Indoor Air Quality

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Room and Whole House Air Cleaning

Maintaining Proper Humidity Levels
It is important to maintain the proper humidity
levels in your home. Indoor humidity levels
should be between 30 to 50 percent with the
ideal level being about 45 percent. Humidity
levels can be easily checked with a hygrometer
or an electronic thermidistat.

If humidity is too low, you can suffer from dry
noses, skin, and throats, as well as cracked
fingertips, and you’re more likely to catch a cold.

Dryness can also damage wood and drywall,
cause your wood floors to shrink, and even cause
your piano to go out of tune. Static electricity is
also increased as the humidity levels decreased.
Low humidity is more common in colder climates
because cold air is less able to hold water vapor.
(This is why air conditioners drip water – colder air H1N1 Test Results (PDF)
holds less humidity.) Older and less energy- Guardian Air Specification Pamphlet (PDF)
efficient homes are also more likely to suffer Whole House Humidifiers
from low humidity.

Humidity that is too high will stain ceilings and walls, and can cause paint and wallpaper to peel. It is also a breeding ground for mold, rot and insects such as termites and cockroaches. Homes that are more energy-efficient are also more likely to suffer from problems with higher humidity. The tighter your house is, the less air that is exchanged.

Humidity Too Low

Humidity levels are easily increased by using duct mounted whole House Humidifier controlled by a duct mounted humidistat or a wall hung thermidistat.

The most common type of humidifier uses a water panel that absorbs the water, your fan then blows through the water panel and evaporates some of the water and distributes this into your home via the ductwork

Humidity Too High

Install a high efficient central air conditioning system that utilizes a variable speed blower motor and controlled with a thermidistat.

A less expensive method is to purchase a dehumidifier. A dehumidifier is, for all intents and purposes, an air conditioner that has both hot and cold coils. A fan blows air over the cold coil that condenses the moisture in the air, which drips down into the collection area. The air is then passed over a hot coil to restore it to its original temperature.

Having a central air conditioner and dehumidifier working together is sometimes needed.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that most people spend about 90 percent of their time indoors. Make sure you’re spending that time in a healthy environment.

One ounce of dust contains nearly 42,000 living dust mites. Each mite is expelling 20 fecal pellets every day into the air you breathe.

Ultraviolet Energy

Learn about how ultraviolet energy can inhibit the growth of microorganisms such as germs and bacteria. These pests can cause respiratory illness, allergies and asthma. Find out more about how you can control these unwanted organic pollutants.
Ozone Ultraviolet Energy (UVV)

You can harness the power of the sun to break down organisms, gasses and toxic fumes. Keep your home at hospital levels for just pennies a day. Combined with germicidal light, the combination is a powerful and safe way to keep your home safe and clean.

How do you pick the best room air purifier?

First, you must decide if you want to clean the air in your entire house or only
one room at a time.

Whole House Air Cleaners

You would think that if you want the best whole house air cleaner, it would be
very expensive. Whole house air cleaners are available to the common
homeowner at a very affordable price! Installation and maintenance
is a snap and very affordable. Click here for more information about allergy
relief at home and the best whole house air cleaners.

Room Air Purifying

Towers, consoles, electrostatic, ultraviolet, ozone, ionizer. . .are you getting
stressed yet?! The choices are endless and how are you to know which
ones really work? We all know that ozone is bad for your lungs
(www.epa.gov). Ionizers charge particles and if they are not caught in the
filter, they end up on you! One thing you have to remember about
portable units as a whole, all manufacturers are concerned with the sale
price. You will also have trouble finding a portable unit that does much of
anything for a low price. On the other hand, just because a unit costs $800-
1,000 does not ensure that it is effective for allergy treatment.
You must have the ability to purify the air in a large area. You must also have
at least one air change per hour. A typical central furnace system runs
about 4-6 changes per hour. You should also be sure that your
unit has features that include automatic air monitoring, filter change monitoring
and UV lamp change monitor.

Ultra-Violet Light

Ultra-violet light units are used in hospitals, government buildings, barbershops,
anywhere you need to kill germs and bacteria. The light literally “kills” the germs
and bacteria within 2 inches of the bulb and alters its DNA so it cannot reproduce
within 24 inches of the bulb. This is important for allergy treatment
(www.lungusa.org). Click here for more information on home allergy relief and
the best room air purifiers.

Physics of Air – What all this really means?

Air, like anything else in nature, will take the path of least resistance. If your
system is not sealed, the air will try to escape around the filter. The result is
dirty air and an annoying whistling sound. A passive filter acts as a stopper to
your airflow. If you have a high efficiency filter, you get low airflow.
Alternatively, if you opt for higher airflow, you lose efficiency. “Efficiency” just
means the percent of particles captured. This means that a 10% filter captures
only 10% of the particles it is rated for. HEPA filter air cleaners require an
additional blower to pull the air through the dense fibers.

Therefore, you could never put a HEPA filter on your furnace; it would never be
able to pull the air through. A HEPA filter also has some substance to them to allow
for dust holding capacity. You may have a thin filter that qualifies as a HEPA filter,
but without any thickness there is no holding capacity for the dust that will
accumulate. Do not be fooled by neat designs and gimmicks!

Microns and Particle Counting

Most of your house air cleaners will measure their efficiency by how small of a
particle it will trap or how many particles it removes. The biggest sign that a
house air cleaner is not adequate will be the admission of removing large
allergens. This is generally all particles larger than 1 micron. A micron is one
millionth of a meter. Although this seems very small, these particles are
considered large by industry standards.

When cleaning air, you are looking for efficiency in the 95% range or better, down
to 0.3 microns or better. Most viruses and bacteria are about 0.3 micron on
average. Beware of particle counting when testing even the best room air purifiers.
Most manufacturers will test the particles being exhausted out of the machine when
counting particles. As the consumer, you want to know what the particle count is
in the room, not at the exhaust port of the machine!

Filtration vs. Air Cleaning

There are a variety of furnace filters available with a wide range of prices and reported efficiencies. Many of these filters are supplied by the furnace manufacturer upon installation or are available at retail outlets. Called “MERV Ratings” (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value), the higher the MERV number, the better the efficiency. These filters are designed to protect the furnace and do a fair to poor job at that and are mostly made of fiberglass or a pleated blend of woven material. When choosing a filter, it is important to take into consideration its efficiency rating, as well as how restrictive it is to air flow. Generally the more expensive the filter is, the more restrictive it is to air flow due to it being denser for higher efficiency. Filters that restrict air flow, more than the design of your heating and cooling system can handle, will affect the furnace’s and air conditioner’s performance and efficiency and may cause damage to the system.

Nature’s Home products are designed to work in conjunction with your existing heating and air conditioning system. The high efficiency filters can be replaced easily by the homeowner. The whole-house systems are installed by professional heating and air conditioning contractors to convert your heating and cooling system into your whole-house air treatment center. The air in your home passes through this system several times an hour, unlike passive room cleaners. In order to effectively remove particulates, pollen, dander and smoke from the air, multiple passes through HEPA filters is required.

Stand-alone room air cleaners cannot possibly match the effectiveness and efficiency of whole-house systems. They simply do not move the large volume of air required to remove indoor air pollution. By using your existing forced-air system, you can have measurably cleaner indoor air.

Room Air Cleaning vs. Whole House Systems

Several major consumer publications and organizations offer consumers advice on the purchase of individual room air cleaners compared with whole-house systems. Basically, room air cleaners claim to clean one room and are portable devices which may or may not have the ability to move air. Whole-house systems are devices installed within a forced-air heating and/or cooling system, inside the existing ductwork. These systems range from a simple High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter easily installed by the homeowner to contractor-installed germicidal and toxic gas light systems and humidification and/or dehumidification devices.

The recent popularity of individual room cleaners has been brought to the attention of several consumer advocate groups. One highly-advertised unit claims to be highly efficient at removing particulates from a room, and claims that customers are 100% satisfied with its quiet operation. A major consumer testing organization analyzed these claims and determined that, yes, customers were satisfied with the noise level because the unit had no fan or moving parts. However, when tested for efficiency (particulates, smoke, pet dander), the unit did not perform according to advertised claims. In a particularly twisted marketing campaign, this company has touted the weakest part of their product (the fact that it does not move air with a fan) as the most satisfactory aspect of their product.

Good Housekeeping goes even further and in their words: “Bottom line… save your money. You can’t rely on this product to clean the air in your home. Plus, any retail room air cleaner has limited efficiency and effectiveness as they are only designed to clean one room at a time.”