This document specifies a method to evaluate the capability of portable household air cleaners to reduce the concentration and viability of key experimentally-generated bioaerosols in a specified chamber.

The test is applicable to portable air cleaners commonly used in single room spaces such as those based on mechanical filtration, ultraviolet (UV), ionizers, photocatalytic oxidation, and ozone generators in-unit technology.

If the air cleaner does not claim to have the function of reducing microorganisms, this standard may not be applicable unless it is being used to simply evaluate the performance.

Note: ANS/ASHRAE 185.3 is for commercial and industrial uses. ANS/AHAM AC-5 is used for Portable Household Air Cleaners and is not intended to conflict with or replace that standard for commercial or industrial consumers.

Note: In this standard, we do not suggest performance test methods that measure the by-products of either the interaction between microbes or between the air cleaner and the microbes tested in this standard. The formation of by-products is an important subject. The subject of measuring by-products is under study, and AHAM will address this in future documents.

Note: This standard does not apply to appliances intended for use in medical treatment locations, such as surgical suites, laboratories, medical treatment rooms, etc.