http://buyingelectricfireplaces.com/questions-about-electrostatic-air-cleaners.php Electric fireplaces are becoming increasingly more popular since buying electric fireplaces are more cost effective, cleaner and easier to maintain. Sat, 30 Oct 2010 22:25:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://buyingelectricfireplaces.com/questions-about-electrostatic-air-cleaners.php/comment-page-1#comment-1158 John Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:20:26 +0000 http://buyingelectricfireplaces.com/questions-about-electrostatic-air-cleaners.php#comment-1158 You have a pretty good handle on the operation of electronic precipitators, except you missed one step. The smoke particles will pass by charging wires to change their natural charge to the opposite charge of the plates that are directly after the charging wires. This way the efficiency of the precipitator will usually come out to about 99% down to 0.3 microns. The collection plates are placed so close together that once they build up with dust and particles that they start to snap or arc from one plate to the next. They are spaced closely to allow the maximum number of plates in the unit. The more plates, the more surface area for capturing particles. Aluminum is usually used because of its conductivity to electrical charge and resistance to corrosion. It is also much cheaper than copper. The downfall to electronic precipitators is maintenance. They must be cleaned regularly in order to be effective. As the plates gather dust, they lose surface area for gathering more particles. Most homeowners would not tolerate the constant (weekly) maintenance. As far as restaurants go, many of them use electrostatic precipitators for smoke control. More information on those units can be found at http://www.smoke-eaters-supply.com/comme… Using electronic cells in a grease environment may cause a fire hazard, so you usually won't find them in cooking hoods. I hope this helps. You have a pretty good handle on the operation of electronic precipitators, except you missed one step. The smoke particles will pass by charging wires to change their natural charge to the opposite charge of the plates that are directly after the charging wires. This way the efficiency of the precipitator will usually come out to about 99% down to 0.3 microns.
The collection plates are placed so close together that once they build up with dust and particles that they start to snap or arc from one plate to the next. They are spaced closely to allow the maximum number of plates in the unit. The more plates, the more surface area for capturing particles.
Aluminum is usually used because of its conductivity to electrical charge and resistance to corrosion. It is also much cheaper than copper.
The downfall to electronic precipitators is maintenance. They must be cleaned regularly in order to be effective. As the plates gather dust, they lose surface area for gathering more particles. Most homeowners would not tolerate the constant (weekly) maintenance. As far as restaurants go, many of them use electrostatic precipitators for smoke control. More information on those units can be found at http://www.smoke-eaters-supply.com/comme… Using electronic cells in a grease environment may cause a fire hazard, so you usually won’t find them in cooking hoods. I hope this helps.

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