Childcare, preschool, student care and schools

The same rooms, every wave

Childcare centres, preschools, student care, tuition centres and international schools all share one structural problem: children spend long hours in small, closed rooms, and whatever is circulating in that room — haze particles in September, an HFMD wave in the wet season, ordinary dust and dander the rest of the year — stays with that class until the aircon cycle or a door opening does something about it. A facilities manager buying one purifier per classroom on instinct usually ends up either over-buying for a small nap room or under-buying for a double-height multipurpose hall. The fix is the same arithmetic every time: work out what each room actually needs, then choose equipment against that number rather than against a headline like "for classrooms".

Sizing the nursery, the classroom and the hall separately

Required CADR in m³/h is floor area (m²) multiplied by ceiling height (m) multiplied by target air changes per hour (ACH). US CDC guidance for occupied spaces calls for at least 5 clean-air changes per hour, and at that rate roughly 99% of an airborne contaminant clears the room in about 55 minutes (the general rule of thumb is 276 minutes divided by the ACH figure: 46 minutes at 6 ACH, 28 minutes at 10 ACH).

A typical 25 m² classroom with a 2.7 m ceiling at 5 ACH needs 25 × 2.7 × 5 = 337.5, or about 338 m³/h — right at the margin between a Fillo Plus (rated to 30 m², CADR 300 m³/h) and a Classic 400S (31–54 m², CADR 480). Because the requirement already exceeds the Fillo Plus's own CADR, the Classic 400S is the safer specification for that room even though the floor area sits close to the smaller unit's ceiling. A nap room is usually smaller and benefits from a higher ACH given how close cots are placed: 12 m² at 2.6 m and 6 ACH needs 12 × 2.6 × 6 = 187.2 m³/h, comfortably inside a Fillo Plus. An infant care nursery of 16 m² at 2.6 m and 6 ACH needs about 250 m³/h — again a Fillo Plus, sized correctly rather than assumed. A windowless tuition centre classroom of 20 m² at 2.5 m, pushed to 6 ACH because there is no natural ventilation to fall back on, needs 20 × 2.5 × 6 = 300 m³/h — exactly the Fillo Plus's rated CADR, which is too tight a margin for a room with zero fresh-air makeup; most windowless rooms are better served stepping up to the Classic 400S. Run any room through the air purifier size calculator rather than relying on a rule of thumb from a different building.

Where one unit per room stops being enough

A shared homework area in a student care centre — often 30 m² with a 2.7 m ceiling — at 5 ACH needs 30 × 2.7 × 5 = 405 m³/h, which is beyond the Fillo Plus and calls for a Classic 400S even though the centre may only run one room. International school campuses break the "one unit per classroom" rule entirely once you reach a library, hall or lab with a higher ceiling: an 80 m² multipurpose hall at 3.2 m and 5 ACH needs 80 × 3.2 × 5 = 1,280 m³/h, which is above even a Pro 800S's 800 m³/h CADR on its own, meaning that space needs two units or zoned coverage rather than a single "biggest model" purchase. Our international school guide walks through sizing a full campus room by room, and our student care centre guide and tuition centre guide cover the shared-space and windowless-unit cases specifically. Our infant care centre guide and childcare centre guide set out the classroom and nursery defaults most centres start from.

Haze season and HFMD season need different preparation

Haze and HFMD are not the same problem and the equipment response differs. Haze is a particulate event: PSI climbs, outdoor PM2.5 rises, and the practical response is having the right unit already sized and running in every occupied room, filter stock on hand, and a rental top-up plan ready before the readings climb rather than after — our haze season prep guide sets out that checklist. HFMD is different: it spreads mainly through contact with fluid from blisters, saliva and stool, not primarily through the air, so hand hygiene, prompt exclusion of a symptomatic child and toy or surface disinfection are the controls that actually interrupt spread. Air purification in that context reduces the airborne particle load in a shared room; it is a supporting layer alongside those hygiene measures, not a substitute for them, and our HFMD guide is explicit about where filtration sits in that hierarchy and where it doesn't.

Buying, renting, or piloting one classroom first

Centres on a lease with a few years left often prefer a serviced rental — filters, parts, preventive visits and two-way delivery bundled together — over owning equipment that may need to move with the centre. A single-room student care operation or a tuition centre with one or two classrooms can also start with a one-month rental pilot in the busiest room before deciding on a wider rollout. We quote purchase and rental figures after sizing your specific rooms rather than publishing a flat rate, since a six-classroom preschool and a one-room tuition unit are different jobs; see commercial air purifier rental for how that works before you ask a board or franchisor to sign off on numbers.

What we will not claim

We will not say a purifier reduces HFMD cases, flu transmission, or any other health outcome — no supplier can honestly attribute that to one piece of equipment in a room with dozens of moving variables. We will not call any room "sterile", describe the air as "safe", or claim MOH or HSA approval, because none of that reflects what the underlying certifications actually cover. What we do state: AIRE units carry an FDA Class 2 medical device listing held by the manufacturer, H13 HEPA-specification filtration, CE and RoHS marks, and are manufactured under ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 management systems, and our own chamber testing found active filtration eliminated over 99.99% of tested organisms (E. coli, Staphylococcus albus and Influenza A) within 60 minutes under chamber-test conditions — results in an occupied classroom, with a door opening every few minutes, will differ from a sealed test chamber. The methodology behind that figure is set out on how we verify our claims.

Start with a room-by-room Clinic Air Report

Before a board meeting or a franchise renewal, get the actual numbers rather than a guess. Our Clinic Air Report covers a minimum of two rooms per site visit at S$150, measuring every room in person, with a written report emailed within two working days and a sized-right guarantee — if the specified unit doesn't 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 answer the question a parent committee or franchisor is likely to ask before you commit to a fleet of units across a centre or campus. Get in contact to arrange a visit.