- On March 3, 2023
Air Purification in Your Arizona Home
Maintaining a flow of clean, pure air through your home is imperative to keeping your lungs healthy over the years. While keeping potential allergy triggers under control by cleaning your home is a good start, these measures often don’t take care of some of the invisible threats that make themselves welcome within the walls and vents of your house. Fortunately, upgraded air filters and other home air purifiers are there to pick up the slack.
Limiting Pollutants
Reducing the number of pollutant-causing sources within your home is an excellent first step towards enhancing your home’s air quality. Of course, before you can limit pollutants and remove their sources, you have to know precisely what you’re looking for. The most common pollutants found within modern homes include:
- Gasses from poorly ventilated appliances that utilize heat
- Secondhand smoke from tobacco products
- Debris from building materials (asbestos, paint fumes)
- Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from household cleaners, makeup, etc.
- Mold
- Radon
- Pesticides
- Pet hair
- Dust
There could be dozens of individual sources of air pollution within your home. To reduce the amount of pollution they’re producing within your home, you need to take some essential steps. First, clean your house regularly to reduce dust, pet hair, and pesticides accumulated on surfaces. Keep your home dry to reduce the chances of mold growth. Have your home checked for radon and ensure your heated appliances are appropriately ventilated during use. Try not to smoke indoors and reduce the amount of VOC producing cleaners you use within the house.
Ventilation helps to mitigate the damage all of these pollutants could cause. Opening your windows and allowing fresh outside air into your home helps to remove existing contaminants. However, this is mostly practical if you live in an area that doesn’t suffer from high smog levels or other outdoor pollution sources.
Upgrading Your Air Filter
Regardless of how hard you try to avoid it, you’ll always produce some form of air pollution within your home. Updating your air filter is a great way to limit your exposure to those pollutants that aren’t easy to remove or reduce and passively clean the air around you while you go about your everyday business. Every HVAC system requires an air filter but, contrary to popular belief, not all air filters are created equally.
The key to finding a good air filter for your home lies in the Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value, more commonly known as MERV. MERV scores exist on a scale of 1 to 20, with 20 reporting the most pollutants pulled from the air on each pass through the filter. However, a rating of 20 is well above what is required by most residential homes. Ideally, homes should use a filter with a rating of between 6 and 13. Each rating offers a different level of filtering power:
- MERV 6 handles lint, dust, and pollen
- MERV 8 handles previous pollutants plus dust mites and airborne mold spores
- MERV 11 hands previous pollutants plus pet dander, smog, and smoke
- MERV 13 handles all previous pollutants plus airborne bacteria and viruses
You want to keep the air within your home as clean as possible, but springing straight for the filter with the highest rating isn’t always the right move. Suppose you’re thinking of choosing anything over a MERV 11 rating. In that case, you should have an HVAC professional in Phoenix, AZ, check on your current HVAC system’s efficiency and strength before installing to avoid complications. And of course, changing your air filter regularly is the key to helping it do its job correctly.
Air Duct Cleaning
Even with proper ventilation and good filtration, your home could still encounter pollutants that have built up within your ductwork over the years. This is an excellent way for those who suffer from allergies to ensure they’re comfortable within their home and is a service that’s offered by most HVAC professionals in Phoenix. There are several clear signs that it’s time for a professional duct cleaning in your home, which include:
- An unusual amount of dust on surfaces in your home
- Strange, musty odors
- Dust or black marks appearing around air supply vents
- Increased breathing issues
Ductwork can be tricky to reach and clean properly, which is why it’s always a good idea to trust the job to a team of trained professionals who have the right tools and experience on hand to get the job done right. Professionals take jobs such as these seriously and offer a wide range of services throughout the single process, including:
- HEPA decontamination
- Air register/vent scrubbing
- Airbrush duct cleaning
- Air handler cabinet vacuuming
- Evaporator coil cleaning
- Drain pan cleaning and flushing
- Duct system disinfection
Air duct cleaning involves far more work than merely removing dust from inside your vents. To ensure the job gets done thoroughly and that you can breathe easily, schedule a duct cleaning with a reliable team of Phoenix HVAC pros.
Install an Air Purification System
Air purification systems are the best, most effective method of cleaning the air in your home and keeping it clean. Installing a simple portable air filter in highly-trafficked portions of your home help to cut down on airborne debris quite a bit, but these filters are by no means your only option. New LED-based systems can now utilize new technology to clean air within your HVAC system before it’s circulated throughout your home.
Products such as the Reme HALO LED use a unique technology to kill and remove surface and airborne viruses, bacteria, mold, allergens, odors, and other pollutants within your home by up to an astounding 99 percent. HVAC professionals fit the small but powerful device directly into your ductwork, where it then uses a pair of dual ionizers to purify the air as your system moves it through your home.
Learn More
If you’re serious about improving your home’s air quality in Phoenix, then more information is always better. Contact Howard Air to learn more about how you can get your indoor air quality under control to enjoy a comfortable, breathable, healthy home environment for years to come. Our professionals specialize in air purifier installation and duct cleaning covering all of the bases, from busting dust to banishing bacteria and viruses.
Featured Image: Shutterstock / KPG_Payless
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