Patent ID: 7914604

Claim:
A method comprising steps of: providing an air stream flowing through an airflow pathway between upstream and downstream locations; positioning filters in the airflow pathway to entrap contaminants in the air stream passing through the airflow pathway, the filters cooperating to form an upstream face facing the upstream location and an opposed downstream face facing the downstream location; positioning downstream electrodes in the airflow pathway each contacting one of the filters; electrically interconnecting the downstream electrodes; positioning an ionizer electrode in the airflow pathway between the upstream location and the upstream face formed by the filters; positioning an upstream electrode in the airflow pathway between the upstream location and the ionizer electrode; and applying a first potential to the ionizer electrode imparting through induction a) a second potential to the upstream electrode forming a first ionizing field between the upstream electrode and the ionizer electrode, and b) a third potential to the downstream electrodes, the electrical interconnection between the downstream electrodes substantially uniformly dispersing the third potential across the downstream electrodes forming a substantially uniform second ionizing field between the downstream electrodes and the ionizer electrode.