If I don’t have allergies, why do I need an air cleaner?
With today’s tightly constructed homes the EPA says the indoor air is 2-5 times, sometimes 100 times, worse than the air outside. We breathe 15,000 quarts of air a day and these pollutants enter the body through our lungs in large quantities that directly affect our health and well being. Besides allergies, poor indoor air quality is the cause for many other ailments including asthma, fatigue, headaches, colds, flu, skin rashes and even cancer.
Do console room air cleaners work?
Many console room air cleaners are ineffective. Others work well, but only clean what they are designed to clean – one room. Installing correct scientifically designed air cleaners into your home’s forced air furnace will give you whole house cleaning much more efficiently and economically than buying several room units. Room units can also be loud and annoying.
What about the standard filters that I buy at the hardware store?
These are usually fiberglass filters and are designed to protect the furnace and a/c coil from getting overly dirty, which affects the performance of the equipment. They have no cleaning capability to protect people from the injurious submicronic pollutants.
If dust is considered large, what is small?
Indoor air pollutants are measured in microns. One micron is 1/25, 400th of an inch. The dust we see is 40 to 100 microns in size. The dust settles out of the air in seconds and usually is not in the air that we breathe. The air we breathe is full of invisible sub-micronic pollutants that are permanently suspended in the air. As a matter of fact, 98% of all air-born pollutants are below one micron in size. So, to clean your air, the air cleaner that you choose to have installed must have the capability of arresting sub-micronic pollutants and reduce them by 95-99%.
What do these invisible pollutants consist of?
The Center for Disease Control breaks these down into three categories: Solid Phase, Gas Phase, and Germ Phase pollutants which are all equally dangerous in causing allergic reactions and other illnesses. A HEPA filter will arrest 95-99% of the sub-micronic solid phase pollutants and some germs. Ask your contractor about the use of ultraviolet germicidal light and activated oxygen light systems to control the germs, mold, gases and odors in your home.
Why not buy “Passive Electrostatic Filters” such as those touted by radio personalities like Rush Limbaugh and Paul Harvey?
These filters are very common on the market from many sources. They work via a slight static charge created by airflow on the fibers of the filter, which allows it to collect particles. The charge on these filters, however, is not high enough to hold these particles, so they get released back in to the air system. As the filter loads, it loses its static charge and becomes even less effective. These filters are only effective on large particles, over five microns. These filters are also very dense and restrictive to air flow, which will cause your heating and cooling equipment to work inefficiently making it harder to heat or cool your home. This airflow restriction can also damage your air conditioning system. In fact, some electric utility companies tell their customers not to use passive electrostatic filters.
