Which Air Purification Technologies Are Right for Your Home?
Indoor air pollution is a serious health concern. Pollution is often more concentrated indoors where people spend most of their time. If you’d like to do something about it, an air purification system is an effective approach. One challenge is the wide range of options on the market. Let’s explore the core concepts you should know about.
Air Changes Per Hour
A central idea to understand with whole-home air purifiers is air changes per hour. An ACH rating indicates how many times an hour a system filters a treatment volume. If you have a 2,300-square-foot home, that’s your treatment volume. An air purifier rated for 4 ACH at 2,300 sq. ft. would filter all the air in your home four times an hour. The CDC recommends 4 ACH as a minimum. Many whole-house air purifiers on the market provide at least 5 ACH. You may want to consider 6 ACH and up if someone in the home has a serious respiratory condition.
Clean Air Delivery Rate
ACH indicates how much air the system moves and is an important value. That said, it’s not an indication of effectiveness, which is where clean air delivery rate is useful. CADR indicates how much clean air a system delivers every minute. If comparing two 5-ACH systems, the one with the higher CADR rating will be more effective. As a general guideline, CADR should be two-thirds of your treatment volume. Using the example above, you’d want a CADR of about 1,550 at least.
Mechanical Filtration
Mechanical filtration is the means through which many air purifiers trap particulate matter. Many systems will have a prefilter to trap large PM and protect the more valuable filter media. For the primary mechanical filter, there are two important terms to note: minimum efficiency reporting value and high-efficiency particulate air. MERV is a scale that ranges from 1 to 16. At MERV 13 and up, a filter traps at least 90% of household allergens. It traps finer particles too. HEPA filters are even more effective than MERV-16 filters. They trap at least 99.97% of all particles.
Adsorbent Filtration
Adsorbent filtration is how many air purifiers deal with gases, such as volatile organic compounds. It’s also how they deal with airborne chemicals, such as ammonia and formaldehyde. The most common media for this purpose is a substance called activated carbon or charcoal. It’s a highly porous, manmade form of carbon that is highly absorbent and has substantial surface area within. That allows it to bind with a significant amount of chemicals and gases. It’s also very effective at adsorbing unpleasant odors from your air, making odor-causing particles stick to its surface.
Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation
There are multiple types of ultraviolet light within the electromagnetic spectrum. One of those is UV-C, which is invisible. It’s also germicidal, which means it can neutralize bacteria, viruses, mold spores, dust mite eggs, and so forth. Mechanical filtration can trap some pathogens but often not a significant amount. UV-C exposure, on the other hand, can eliminate more than 99%. Some air purifiers have an integrated UVGI stage. It’s also common to install an in-duct air purifier with an in-duct UV lamp that integrates with your HVAC system. The lamp benefits from the slower air in the ducts.
Ionization
Ionization is another way to deal with airborne particulate matter. It’s often used as an alternative or complement to mechanical filtration. How it works is that the system negatively charges particles, which then disperse throughout the home. Those ions bind with pollutants in the home and cause them to fall out of the air. Some ionizers even provide surface disinfection. There are many products on the market that combine UVGI with ionization.
Humidity Control
Relative humidity measures water vapor content in the air within the context of temperature. The higher the temperature, the more moisture the air can hold. The ideal range is 30% to 50%. RH outside that range can lead to respiratory irritation. Humidifiers help keep humidity at or above 30%, and dehumidifierss help keep it at 50% or below.
Would You Like to Install an Air Purifier in Windsor?
Guaranteed Comfort Heating & Cooling has been installing and servicing air purification equipment in Windsor, ON for over 50 years. Our technicians install and service a full range of HVAC technologies, including air conditioners, heat pumps, furnaces, boilers, and ductless mini-splits. We specialize in heat recovery ventilators, which can improve ventilation while enhancing heating efficiency. Our team also installs, maintains, and repairs tank and tankless water heaters. Call today or contact us online to schedule an appointment.