As a homeowner, it’s easy to assume that the air you’re breathing indoors is clean and high quality. But in reality, the indoor air quality in even the cleanest and most well maintained homes could be an issue; it’s what you don’t necessarily see that counts.
Your HVAC system is key to maintaining good air quality in your home. It can help to reduce things like mold and germs in the air as well as allergens, dust, and other particulates. But it could also aggravate the issues, and over time, even increase the number of pollutants in your indoor air.
In today’s blog post, the team at AA Temperature Services in Punta Gorda is going to go over a few of the different ways that your HVAC system affects the air quality in your home — and how to utilize your system to start increasing your indoor air quality, too. Let’s dive in.
THE AGE AND EFFICIENCY OF YOUR HVAC SYSTEM
An HVAC system is designed to push warm and cool air out into your home, but the quality of that air has always played a factor in the design of this system. Your HVAC system is designed to filter air that it’s sucking in and clean it of the pollutants before pushing this air throughout the house. With that being said, if your HVAC system is not working properly, is outdated, or has a serious repair that needs to be made, then you’re probably not enjoying the highest quality of air within your home. To change that, stay on top of your system to ensure it is effective and working as intended.
One of the best ways to stay on top of the effectiveness of our HVAC system is by prioritizing the routine maintenance that it needs to work effectively – if it’s been a while since you had maintenance performed, call or contact us to schedule your AC tune up! We also offer money-saving HVAC maintenance plans that make it easy to keep your system in tip-top shape.
CHANGE OUT YOUR FURNACE/AC FILTERS
A huge factor in the quality of air that’s being distributed in your house is the condition of your air filter. This filter is what catches any pollutants, allergens, and dust that the air is carrying and keeps them from being spread throughout your house. Understanding that this is how the air filter works, it makes sense that air quality would drop when the filter is dirty and is not replaced frequently. A dirty air filter can also affect the efficiency of your system as a whole, meaning it could be affecting the heating/cooling potential as well as increasing utility bills!
When it comes to air filters, the rule of thumb is to replace them every six months. This is for the standard household that doesn’t have any additional factors contributing to the quality of air. If, however, you live on a dirt road, have pets that live indoors, or you have a large quantity of people living in the house, we would suggest changing the filter more frequently. If you’re unsure about the type of HVAC filter you should be using, our technicians can help advise you when they are performing your tune up or repair.
DIRTY AIR DUCTS
The filter isn’t the only part of your HVAC system that contributes to the quality of air that you’re getting in your home. Your air ducts — the hardware that actually distributes this air — also play a significant role in the quality of air that you’re enjoying.
While a filter can catch quite a bit of the allergens and pollutants that the air is carrying, there are some that will still make their way through. When these pollutants are traveling in the air ducts, they can get stuck to the side or on some built up dust. Over time, this build up can affect the quality of air that your HVAC system is pumping out — even though the air is being filtered. So, if you’ve noticed that the quality of air has dropped but you’ve changed the filter and the system seems to be working well, it may be time to consider other options.
IN-DUCT AIR PURIFICATION SYSTEMS
Those other options are pretty awesome: air purification systems that work alongside your existing AC or HVAC system to purify all of the air being distributed throughout the system. While portable air purifiers can be great in a small office or a single room, these solutions help for your entire house!
There are two different options, but don’t worry – you can usually install both alongside each other!
The first method is UV light purification. HVAC UV lights help to neutralize viruses and germs in the air, and especially help to reduce the germs that cause mold. This is incredibly important both for your indoor air quality as well as the lifetime of your system.
The second method is a whole-home air purification system such as the REME Halo or iWave-R. Some of these systems, like the REME Halo, do utilize a UV light to activate a “catalyst” which purifies the air through hydroperoxides. That sounds complicated, and it is — but the important thing to remember is that it helps to both kill viruses, germs, and mold as well as controlling particulates such as pollen, dander, pet fur, and dust. The iWave-R also utilizes ionization to accomplish the same goal, and just like the REME Halo can be installed in virtually any in-duct system. Both of these solutions are able to safely purify the air without releasing harmful levels of ozone; they mimic the same ions that nature creates naturally.
To get the benefits of both solutions together, you can usually install a dedicated UV light and whole-home air purifier in the same system. Learn more about HVAC air purification and UV lights on our blog.
TRUST AA TEMPERATURE SERVICES FOR INDOOR AIR QUALITY IN FLORIDA
When you’re in need of high-quality HVAC repair and maintenance services in Punta Gorda, you can count on the team at AA Temperature Services. We fully understand how important it is to have quality air distributed in your house and want to ensure that your HVAC system continues to do just that. Contact our office today and we would be more than happy to answer any questions or schedule an appointment for one of our HVAC technicians to work on your system.
