A Whole-House Air Purifier: Your Next Home Improvement?
A whole-house air purifier, as the name suggests is a system that can purify the air in your entire home. Different than a single room air purifier that can only provide limited purification in just one room. Please remember that portable purifying systems are not the same as whole-house air purifiers. Make sure you install your air purifying system into your HVAC system to operate effectively. If you want to know whether air purifiers should be your next improvement, then find out exactly how they function. We can show you the benefits they can give you, before making the decision to buy them.
Advantages of Whole-House Air Purifiers
Lung Health
Research shows that using whole house air purifiers may increase life expectancy.
Smog is a combination of fog and smoke. Smog can seriously affect both your lungs and heart. It can aggravate any existing disease such as bronchitis and any existing heart condition. It is also responsible for causing serious lung diseases with irreversible effects. Whole house air purifiers can considerably reduce the effects of “Smog” and prevent unclean air from entering your homes.
Plants and trees release pollen, tiny particles that become airborne and cause various allergic reactions and diseases when inhaled by people. A whole-house air purifier with the proper filter can prevent more than 99 % of pollen from getting inside your home.
Pet Dander/fur/hair and dust particles can trigger or aggravate an already existing breathing condition. When it comes to indoor air these can remain suspended for longer periods of time. Proper fresh filtered airflow from a whole-house air purifier will ensure that you and your family breathe clean air. This will especially help if you have pets.
Germs
Airborne diseases are highly contagious and you can catch them as soon as you breathe the air carrying them. The most recent and threatening one among them these days is covid-19 which can stay in air for hours and infect people within a range of 6 feet. More than 51 million people have been infected with Covid-19. Researchers agree that proper ventilation and air purification can considerably reduce the chances of infection. Whole house air purifiers can protect you and your family not just against this disease to some extent, but also from other countless airborne diseases. These include chicken pox, whooping cough, measles, flu and the common cold.
Pollution and Smell
Whole air house purifiers can prevent toxic gases and harmful chemicals from contaminating the indoor air.
Recent environmental research proves that indoor air tends to be more polluted than outdoor air. This is especially true if there is not sufficient ventilation and you live in a crowded vicinity. It can be five times more polluted and remain like that for hours. To ensure regular ventilation and adequate flow of clean filtered air, install a whole-house air purifier in your home.
Specialized filters can not only clean the air entering your home, but also give it a pleasant fragrance and leave your home smelling fresh & pleasant.
Types of Air Purifiers
There are 2 categories of whole-house air purifiers based on the method of purification. Media filters just with any filtration system catch dust particles depending on the filter size, while electronic filters capture various types of contaminants by using high voltage. Some systems use a combination of both methods to improve efficiency.
Flat filter & Other Filtration Based Whole House Air Purifiers
If you already have a centralized HVAC system which uses forced air then you already have a very basic purifying system. Some of these systems are equipped with fiberglass flat filters, pleated filters, electrostatically charged filters, or stacked filters. High quality HEPA & ULPA filters can block up to 99.99 % contaminants. However, both of these are usually used in portable purifiers, as all HVAC systems may not be compatible with them.
Electronic Whole House Air Purifiers
These whole-house air purifiers follow the process of “ionization”. Air enters the electronic filter from one direction. As it passes through the electric current , it charges the particles and collects them at the exit by oppositely charged plates usually made of aluminum. These filters are way more effective than media filters and are able to capture even smoke particles.
UV-Ultraviolet filters
The UV Based filtration system uses ultraviolet light to kill germs. These are mostly used in hospitals, but can also be used for households along with a whole-house electronic or electrostatic air purification systems. Although the UV based air purifier is considered to be a germ killer, remember it can only do so when it is in contact with such germs or bugs.
Key Points
- Whole-house air purifiers can only be installed in your HVAC system. If you don’t have a HVAC system, it is not for you. Moreover, if your current furnace is not based on forced-air this system cannot be installed.
- Be very clear about the area to be covered & the location within your home.
- Do consider the Required maintenance and the cost associated with each system.
- The media filter purification system is the cheapest. The electrostatic/electronic systems are more expensive but they may release ozone and you need to check for tolerable levels of ozone.
- CADR (clean air delivery rate) of a system is a very important factor to ensure sufficient flow of clean air into your home. The higher the CADR, the better the air quality.
- When selecting filters, check their MERV rating, the higher the rating, the higher the filtration ability. You should consider the filter material.
- So far there has not been any research on the efficacy of any of these systems, but installing one is still better than inhaling unfiltered air and increasing the risk of catching cardiovascular diseases.
Conclusion
Whole-house air purifiers are the need of the hour when we consider the surge in environmental pollution and its effects on health. It can offer protection for you and your family against many airborne diseases. Now you know more about them so you can make a decision if this will bring value to your home.