It's hard to believe, but with this wacky summer weather, people are actually running their furnaces in July. This is a gentle reminder that the fall and winter heating season is just around the corner... and with the heating season comes dry air. You remember dry air; it gave you itchy skin and static shocks. It may have made your hair stand on end (literally) or even made your nose bleed. What a pain.
Humidification is the key
Aprilaire has the solution to dry air with a full line of whole-house humidifiers. Unlike portable humidifiers that only add moisture to the room they sit in, Aprilaire provides relief-giving humidification throughout your entire home. Proper levels of humidification provide a wide array of benefits: health, comfort, protection, and energy savings.
Get ahead of the curve. Call your local Aprilaire dealer and ask how you can improve your health and comfort this winter. Install an Aprilaire humidifier today.
Aprilaire, humidifying your world for over 50 years!
Running the A/C may seem like the obvious choice to feel more comfortable during the hot summer months. But for many homes, cool comes with an unwanted side-effect. The air feels heavy, skin feels clammy, and too much humidity is left in the air. As air conditioners become more efficient, they do their one job better: they drop the air temperature quickly. Their secondary benefit of dehumidification is lessened and this leaves a significant amount of moisture trapped in the air.
Air at any given temperature has a maximum amount of water it can hold before it becomes saturated and starts to condense. I call this the soda-can effect. If you take a cold can of soda and set it on a countertop, it usually doesn’t take too long to start showing beads of water on the outside. This is because the air temperature at the surface of the can has dropped to the saturation level, water condenses and forms droplets. The opposite is true with heat. When you raise the temperature of air, its capacity to hold water significantly increases, and you can turn that liquid water on the soda can back into humidity. Think of how a hair-dryer works. Warm air passes over liquid water and the water evaporates, drying your hair.
The maximum amount of water that air at any given temperature can hold can be determined and compared to the amount of water that it currently holds. This is called Relative Humidity, read as a percentage, because it’s the current humidity relative to the maximum amount it can hold. As air temperature goes up, relative humidity goes down, and vice-versa.
When we look at what’s inside a home, most things, including people, need a relative humidity somewhere between 30% and 60%. Somewhere in the middle, around 45% to 50%, we can maintain conditions that won’t lead to common conditions like mold, mildew and even dust mites. But also won’t lead to the ill-effects of air that’s too dry, itchy skin, shrinking, splitting woodwork, etc..
Dehumidifiers, such as our Aprilaire 1700-series, work to maintain conditions in your home, relative to the temperature that you keep your house. So, the warmer the air temperature, the easier it is to maintain a lower relative humidity. The benefit of this is the energy savings of running your A/C less, as you don’t have to keep your home as cool. You’ll feel comfortable even at higher temperatures. By keeping your summertime temperature 3° higher, you can save an estimated 20% on your energy bill. Lower costs, more comfort? What’s not to like?
Hot days in urban areas mean possible elevated levels of ground level ozone. Ground level ozone is formed when pollution from power plants, factories and other industrial sources, vehicle exhaust, and volatile organic compounds chemically reacts with hot temperatures, high humidity and atmospheric stagnation. In these conditions, the Air Quality Index will reach the orange level, which is considered unhealthy for people in sensitive groups and others, including people who are not in sensitive groups but who are engaged in strenuous outside activities or exposed for prolonged periods of time. People in those sensitive groups include those with respiratory diseases, such as asthma, older adults, and active adults and children. When an air quality watch is issued, people in those groups are advised to reschedule or cut back on strenuous outside activities during the watch period.
People with lung diseases such as asthma and bronchitis should pay attention to shortness of breath, or respiratory symptoms like coughing, wheezing and discomfort when taking a breath, and consult with their physician if they have concerns or are experiencing symptoms. Ground level ozone can irritate the respiratory system, reduce lung function, aggravate asthma and chronic lung diseases, and, over time, cause permanent lung damage.
You can escape from these outside atmospheric conditions by installing a whole home air cleaner from Aprilaire. These air cleaners attach to your air handler and clean the air circulating through your entire home. Go to
www.aprilaire.com to learn more about protecting your family and cleaning the air in your home.Wisconsin weather sure is whacky. Today is June 30, 2009. At the time I am blogging this, it is 61 degrees outside with a relative humidity (RH) of 72%. Last week at this time, we had temps in the high eighties and low nineties with high humidity to boot. Air conditioners and dehumidifiers were working as hard as they could to remove heat and moisture, giving homeowners ultimate comfort and protection.
No air conditioning required
72% RH is a perfect breeding ground for things like mold and dust mites. Some people would say their air conditioning will take care of excess humidity. However, at 61 degrees, your air conditioning is not going to come on. At this point, you have a decision to make; you can either suffer the consequences of high humidity, or you can install an Aprilaire whole-house dehumidifier to protect your health and home.
Aprilaire is the perfect solution. It installs with your home’s HVAC system, out of sight and out of mind, quietly removing moisture from your entire home. And, unlike portable dehumidifiers that only remove moisture from the room they are in, there are no tanks to empty and clean on a daily basis.
Call your Aprilaire dealer today and request an Aprilaire whole-house dehumidifier. You'll be glad you did.
When most people think of a green home they think of a new home, but with about 100 million existing homes a major impact can be made by making them more earth friendly.
A major contributor to making a existing home green is indoor air quality. Improving indoor air quality is also probably one of the easiest, and least expensive ways to make your home more healthy and earth friendly.
A great starting point to save energy is a programmable thermostat. An Aprilaire programmable thermostat installed costs less then a night out on the town. Plus in a short period of time you will have saved more money on your heating and cooling bills than you dished out to put it in.
Talk about your win/win situations! Save some money and save the planet by understanding how to program your thermostat today. Many people don’t understand that you only need to make your home comfortable when you’re in it which can save you lots of money while saving energy.
As an example: A programmable thermostat allows you to set the temperature at 75 degrees when you’re there and then let it rise to 80 degrees when you leave for work. This means that your air handler operates less often and saves you money. There are programmable thermostats that can set days of the week, weekends and vacations. Aprilaire offers numerous models of programmable thermostats such as: 8363, 8365, 8366, 8570 and 8870 models for different applications.
Go to Aprilaire.com and understand how you can save money and the planet today!
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.
I had a great comment to one of my blogs yesterday in regards to the need for proper humidification. Wellsacs7 wrote:
"I know how valuable it is to have a humidifier in your home. I know that having a humidifier all year around is great, but they are increasingly important during the months where heating a home is essential."
This comment is dead-on correct. In the winter months, your furnace or heat pump not only heats the air, it dries it out. The dry air can cause all kinds of problems related to your comfort and health, not to mention your home and possessions.
Thanks for the great comment! Keep 'em coming.
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!
I use to get so frustrated because my home was never comfortable. The upstairs was too hot and other parts were too cold. It felt like I was living in the Three Little Bears story. Then I found out I could use my heating and cooling system to only heat or cool part of my home. It’s called zoning; I’m able to distribute cool air to the area of my home that is too warm without getting the other areas in my home too cold. I can do the same with warm air. The zoning system is made by Aprilaire and is something any heating and cooling contractor can install. I really wish I would have done this along time ago. Not only am I more comfortable but I save on my energy bills because I’m not heating and cooling my entire home. To learn more about the Aprilare zone system visit www.aprilaire.com.
Did you know...There are four core benefits to proper levels of relative humidity (RH) in your home: health, comfort, protection and energy savings. In recent blogs we've discussed health, comfort, and protection. Let's wrap it up with energy savings today.
Adjust Your Thermostat and Save $$$$
Proper levels of humidification allow you to feel more comfortable at lower temperatures in the winter season. Because of this, you can turn down your thermostat and save on your heating bill without having to put on that wool sweater. In fact, you can save up to 3% on your energy bill for every one degree you lower your thermostat! Call your Aprilaire dealer today to have your humidifier installed in time for the next heating season and save on next winter’s heating bill.
Likewise, with dehumidification, you can save money. Do you know the old saying "it's not the heat, it's the humidity"? Well, it's true. Take out the humidity and you will feel more comfortable at high temperatures. Install a whole-house dehumidifier and turn up your thermostat for savings!
Aprilaire - saving you money for over 50 years!
Your Aprilaire Humidifier likely will not run in the summer unless the weather is cold enough and your thermostat setting calls for your furnace to heat your home. It is not required that you turn the unit off. It simply will not operate if there is no call for heat.
This would be a good time to clean the unit and change out the water panel. Be sure you do that before the heating season starts again. Your local HVAC contractor or Aprilaire dealer can help with this at the same time you have them clean and check your entire system in the Fall.
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.
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.
Your home's heating and cooling equipment has a working life of approximately 17 years. Your cost of replacing that equipment (furnace, air conditioner, heat pump etc.) can range from $4,000 to $20,000. For that kind of investment, you would want to prolong the operation and maximize efficiency over that 17 years (maybe make it to 20 years!).
The easiest way to do this is by installing an air cleaner with a rating of MERV 10 or higher. MERV stands for Minimum Efficiency Reported Value. The rating of a 10 (on a scale from 1 to 20) means it removes large particulate from the air which are 10 microns or larger. In fact it must remove up to 85 to 100% of the particulate in the 3 to 10 micron size range. This captures all of the dust, dirt, pollen, mold spores that builds up on your coils and equipment.
Hey, like your arteries, stuff builds up and puts strain on your heart and therefore your life... your home's heart is it's HVAC equipment and you want to prolong it's life too!
Did you know....There are four core benefits to proper levels of relative humidity (RH) in your home: health, comfort, protection and energy savings. While all four are important protecting the health of you and your family is the most critical of the four. 
The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has done extensive research to determine the ideal levels of RH to eliminate or reduce certain health ailments. As you can see from the chart, air that has low levels of RH increases the occurrence of bacteria, viruses, respiratory infections, allergic rhinitis, asthma, and ozone production. High levels of RH increase bacteria, viruses, fungi, mites, allergic rhinitis, asthma, and chemical interactions.
How do you ensure that you and your family are protected from these ailments? A whole-house solution from Aprilaire is the answer. Whether it's a humidifier to add soothing moisture in the winter months or a dehumidifier to remove excess humidity in the spring, summer and fall, Aprilaire has the products to solve your humidification needs. And, unlike portable products, Aprilaire conditions your entire home, ensuring that every room in your house is at the proper level of humidification.
Aprilaire, keeping homes healthy for over 50 years!
Once you’ve done that go to www.2degreepledge.org and take the 2 Degree Pledge. According to the website “The 2 Degree Pledge is a simple call-to-action aimed to focus consumer attention on ways to save energy by properly using and maintaining their cooling and heating systems, and if it is time to replace old, inefficient equipment, how to make sure it is installed correctly.” Nowhere did I find on the website a suggestion to actually turn down your thermostat 2 degrees, but imagine if everyone in the country did, it would save millions of dollars in energy costs not to mention give mother nature an awesome reprieve. The thing I really like about the 2 Degree Pledge and the ideas they offer to save energy is they aren’t asking you to sacrifice comfort for energy savings. Also, if you take the pledge the campaign will send you a free informational brochure called A Greener Planet Begins at Home.
Aprilaire offers programmable thermostats along with everything else you need to make your home greener including whole home air cleaners, humidifiers and dehumidifiers.
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."
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