Of all the information out there about HEPA filters and air purifiers that help rid the air of unwanted allergens, it seems clear that you can benefit from a healthier home environment by using a high-efficiency air cleaning system that will reduce airborne contaminants.
There are plenty of manufacturers' claims about how best to clean the air in your home. Portable air purifiers , or even larger HEPA filters can be pretty effective at cleaning air in one room.
Of course, we believe that for homes with forced air HVAC systems and duct work, using an air cleaner installed within this system, is a more comprehensive and efficient way to clean the air, because it works throughout your house. As your system blower operates, air movement takes place throughout your house and airborne contaminants flow through your return air ducts where an air cleaner captures them before the air is recirculated through your system and back throughout your home.
But let's get beyond the obvious health benefits for a minute. If you're in the market for cleaner air at home and doing your homework to make the best decision, but still struggling with which way to go, consider this.
A high efficiency air cleaner installed with your system also keeps your system cleaner, which keeps it running more efficiently, which in turn saves energy! It also prolongs the life of your HVAC system, which saves you even more money!
Here's proof. This photo compares two air conditioner A-coils; both 10 years old. One from a system that used an Aprilaire air cleaner (left); the other used a standard 1" furnace filter.
A-coils are messy, expensive things to have cleaned; even more expensive to replace.
So consider whole-house air cleaning and also consider preserving your expensive HVAC system and saving energy!
Did you know....Mold can have devastating affects on your home and your health. In some extreme cases, entire houses have been condemned due to the grave health concerns that mold infestation can cause.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lists moisture and mold prevention and control tips on their website. One of the tips is "Keep indoor humidity low. If possible, keep indoor humidity below 60 percent (ideally between 30 and 50 percent) relative humidity."
Actions that will help to reduce humidity One of the actions the EPA suggests to reduce humidity in the home is the use of a dehumidifier. Aprilaire would like to take this one step further - use a whole-house dehumidifier. While a portable dehumidifier only removes moisture from the room it is in, an Aprilaire whole-house dehumidifier works in conjunction with your HVAC system to remove moisture from every room in your home.
An Aprilaire dehumidifier is also easy to maintain with no tanks to lift and empty. Simply clean the air filter every year and you're good to go. Call your Aprilaire dealer today and ask how you can benefit from having an Aprilaire dehumidifier installed in your home.
Aprilaire - preventing mold growth to protect the health of you and your family.
I remember last winter writing about how dry it is in hotel rooms. That led to an interesting conversation about what to do when you travel. That led to some humorous conversation about when you travel and stay with friends. Only stay with friends who have a whole-house humidifier!!!!
Well, it's allergy time and the same problem exists. What do you do when you travel? Here's a great article with some tips. And yes, it recommends portable air purifiers, which we say are not very effective. Well. they aren't as effective as continual whole-house air cleaning, but they do work and if you're traveling, they might just help.
Otherwise, call your friends and tell them to install Aprilaire whole-house air cleaner or you'll cancel your visit!!!!! ;)
Will a whole-house air cleaner eliminate dust/dusting?
The Aprilaire air cleaners are never less than 99% efficient on the smallest particle seen by the naked eye (approximately 10 microns). Therefore, the visible household dust particles that reach your air cleaner will be caught and permanently held. The problem is not all partials will reach the filter.
So we recommend continuous furnace blower operation as the best method to accomplish this. It provides continuous air cleaning and ensures whenever dust particles are airborne, they can be carried to the air cleaner and trapped.
However, if you choose periodic air cleaning with furnace blower operation through the normal heating or air conditioning cycles, you might consider turning your blower on manually during and for several hours after vacuuming your home. This is because vacuuming stirs up large volumes of dust particles. If your furnace blower is operating, these particles can be carried to the air cleaner and removed from the air.
Aprilaire now has an "air cleaner control" that comes with Model 4200, 4400, 5000, and can also be purchased separately and added to an existing air cleaner. This control gives you more air cleaning option than just continuous and periodic air cleaning.
The rule of 1,000 is what air researchers use to describe how much more potent indoor air pollution is then outdoor air pollution. Basically, anything released into the air indoors is 1,000 times more likely to be breathed in than that same thing being released outdoors. Bottom line indoor air pollution can be very, very potent and potent pollution is never a good thing for your health. I learned about the rule of 1,000 from an article in the New York Times…the article says that burning a candle is combustion and just like smoking a cigarette indoors it will have similar health effects too.
Your covering up odors with air fresheners you say…one of the doctors quoted in the article says “it’s just adding chemicals on top of chemicals.”
The best way to control indoor air is to filter it with a whole home air filter, and Aprilaire offers the best air cleaners on the market. From the Aprilaire 4000 series with a standard MERV 13 filter to the Aprilaire Model 5000 EAC which has been proven by third party testing to be the most efficient and effective air cleaner on the market, you are protected. Unlike the standard low efficiency high resistance to air flow(which means wasted energy) 1” inch filter you buy at the hardware store you only have to replace your filter once a year, and you have the piece of mind knowing that Aprilaire provides the worlds best IAQ products.
Mold needs the same conditions for growth as dust mites: moisture and nutrients.
Mold is a fungi and most fungi reproduce by creating spores. These micrscopic spore cells are generated in great numbers. If moisture is present when a spore lands on a suitable food source, it uses nutrients within it to start growing.
Mycotoxins are the chemicals fungi make as they grow and process nutrients (myco means fungus). Scientests do not yet know what functions mycotoxins may serve, but the more closely investigators look at different species of molds, the more often they find mycotoxins. Though most traditional mycotoxin poisoning is associated with eating toxic mushrooms or mold-contaminated grains, it now seems likely that inhaling spores containing mycotoxins can also be hazardous.
An Aprilaire whole home air cleaner with a MERV 10 media or greater can filter out airborne mold spores from you home. You will also want to make sure that the relative humidity in your home is less than 60%. A typical basement has 70% relative humidity and that's perfect conditions for mold growth. Oh, Aprilaire also makes dehumififiers that put you in control of the humidity level in your home!
With new homes being more energy efficient the importance of proper conditioning of your homes air becomes more important. The reason is newer energy efficient homes are tighter, meaning that less fresh air gets in (and stale air out) of your home. That is why Minnesota, for instance, made it code to have a mechanical ventilation system installed in all new homes.
But achieving good indoor air quality isn’t just about bringing in fresh air; you need to further condition your air by filtering it and controlling the amount of moisture in it. Just as you condition your air by heating and cooling it, indoor air quality is about conditioning it to produce a comfortable, healthy, protected home that is also energy efficient.
You can learn more about indoor air quality by visiting Aprilaire.com or just Google "Indoor Air Quality."
Hey, it's May 1st, the rain has stopped (for today anyway)!
This means that plants have some time to bloom and the result equals runny noses and itchy eyes for some of us.
Interestingly, we spend a high percentage (up to 80%) of our time in doors. You don't want to experience discomfort 24/7, so a great solution is to use a whole home air cleaner that can capture these large pollen particles (3 to 10 microns in size).
Aprilaire's 2210 air cleaner has a MERV 10 media filter in it. This unit attaches to your central air handler (furnace, air conditioner duct work or heat pump) and can make your Spring time much more comfortable.
Model 5000 Whole Home Electronic Air Cleaner is not designed to produce ozone, but just like most home electronic devices, it does produce a very small amount.
Ozone is produced as a result of many factors, some are man-made and some originate from nature. On any given day in the US, outdoor levels can be as high as 150 parts per billion (ppb). More polluted areas typically have higher outdoor ozone levels because there is a greater concentration of the components that create ground level ozone.
Levels of ozone inside our homes typically range from 10 to 70 percent of the level found outdoors, primarily depending on whether windows and doors are left open. (ref. "Ozone Decay Rates in Residencies.", Harvard School of Public Health, Environmental Science and Engineering Program). The reason indoor levels are lower than outdoor levels is because ozone readily reacts with other gases and surfaces.
As a manufacturer, we develop and produce products to meet or exceed standards set by goverenment organizations. The Model 5000 electronic air cleaner produces 2 ppb of ozone, well below the established FDA standard of 50 ppb for medical devices and the UL standard to evaluate products for consumer safety.
The high voltage power supply contained in this (and any other) electronic air cleaner produces ozone only as a byproduct of operation: the small amount of ozone generated dissipates by the time clean air filters out and into yoyur home. In addition, the Model 5000 removes particles from the air that have proven by research to be harmful to humans.
I've been told when I look to buy an air cleaner to check the MERV but don't know what that is. MERV is an acronym which stands for "Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value" . The MERV rating is the standard method for comparing the efficiency of an air filter. The higher the MERV rating, the better the filter is at removing particles from the air.
The MERV scale ranges from 1 (least efficient) to 16 (most efficient). Filters with higher ratings not only remove more particles from the air, they also remove smaller particles. A typical fiberglass furnace filter might be rated from 1 to 4 on the MERV scale. High efficiency filters would have a MERV of 10 to 16. Aprilaire whole home air cleaners fit into the 10 to 16 scale. The models 2210/2410 are MERV 10. The models 4200/4400 are MERV 13. The model 5000 is equivalent to a MERV 16.
One of the most passive ways to purify the air in your home is with a house plant.
Another way is with an ionizer, which may or may not be very effective and only works in one small area.
If you have a forced air HVAC system, you can actively control air cleaning with a simple touch of a button, and EFFECTIVELY clean the air in the whole house automatically.
And, it's really not that active. It's a simple push button; no complicated programming. But you can choose various modes to run your system blower at various intervals based on your needs, instead of waiting until your HVAC system decides it's time to run heat or cool.
In the mean time, go sniff a Chlorophytum elatum - (Green Spider Plant)
I ran across one of these blogs that basically link you to places to buy anything under the sun. The problem with alot of these sites is they are not accurate about many many things.
Case in point is they list a #10 SpaceGard/Aprilaire Humidifier Replacement Filter. Problem is, there is no such thing as a SpaceGard humidifier.
SpaceGard is a whole-house air cleaner installed with your HVAC system that uses a high-efficiency filter to trap particles through the return air duct of your forced-air system.
SpaceGard is manufactured by Research Products Corp, which now makes numerous models, including a Model 5000 electronic air cleaner, under the Aprilaire brand name. The Spacegard name is no longer used, but the company still manufatures replacement filters for Spacegard air cleaners.
The company also makes the Humidifiers and the evaporative pads mentioned here; also under the Aprilaire brand name.
Also, they call the evaporative pad, or water panel, a replacement filter. It is NOT a filter. It does not filter or clean the air. It does trap some water deposites that form in the evaporative process, but it's primary function is to trap water long enough for it to evaporate so that your HVAC blower can deliver soothing moist vapor throughout your house; used primarily in climates where heating the home dries out the house.
OK it's official! If it's in USA TODAY it must be true!!!! Allergy sufferers take heed! Keep your HVAC system clean and use high efficiency air purifiers. Says so right here!
Here too! This links to a great report by Dr. Doron Schneider about your health and indoor air quality.
Shameless self-promotion maybe, but this video shows the real reason to consider a whole-house air cleaner instead of a portable air purifier like an Ionic SNEEZE......
Most of the buzz about indoor air quality has to do with trapping allergens and other contaminants by filtering the air and diluting VOC's by introducing fresh air.These are the keys to healthier indoor air.
But there are other benefits to having a whole-home air cleaner installed on your HVAC system.
It saves energy. How? Using a high-efficiency air cleaner helps keep your HVAC system running at peak efficiency and extends its life.
Here's another way. I'll admit it. I'm lazy. I don't want to clean. I mean, I want a clean environment, but I don't want to spend alot of time getting it there or keeping it there.
A whole home air cleaner traps dust. Period. The amount of dust can vary depending on the size of your home, how many return air ducts you have, or how often your sytem blower runs. But it will trap dust. So you dust less often. So it can save YOU energy too!
Also, you only relace the air cleaner filter once a year instead of every 1-3 months with your conventional 1" filter. How perfect is THAT for Lazy Tom?!?!
And in that order. Those are the 3 tactics to dramatically improving the quality of the air you breathe in your home.
1. Source control. This is the "ounce of prevention" tactic. Keep the nasty stuff out to begin with. Better to not smoke than to try to rid your house (or lungs) of smoke. Dust mites thrive in carpets. Get rid of the carpet! Keep humidity levels in check so your house doesn't become a breeding ground for mold.
2. Ventilation - Air cleaners can trap a lot of particles but have a heck of a time with VOC's, or fumes that might be toxic. Nothing like opening a window for some fresh air. There are also mechanical ventilation systems that can provide controlled fresh air without significantly adding to your energy usage.
3. Air Cleaners - even larger, fan-operated room units - can take contaminants out of the air. OK THERE, I SAID IT! Use a portable air purifier! But if you decide to go this route, do your homework. There are tons of small portable purifiers that just don't work at all. Use a larger room air cleaner; one with a fan and a high efficiency HEPA filter - as high efficiency as you can find - But don't expect it to work in more than one room. It's just like a portable room fan. It's only going to circulate air in one room. It can't work through walls.
If you have a forced air heating/cooling system with ductwork, you can install a whole-house unit and every time your blower runs, you're cleaning your air. Every room that has return air ducts is being cleaned.
KIDDING! Don't go pouring water over your air purifier. Or if you have an installed high efficiency air cleaner to help clean the air in your whole house, don't go pouring water on that either! That would be a bad thing.
Did you know....Proper maintenance of your Aprilaire humidifier is critical to sustaining peak performance. It's really no different than changing the oil and filter in your car. You know that with proper maintenance your car will provide trouble-free performance. Your humidifier is no different. You've made an investment in your home and health and you want to protect it and keep it operating at peak efficiency for many years.
Aprilaire humidifiers are among the easiest to maintain, and most models require your attention only once per year. The main component you need to replace is the water panel, which is the heart of the humidifier. Over time, mineral scale and other deposits close off the openings, restricting air flow and reducing efficiency. Simply replace the water panel and clean the interior components of any mineral buildup and you're ready to go. To ensure proper water flow, your water strainer and orifice, located at the water inlet valve, should be checked and cleaned as well. Contact your local Aprilaire dealer and make this routine service a part of your annual heating system check-up.
For those of you that don't have a maintenance agreement with your local dealer, the Aprilaire premium digital control reminds you when it's time to change the water panel with a yellow "Change Water Panel" indicator. This allows you to maximize water panel life and achieve peak performance from your humidifier at all times. Aprilaire humidifiers, simply the best!
With all the bad news out there these days I hate to write a blog about anything negative, but let’s see if I can’t spin something seemingly negative into a big ball of positive.One of District Sales Mangers in Pennsylvania called me up.He had one of his best Aprilaire dealers giving out an article about the dangers of particulate pollution to every homeowner he saw.He wanted his valued customers to be aware of the risks they were being exposed to if they decided not to install a whole home air purifier.
The article talks about the short term and long term effects of exposure to particulate of different sizes in the air.The effects can be astounding; they range from more severe asthma attacks to a premature death.Sounds pretty grim right?Well there is hope.A whole home air cleaner is a great way to protect against the harmful effects particulate pollution can cause.
Aprilaire offers some wonderful options to make your home a safe place for you and your family.We have 3 different levels of protection the 2000 series, 4000 Series and our flagship air cleaner the Electronic Model 5000(which won best air cleaner 3 years running).So no matter what level of protection you want Aprilaire can provide a solution.
The picture below is showing the difference between an air conditioning coil that had an Aprilaire air cleaner and a coil that just had a normal 1” filter.As you can see the one without the Aprilaire air cleaner is in complete disarray.The problem with a dirty coil is it loses its efficiency and effectiveness.As the cooling coil in you air conditioner fills with debris the air flow across the cooling coil is decreased.The decreased air flow across the coil means your cooling efficiency is decreased.In some cases a dirty coil can cause your compressor or fans to fail permanently, a very costly fix.
If you currently don’t have an air cleaner and you are interested in protecting your HVAC equipment and saving money there is no better time then now to have an Aprilaire air cleaner installed.Just make sure that you clean your coil before applying the air purifier.You can attempt to do it yourself, but I would recommend you have your trusted Aprilaire contractor do it for you.It can usually be done for a minimal fee.
ce a part of your annual heating system check-up.
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