TCM, physiotherapy, chiropractic and veterinary clinics

Why odour, not aerosol, drives the decision here

A TCM clinic, a physiotherapy studio, a chiropractic practice and a vet clinic have almost nothing in common clinically, but they share one procurement problem: none produce the aerosol load of a dental surgery, yet each has an air quality issue a client can smell within seconds of walking in. Herbal decoction in a TCM dispensing area, sweat and liniment in a physio treatment room, dander and disinfectant in a vet consult room, and a grooming or boarding section with its own odour profile entirely separate from the clinic next to it. Buying a purifier because a supplier said so is how clinics end up with an under-sized desktop unit in a room needing four times the airflow, or a large machine bought for a 15 m² consult room that never needed one. The starting point is the room, not the brochure.

Sizing each room by the numbers, not by guesswork

The formula is simple: required CADR in m³/h equals floor area in m² multiplied by ceiling height in m multiplied by your target air changes per hour (ACH). The US CDC guidance for occupied spaces is a minimum of 5 clean-air changes per hour, and at that rate 99% of an airborne contaminant clears in roughly 55 minutes (the general relationship is about 276 minutes divided by the ACH figure — 2 ACH takes 138 minutes, 6 ACH takes 46, 10 ACH takes 28).

Take a TCM dispensing and treatment room of 18 m² with a 2.6 m ceiling. Aiming for 6 ACH because of the herbal odour load: 18 × 2.6 × 6 = 280.8, so about 281 m³/h. That sits comfortably under a Fillo Plus, which is rated for rooms up to 30 m² with a CADR of 300 m³/h. A vet consult room of 15 m² at 2.5 m and the same 6 ACH target needs 225 m³/h — again within the Fillo Plus band. A chiropractic treatment room of 20 m² at 2.6 m and a more modest 5 ACH (no aerosol-generating procedures, no strong odour source) needs only 260 m³/h, so the same unit is oversized in capability but still the right footprint for the room.

Physiotherapy studios are where the office-spec assumption falls over. A 40 m² studio with a 3 m ceiling — taller than a typical consult room because of overhead equipment — at 5 ACH needs 40 × 3 × 5 = 600 m³/h, above the Classic 400S's 480 m³/h CADR even though 40 m² sits inside its stated 31–54 m² band; ceiling height pushes the actual air volume past what the area label assumes. Here a Pro 800S, rated to 800 m³/h, is the correct call, not the next size up sold on area alone. The same trap catches grooming and boarding: a 35 m² space at 2.7 m and 8 ACH (higher because of continuous animal odour and hair) needs 35 × 2.7 × 8 = 756 m³/h, again pointing to the Pro 800S. Run your own numbers with the air purifier size calculator before taking any quote at face value.

Matching the unit to the room, not the label on the box

Once the arithmetic is done, the choice among AIRE's range comes down to room function as much as size. The Fillo Plus (≤30 m², CADR 300 m³/h, under 53 dB, H13 HEPA with UV-C, Tuya WiFi control) suits most single-practitioner consult and treatment rooms — the kind of space covered in our chiropractic clinic guide and our TCM herbal odour guide. The Classic 400S (31–54 m², CADR 480, seven-layer filter stack, 30–55 dB) is the middle option for larger single rooms that don't have an unusual ceiling height or occupancy pattern. The Pro 800S (56–96 m², CADR 800, dual intake, castors for moving between rooms, 26 dB sleep mode, onboard PM2.5 sensor) covers open studios, larger vet wards, and grooming or boarding sections, and its castors matter in a vet clinic where the unit may need to move between a boarding run and a wash area. Our vet clinic guide and grooming and boarding guide go into which of these fits each zone, and our physiotherapy studio guide covers the sweat-and-exertion profile in more detail. See the full range on the products page.

Odour needs two different filters, not one

Herbal smell, sweat, liniment and animal odour are volatile compounds, and volatile compounds are handled by activated carbon, not by HEPA media. H13 HEPA filtration is doing a separate job: capturing the particles — dander, hair, dust — that often carry odour with them. A unit with only HEPA and no carbon stage will pull particles out of the air and leave much of the smell behind; a carbon-only approach does nothing for dander or airborne debris. AIRE's units combine both layers, but neither layer replaces fixing the source. If an exhaust fan in a TCM dispensing area is not running, or a boarding run is not being cleaned on schedule, no purifier corrects that — filtration is a supporting layer, not a substitute for ventilation and housekeeping. Our chamber testing found AIRE's active filtration eliminated over 99.99% of tested organisms (E. coli, Staphylococcus albus and Influenza A) within 60 minutes under chamber-test conditions, against a plain-HEPA comparison unit that took roughly 4 hours 23 minutes for the same passive decay; results in an occupied clinic room will differ from a sealed test chamber. Details of that methodology are on how we verify our claims.

Purchase, serviced rental, or a one-month pilot

Once a room list and target ACH are agreed, units can be purchased outright or taken on a serviced rental bundling filters, parts, preventive visits and two-way delivery — useful for a clinic that would rather not manage filter schedules across several rooms. We quote purchase and rental after sizing rather than publishing list prices, since a single-room TCM practice and a multi-room vet clinic with a boarding wing are different jobs. A one-month rental pilot is available if you want to trial a unit in the smelliest room before committing the rest of the clinic — read rental versus buying and the commercial rental guide before deciding which route suits your lease term.

What we will not claim

We will not tell you a purifier reduces staff sick days, client complaints, or any other health outcome — there is no honest way to attribute that to one piece of equipment in a working clinic. We will not describe any room as "sterile" or the air as "safe", and we will not describe our equipment as MOH- or HSA-approved, because that is not what the relevant approvals cover. What we can state plainly: AIRE units carry an FDA Class 2 medical device listing held by the manufacturer, H13 HEPA-specification filtration, CE and RoHS marks, and are built under ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 management systems. Those are equipment facts, not promises about your clinic's outcomes.

Start with a Clinic Air Report

Rather than sizing from a floor plan alone, our Clinic Air Report puts someone in every room on your site — a minimum of two rooms per visit — with a meter, for S$150. You get a written report by email within two working days with the actual air-change figures for each room, and a sized-right guarantee: if the unit we specify does not reach the report's target air-change rate in that room, we upgrade or add a unit at no extra cost. It is the fastest way to stop guessing between a Fillo Plus and a Pro 800S for a room with an odd ceiling height. See our general approach on technology, or get in contact to book a visit.