How Much Air Filtering Costs in These Allergy Capitals

California Cities Lead Most Expensive Places to Run Air Filters During Allergy Season

For more than 100 million U.S. allergy sufferers, the trees, grasses, and flowers are all ganging up on them.

Research data shows that over the past 30 years, pollen season has not only been getting longer but also more intense. Researchers have found the start of pollen season is now arriving about 21 days earlier on average. And the amount of pollen floating around has increased over this 30 year period by 21% nationwide as well. In fact, Atlanta has already hit a record pollen count of 14,801 grains per cubic meter this year.

One significant way pollen allergy sufferers can find some relief from their relentless symptoms is to use portable air filters in their home and where they work. However, figuring out which air filters work best while keeping a lid on rising energy costs can be both complicated and confusing. After all, not all air filters and locations face the same types of challenges. Two years ago, Consumer Reports covered several name brand portable air filters, one of which cost $100 a year to run. That kind of electric usage is also a growing problem because electric rates are nothing to sneeze at.

And with electricity prices likely increasing this summer in several states, the combination of high pollen counts and high power prices are making conditions for allergy sufferers worse than ever before.

To try to find an answer for consumers, we analyzed the average energy usage for the 16 best Energy Star certified room air cleaners to see how much allergy sufferers would pay to use one in each of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) "Allergy Capitals".

Key Findings Include:

• California was the most expensive state to run an air filter. While coastal cities have relatively few high pollen count days, the Central Valley is completely opposite. And due to high electricity rates, allergy sufferers running a portable air filter non-stop for 16 hours a day would pay about $8.00 per month.
• Florida, Texas, Virginia, North Carolina would also likely see high air filter run time costs due mainly to high pollen counts.
• Omaha, Boise, and Kansas City may see the cheapest due to overall lower pollen counts.
• Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Little Rock tied for cheapest electric rates even though they have high pollen counts and longest run times.

Map of Alergy Capitals in the US and Air Filtering Costs

To begin, it's important to state that local pollen levels vary yearly. That's because they are significantly affected by local climate, geography, season, and weather. Data for estimated 2023 pollen count averages for states shows a summer average of 707.63 parts per million (PPM) nationally. A little over half of that, 427.23 PPM, comes from trees which begin flowering in late spring and early summer. So, while some cities may produce high levels of pollen one year, they might not the next. For example, Philadelphia, PA, may be the pollen capital one year; Omaha, NE, may be the year after. However, certain regions in the U.S. tend to have higher pollen count averages year after year. Not surprisingly, these places are where the combination of agriculture, geography, and climate work together to make lots of allergy sufferers the most miserable.

A recent AAFA study maps cities that pollen allergy sufferers find the most challenging to live in. The study's ranking is based on spring-summer pollen counts, number of over-the-counter allergy medications used, and the number of allergy specialists. It also reveals the regions that tend to keep having those high pollen count averages.

Because portable air filters help reduce pollen amounts in homes, we wanted to estimate how much it might cost to run the most energy efficient Energy Star portable air filters in one of the cities in the AAFA allergy capital study. In order to do that, we considered factors about room size, air filtering and cycling capacity, energy usage, and pollen load.

Room size: we assumed the portable air filter would run in an average sized room in an average sized home (2,000 sq. feet). The average room size for kitchens, living rooms, offices, and master bedrooms is roughly 200 sq. ft.

Air filtering and cycling capacity: The portable air filter type designed to handle this size room has a Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) of 220-240 cubic feet per minute (cfm). Currently the 16 most efficient Energy Star certified pollen-free room air cleaners have an average CADR rate of 234.5875 cfm. So, assuming an average master bedroom size of 216 square feet with 8' walls = 1,728 cubic ft., an average CADR rate could cycle the air in the room once about every 7 1/2 minutes, or about 8 times per hour. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control advises 5 times at the viral level. So, this high air-change over rate at the much-larger pollen level seemed effective for providing noticeable relief to allergy symptoms.

Energy Usage: Energy Star bases portable air filter energy usage on an estimated daily run time of 16 hours. This allows for 8 hours when the owner is away at work. As a result, all 16 air filters share an estimated average kWh usage of about 25.25 kWh per month.

Pollen Load: Because these loads vary from city to city, we assumed allergy sufferers wouldn't need to run their air filters for the same amount of time. As a result, we applied the three AAFA rankings for pollen loads as daily run time factors in order to account for the length of time a consumer would choose to run their air filter in a particular city.

Multiplying these run time factors by Energy Star's 25.25 kWh per month usage standard provided an estimate for the kWh used. We then calculated the cost per kWh according to EIA data for average kWh pricing per state.

Summer Electricity Rates: Where Allergy Sufferers Will Pay Through the Nose

10 Most Expensive Cities to Run an Air Filter For Your Allergies

California's geography of valleys bounded by mountains tends to trap allergens. This is especially true for the entire Central Valley region where agriculture and consistently stagnant weather patterns can help intensify pollen conditions for allergy sufferers. Running an air filter for 16 hours every day may provide some relief but at an energy cost of about $8.00 per month.

Though Columbus, OH, is surrounded by hundreds of miles of farmland, the growth of its metro area has contributed to problems with heat islanding and air stagnation. So, pollen counts here may tend to intensify. But because the electric rate in Ohio is lower, the average cost to run an air filter for 16 hours a day drops off to $4.00 per month.

10 Cheapest Cities to Run an Air Filter For Your Allergies

Even though the 10 cheapest cities to run an air filter all share the lowest average kWh usage ( 6.3125 kWh), most share similar average pollen counts for 2023. The possible mitigating factor, however, may be that these cities don't share similar air stagnation problems as those other cities already mentioned. For this reason, allergy sufferers not only need to run air filters for about 4 hours a day but they also pay some of the lowest electricity rates. They pay less than $1 a month to run their air filters.

In fact, with the sole exception of 12th-ranked Dallas, TX, the AAFA's top 17 worst cities for pollen allergy sufferers all had average electricity rates that came below the national median rate of 14.98 cents per kWh.

10 Highest Priced Electricity per kWh States For Allergy Sufferers

While some states might not tend to see high pollen counts, their electric rates can still make allergy sufferers miserable. Of these, only California combined the high cost of electricity with high pollen counts, making it seem particularly miserable for allergy sufferers. The AAFA study showed that all nine California cities that it tracked were rated as having "Worse Than Average" pollen counts in 2024.

10 Cheapest Priced Electricity States For Allergy Sufferers

While midwestern rely heavily on pollen to grow crops, these states have some of the lowest electricity rates in the US. For example, AAFA ranked cities in Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arkansas for high pollen counts in 2024. However, these same cities are also in the top ten for the cheapest average price per kWh.

Conclusion

It's important here to underscore AAFA's findings that most of their Worst Than Average ranked cities lie in Gulf coast and southeastern states. And many of these are undergoing population growth as more Americans relocate there.

Ongoing climate research on rising pollen counts show links to metro areas developing problems with heat islanding and air stagnation. This, coupled with the combination of climate change, more Americans moving to southern states, and rising electricity demand all suggests the potential for an increase in pollen allergy sufferers. And these in turn may face making a difficult choice between paying their power bills versus getting some symptom relief.

For this reason, consumers should shop carefully for energy efficient portable air cleaners that:

• use High Efficiency Particulate Arrestance filters (HEPA)

• meet or exceed an air change over rate ("clean air delivery rate" or CADR) of about 65 cubic feet per minute for every 100 square feet of room space.

Methodology

We compared the AAFA study's 2024 ranking for pollen count intensity with estimated 2023 summer pollen counts to get an idea about the severity and trend for local pollen loads. The AAFA ranked cities based partly on 2024 pollen counts (Worse than Average, Average, and Better Than Average).

Energy Star 's best 16 portable air filters had an average kWh usage of 25.25 kWh per month. Energy Star bases this on its estimated daily run time of 16 hours on; 8 hours off.

As a result, we applied the three AAFA rankings as daily run time factors in order to account for the length of time a consumer would choose to run their air filter in a particular city.

1 - Worse Than Average: 16 hours active, 8 hours inactive. The air filter runs non-stop while the person is home (100% usage).

0.5 - Average: 8 hours active, 16 hours inactive. The air filter operates while the person is home sleeping at night. (50%)

.025 - Better Than Average: 4 hours active, 20 hours inactive. The air filter is running only when pollen counts may briefly surge; for example at sunset during "pollen fall", or later at night. (25%)

Multiplying these run time factors by Energy Star's 25.25 kWh per month usage standard provided an estimate for the kWh used. We then calculated the cost per kWh according to EIA's most recent data for average kWh pricing per state.

Sources

2025 Allergy Capitals; The Most Challenging Places to Live with Allergies

https://aafa.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/aafa-2025-allergy-capitals-report.pdf

16 most efficient Energy Star Pollen-Free Clean Air Delivery Rate (cfm) Air Filters

https://www.energystar.gov/productfinder/product/certified-room-air-cleaners/

Average Price of Electricity to Ultimate Customers by End-Use Sector, by State

https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/

Pollen: Spring Pollen Season is Getting Longer & More Intense

https://www.hhs.gov/climate-change-health-equity-environmental-justice/climate-change-health-equity/climate-health-outlook/pollen/index.html

Pollen Tracking Resource for Allergy Sufferers

Pollen-sensitive allergy sufferers can try to stay up to 48 hours ahead of the pollen counts!

Pollen data is tracked by NOAA using pollen data supplied by the University of Michigan through its Rapid-Refresh Chemistry (RAPchem) modeling system. This module produces a 48-hour air quality forecast once a day for coarse and fine pollen grains. This module is experimental and the user interface is crude.Once on the page, you'll need to scroll down the table until you get to “Surface Coarse Pollen” or “Surface Fine Pollen.” The second cell to the right has a check mark that links to the loop of video for the animated forecast.

https://rapidrefresh.noaa.gov/RAPchem/