indoor space.

For example, if you are installing Cosmos Wall Mount in an office tower lobby where most people work 9 to 5, you will want to disinfect the air while people are present and breathing respiratory particles into the air. Your time interval schedule may look like:

• 2 hours from 8AM-10AM while workers are arriving to the office building,
• 2 hours from 11AM-1PM while workers are going off for lunch and passing through the lobby, and
• 2 hours from 4PM-6PM while workers are leaving to commute home.

You may want to run your Cosmos Wall Mount in intervals like these if you want to extend the life of the HEPA filter and UV lamps.

If your space is continuously occupied or has people coming and going steadily throughout the day, such as a clinic waiting room or large office space, you can set Cosmos Wall Mount to run continuously. For example, if your medical clinic is open from 8AM to 6PM and there are always several patients in the waiting room, you can set Cosmos to automatically start up and disinfect during those hours.

You can get a free consultation with UV CAN’s industry experts about how to best incorporate UV into existing disinfection and sanitization routine. Either email info@uv-can.com with the subject line, “Free Consultation” to start booking a time or call our office at 604-423-5599.