Time magazine recently reported on a
study done by the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health linking pollution to lower IQ scores in children. The comprehensive study that started in 1998 linked high air pollution levels to a four-point drop in IQ scores, which the director of the study said "A difference in four points could be educationally meaningful in terms of school success."
The importance of clean air is becoming more and more evident every day. Since Americans spend up to 90% of there time indoors it is imperative that measures are taken to make sure your home's air is clean.
Aprilaire has the products you need to ensure your home's air is healthy and clean. Go to
Aprilaire.com to see our lineup of whole home air cleaners or contact your
local Aprilaire dealer.
Do you get frustrated when changing the filter media in you Aprilaire air cleaner like this guy? Are you fed up with broken pleat spacers and a torn and tattered filter media? You asked and we listened!
Changing your filter is now easier with the Aprilaire air cleaner upgrade kit. In addition to eliminating the pleat spacers it is a more efficient filtration system. The Upgrade kit filter removes twice as many contaminants as the filter media in your model 2200 or 2400 whole house Aprilaire air cleaner. Please visit us at www.aprilaire.com watch the video at to learn more about the upgrade kit.
Alert! Although you may feel fine now in the fall when you close up your house you may start feeling the effects of mold and dust mites thriving in your home. According to Dr. Donald Woodmansee, section chief for allergy and immunology at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center the wet weather that has plagued the northeast may end up being an even bigger burden to people’s health this fall.
Mold and dust mites thrive in moist air and moist surfaces so when rain is abundant so are the molds. What you can do to protect yourself is control your
humidity and make sure you have a
high efficiency whole home air cleaner from Aprilaire.
Although you may feel fine now doesn’t mean you’re in the clear. Be sure to protect your family and your home with Aprilaire indoor air quality products.
Did you know....According to the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, dust mites are found in most homes. While dust mites are not parasitic and do not bite, people can be allergic to them. Symptoms include sneezing, itchy, water eyes, nasal stuffiness, runny nose, stuffy ears, respiratory problems, eczema and (in severe cases) asthma.
Dust mites need high temperatures (75 to 80 degrees F) and high humidity (70 to 80% relative humidity) to survive. One study showed when humidity is 60% or lower, the dust mite population stops growing and dies out.
Control humidity for dust mite management
At the top of the university’s list for eliminating problems due to dust mites is controlling the relative humidity (RH) in the home. Keeping the RH below 50% is the key. The best way to reduce the RH in your home is to install an Aprilaire whole-house dehumidifier. Unlike a portable unit that only removes moisture from the room it is in, Aprilaire works with your HVAC system to deliver dehumidified air to your entire home. And, unlike portable dehumidifiers that require constant cleaning and emptying of the tank, an Apriaire whole-house dehumidifier only needs the filter cleaned once a year.
Aprilaire - protecting your health for over 50 years!
We get questions all the time regarding the use of UV lights in residential HVAC units. Where is the best place to position one? How do they work? What is the best use of them?
For a time, Aprilaire offered our own line of UV products. Our recommendation was always to position UV lights near the peak of your A/C’s evaporative coil or “A” coil. Place it in such a way that the coil and drain pan are fully expose to the light. These are the components most likely to contribute to microbial growth as they contain the three things most needed to support it, moisture, a food source, and a dark environment. Plus, even if your home has a whole-house air cleaner, anything growing on your A-coil can enter your air stream after the air cleaner.
Conversely, UV light is not terribly effective as an air cleaner for several reasons. The first is a question of exposure. Particles tend to zip through your air ducts at around 300 feet per minute. What this means is that their actual exposure time is a fraction of what would be required to destroy organic particles. Put another way, if you were baking cookies in your oven (oatmeal raisin, of course) you might be able to tap the edge of the hot baking sheet without getting burned, but if you held your hand there, you would definitely get a serious injury. The concept is the same with UV light. Most particles require a minimum amount of exposure to be considered destroyed, and this can be from a few seconds to a few minutes. And in order to get that exposure time, a particle would have to zip in front of a UV lamp many times. Hopefully, there’s an actual air cleaner on your system to trap those particles so that they don’t get a second chance to zip through your ducts. They would get trapped the first time.
The second reason is simply that, with an air cleaner, once that air cleaner has trapped the particle, destroying it is a little redundant. If an organic particle can’t get back into the air stream, does it matter if it’s alive or dead? Generally not.
So there we go.
Did you know...Medical professionals recommend the use of a dehumidifier to prevent mold growth in 
homes. One such professional is Dr. Alan Green, M.D. Dr. Greene has dedicated a section of his website to address mold and how to prevent its growth. The importance of this lies in health-related issues such as allergies. Prevent mold, reduce allergy symptoms.
Relative Humidity is the Key
Dr. Greene recommends the use of a dehumidifier to maintain relative humidity (RH) levels between 35% and 50%. Aprilaire recommends you take this one step further; install a whole-house dehumidifier. A whole-house dehumidifier provides many advantages over a portable.
- Whole-house versus one room - you live in more than one room of your house, it doesn't make sense to dehumidify only one room.
- Out of sight - Aprilaire installs in conjunction with your HVAC equipment, out of sight and out of mind. A portable dehumidifier sits in your living area where you can see and hear it.
- Maintenance – an Aprilaire unit only requires cleaning of the air filter once per year. A portable unit requires daily emptying of the tank and periodic cleaning. What a hassle!
Listen to your doctor. Call your
Aprilaire dealer today and take advantage of proper dehumidification.
Aprilaire - protecting your health for over 50 years!
Did you know....dehumidification is a natural byproduct of the air conditioning process. However, using your central air conditioning as a dehumidifier can be costly in a couple of areas. Incorporating a whole-house dehumidifier with your central air conditioner will improve your comfort and save you money on your utility bill.
Costly to Operate
As you know, running your air conditioner is not cheap. At the heart of the system is a large compressor that uses lots of electricity. As such, you pay a fairly high price to stay comfortable in the heat of summer.
Using your air conditioner as a dehumidifier is even more costly, as you typically need to overcool your home by several degrees to achieve your relative humidity (RH) target. Now your RH is good, maybe, but you're cold and not comfortable.
A whole-house dehumidifier from Aprilaire is your solution. First, it uses a much smaller compressor, consuming a fraction of the power of your air conditioner. Now that your RH is under control, you can actually raise your thermostat several degrees and maintain maximum comfort. This translates to an energy savings as high as 74% in the summer!
Call your Aprilaire dealer today and discover how you can maintain maximum comfort and save on your energy bill.
Are you like me and want to have the air in your home as clean as possible? Wanting clean air and having clean air isn’t always the same. You may have an air cleaner installed but how do you know it’s actually cleaning the air. Aprilaire makes air cleaners that not only clean the air in your home they also tell you when the air cleaner is operating. The models 4200 and 4400 have a MERV rating of 13 and the model 5000 is equivalent to a MERV 16. All three include an active control which has 4 active cleaning options; Constant cleaning 24/7 365, Automatic which is one 30 minute cycle per hour, Event clean which is one 3 hour cycle and Allergies which is one 24 hour cycle. Pressing any of these selections allows you to clean the air in your home above and beyond the normal air cleaner operating time during the heating and cooling operation of your HVAC equipment. To learn more visit www.aprilaire.com.
It is Thursday, June 18, 2009 in Madison, Wisconsin. The temperature is 66°F. No need to run the air conditioning with this temperature. But are you comfortable? Probably not. Why? The relative humidity (RH) is a whopping 88%!
A whole-house dehumidifier is the solution
Dehumidification is a natural by-product of air conditioning. However, only 10% of what an air conditioner does is dehumidify, and it is controlled by temperature, not RH. The solution to maintaining your comfort on these very typical days is to have your Aprilaire dealer install a whole-house dehumidifier. It works in conjunction with your home's HVAC system to remove excess moisture from your entire house, not just a single room like a portable dehumidifier. And because it controls to RH, not temperature, you don't over cool your house to remove moisture.
Call your Aprilaire dealer and get your whole-house dehumidifier installed today!
Sound gross? OK, I meant the Mayo Clinic. They're serving up some great information for
allergy sufferers. Controlling excess humidity and dust are keys to controlling dust mites. An air purifier can help with airborne allergens and dust in general. They may not trap alot of actual dust mites.
Still, they recommend keeping the place clean, and that's where an air cleaner with a clean air cleaner filter can help.
And,
humidifiers can help with skin irritations and respiratory problems.
Don't want to listen to Aprilaire bloggers? Who wouldn't want to listen to the experts from the Mayo Clinic?
Maybe. Sure, there are room air purifiers with HEPA filters and fans that can do a decent job of cleaning the air in one room.
Then there are
GadgetS!!!!
As much as I hate to give these guys a link, there it is.
Do you really want to protect your family with a gadget?
If you want a cute toy, go to Toys R Us (or online) and buy a cute toy. If you want effective air cleaning, do your homework. If you insist on a portable, buy the most you can afford in HEPA filtration with a FAN! If you want air cleaning in every room, buy an
air cleaner installed with your HVAC system.
Did you know....The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) recommends that indoor relative humidity (RH) should be controlled between 30% and 60% (See chart below). Keeping your RH in this range provides many health benefits and helps to protect your home and belongings. Proper levels of humidity will also keep you more comfortable.
Controlling the Humidity in Your Home
Most homes cannot achieve the 30% to 60% range without having a humidifier or dehumidifier installed. To determine if your house is too dry or too humid, simply purchase a device called a hygrometer. 
A hygrometer measures the amount of moisture in the air and gives you an RH% reading. This inexpensive device can be purchased online from the Aprilaire eStore, part number 9960 Weather Station. Simply place it anywhere in your home and you can instantly see the level of humidity in your home.
The next step is to call you local Aprilaire dealer. The dealer can install an Aprilaire whole-house product that can control the RH to the correct levels, protecting your health and house for years to come.
Aprilaire - protecting your health and home for over 50 years!
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 get Google alerts everyday of Aprilaire products being talked about online. Today I received one that turned out to be a Craigslist posting; someone selling a five-year old Aprilaire humidifier for fifty bucks. Great deal, eh?
I don't think so.
Yes, fifty bucks is alot cheaper than having a new humidifier installed.
And yes, it's true that there really is very little that can go wrong with an Aprilaire humidifier, so a five-year old unit is likely to perform just like new if it's been properly serviced throughout that five years.
Big "IF"! But why risk that? YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!
My advice is spend the money to do it right. It's not that expensive to get the peace of mind and up-to-date technology of a brand new unit. Do it right and call a qualified Aprilaire Indoor Air Quality Specialist in your town. Yes, you'll spend a few hundred bucks. But you'll have better comfort for a lifetime.
Plus, while they're at it, you can have your entire system cleaned and checked for the season; something you need to do anyway in order to keep a very expensive system running efficiently and safely.
I love Craigslist; use it alot to buy and sell. Heck, if I was that guy with an Aprilaire humidifier that I wanted to sell, I'd probably do the same thing. But as buyer, no thanks.
Did you know....There are four core benefits to proper levels of relative humidity (RH) in your home: health, comfort, protection, and energy savings. Last month we discussed health and comfort. Let's examine protection today.
Protect Your Home and Valuable Possessions
Proper levels of humidity ensure the protection of your most valuable assets. If your air is too dry, wood floors, trim, and cabinets crack and separate. Home electronics such as computers, TVs, and stereos can be damaged from static electricity. Drywall can crack and wallpaper can peel.
If your air is too humid, your home can suffer from bubbling and cracking paint, peeling wallpaper, mold and mildew growth, and swollen wood framing around doors and windows.
The solution to these issues is proper levels of humidification, which can be achieved by installing a whole-house humidifier or central dehumidifier from Aprilaire. Aprilaire products work in conjunction with your HVAC system to provide the protection you need in every room of your house. No portable unit can do that.
Aprilaire – protecting your assets for over 50 years!
Right now everyone is watching there p’s and q’s when it comes to spending money. It’s a tough economic time, and determining what’s important to spend money on and what’s not is something every family and company is doing right now.
One thing most aren’t cutting back on are things like healthy food and regularly scheduled doctor’s visits. Why? Well, those things are too important to you and your family's health. Instead of buying those fan tail shrimp to put in your stir fry you might be eating chicken instead, but you’re still going to make sure your family is getting plenty of nutritious meals. The great Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote “The first wealth is health.” And like the nutritious food you put into your stomach every day the air you put into your lungs each day is just as important.
So don’t skimp on indoor air quality. If you’re having a
contractor come out to clean and check your equipment have him quote an Aprilaire air cleaner, programmable thermostat and depending on where you live a humidifier or dehumidifier (or in many places both).
Tell your contractor you’re interested in improving the quality of your homes air. Any
good contractor will be able to educate you on what you can do to improve your IAQ. You can always give our dedicated customer service team a call at 1-800-334-6011 they too can help you decide on what the best IAQ products are for you.
Aprilaire IAQ products provide clean healthy air to millions of homes across the country. Is yours one of them? If you don’t think indoor air quality is an important part of a healthy lifestyle just Google Indoor Air Quality or Indoor Air Pollution there are vast amounts of good credible information out there.
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