Thinking About an Electronic Air Purifier? Here are the Facts.
If you believe that being inside your home means you’re safe from the natural and human-made allergens normally located in the outdoors, you might want to think again. Every household is jam-packed with a wide assortment of pollutants. Moreover, there is an ever-increasing concern about air pollution levels both outdoors and indoors.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, indoor air can be as much as five times as polluted as outdoor air. And since indoor air is not circulated as much as the outside air, many airborne pollutants continue to thrive inside.
Taking into consideration that most people spend an estimated 90 percent of their day indoors, it should come as no surprise how important it is that the air inside your home is as free of pollutants as possible.
For starters and most importantly, poor indoor air quality can damage your and your family’s health. Children, the elderly, and anyone who experiences allergies, or a compromised immune system, are most vulnerable to its harmful effects.
Among the signs are breathing problems, dizziness, sinus problems, flu, and viral infections.
The majority of household contaminants are practically unavoidable, such as pet dander, mold spores, pollen, and bacteria. Yes, meticulous cleaning can lend a helping hand in minimizing these contaminants, but the most reliable way to tackle them and keep you and your family safe and healthy is with effective air filtration and purification.
Electronic air purifiers are appliances that aid in the removal of air pollutants. They are especially helpful for people who suffer from asthma or allergies, but they are also used in getting rid of secondhand smoke.
In fact, when installed into your home’s HVAC system, an electronic air purifier traps and filters up to 99 percent of airborne particles passing through the system to make sure cleaner air is distributed to every room in your home.
Why an air purifier?
For asthmatics and allergy sufferers especially, these contaminants can lead to enhanced symptoms, including sneezing, wheezing, and shortness of breath, as well as simply ruining a good night’s sleep.
In addition to keeping your family safe, dependable indoor air filtration is going to help your HVAC system perform at the utmost efficiency. Remember, your conventional furnace filter only safeguards your system from large objects but does little to put a stop to dust, dirt, and mold spores from gathering on the indoor coils and blower.
This build-up makes your HVAC system work harder than need be to heat and cool your home, in turn boosting your utility bills. Eventually, your system will require additional repairs, and its life span will decrease over time. A reliable electronic air purifying system will help keep your indoor coil clean in addition to cutting maintenance and operating costs.
Keep in mind that the one-inch traditional pleated air filters that you can purchase in most hardware stores will filter the air sufficiently. Still, when positioned in a traditional size filter grille, they lessen the amount of air recirculated to your system and starve it of air. When the airflow to your system is cut back, it brings down your system’s efficiency and capacity. It could also damage the blower motor since it has to work harder to move the equivalent amount of air.
Still not convinced? In addition to keeping your home healthy and your HVAC system functioning efficiently, investing in high-quality electronic air filtration and purification system will benefit you, your family, and your home in plenty of other ways.
Before we talk about the added benefits, let’s look at how an electronic air purifier operates?
An electronic air purifier is an air cleaning appliance used in place of a standard air filter. It’s electrically powered by your existing HVAC system and is extremely effective at removing small particles from your home’s air.
Typically, when air passes through a conventional electronic air purifier, it goes through a set of ionizing wires that boost airborne particles’ charge. Beyond these ionizing wires is a set of flat collection plates with the opposite charge of the particles. These freshly charged particles are drawn to the collector plates and stick to them, eliminating them from the air.
Electronic air purifiers have evolved over the years, and there are now different models on the marketplace. The added types of air purifiers include ozone purifiers, absorbents, and UV germicidal lights, which intentionally seek out microbes and mold spores, eradicating them without any chemicals.
Although they might differ in how they function, these electronic devices all pretty much offer the same benefits.
Okay, now that we know how they function, what can an electronic air purifier do for me and my family?
Better efficiency than conventional air filters
Even though you can buy air filters at your neighborhood hardware store that are high efficiency, there aren’t any presently on the market that can equal the effectiveness of an electronic air purifier. True, the top-notch conventional air filters are able to eliminate the air particles that are only one micron in size, but electronic air purifiers can eradicate air particles that are even smaller than that. And it’s these smaller particles that are most often the ones that are more able to impact your family’s health.
Traps tobacco smoke
Breathing in tobacco smoke can give rise to the increase of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), as well as heart disease and other ailments, including ear infections, pneumonia, and bronchitis.
Secondhand smoke is just as hazardous, especially for children since their lungs are still maturing, and their respiratory rates are higher than that of an adult. Meanwhile, older people are at a greater risk of dementia if they are subjected to secondhand smoke.
Put simply, most tobacco smoke can be drawn into an electronic purifier where it will be trapped and eliminated.
Improves your home’s overall air quality
Since electronic air purifiers utilize electricity instead of straining particles with a conventional air filter, they catch all sizes of particles, including bacteria and viruses. As mentioned above, these air cleaners can also destroy mold spores, tobacco smoke, pollen, pet dander, and dust.
No other filter has the ability to cleanse the air as efficiently as an electronic air purifier, offering the cleanest air possible for your home.
Relieves symptoms of asthma
Many pollutants and allergens in the air today can trigger breathing issues such as asthma or wheezing. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 12 people are affected by asthma. People living with this condition have inflamed bronchial tubes so that pollutants such as pet dander, pollen, or dust mites irritate these airways, causing difficulty breathing.
An effective electronic air purifier keeps your indoor air free of these pollutants, lowering the possibility of breathing problems triggered by asthma.
Provides excellent airflow
When you are using a conventional air filter that is rated highly efficient, you’re going to experience reduced airflow. This is because when a filter has a high MERV (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value) rating, it means there is a sizable surface area for blocking the airborne particles. The result: it’s more challenging for an air conditioner to push that air through its filters.
However, when you utilize electronic air purifiers, you’re employing technologies that will pull the particles from the air without hindering the system’s airflow.
This is simply a more efficient way you can experience superior airflow in your home.
Eliminates radon gas
Breathing in certain gases can set in motion the growth of lung cancer. Radon gas, as a prime example, is produced from a natural combination of uranium in soil, rock, and water and can be found in homes as it comes in via cracks in the floors and walls, construction joints, or gaps around service pipes, electrical wires and sump pumps.
Every person in your household is at risk of contamination by radon gas, and if the levels of radon are too high, it can even result in death. In fact, from 15,000 to 22,000 lung cancer deaths are linked to radon gas each year.
Recommendations in cutting radon levels involve sealing cracks in your floors and walls, adding ventilation in your pipes and fans, or by employing electronic air purifiers, which can suck the gas into their units, eliminating them from your living space.
Reduces carbon dioxide levels
Inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide is our natural breathing cycle. Still, if confined in an interior space without the proper oxygen circulation, carbon dioxide is produced too frequently and oxygen not enough, which can end up being harmful. The potential result: shortness of breath, headaches, dizziness, nausea, plus a long-term potential for lung diseases and even death.
Electronic air purifiers can provide the desired outcome as it cleanses the air of carbon dioxide as well as providing reliable air circulation.
Eradicates other harmful chemicals
Simply closing the doors and windows does not mean we can just shut out all external pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide. These gases are usually found in areas of high motor vehicle traffic and may eventually invade your home.
Even if you don’t live where there is high vehicular traffic, your home’s atmosphere could still be polluted with toxins from a number of cleaning agents that contain chemicals including ammonia, chlorine, and phthalates.
Electronic air purifiers can cleanse these chemical contaminants, averting the risk of a number of common health problems.
Neutralizes unpleasant odors
Some chemicals, including gasoline, benzene, and formaldehyde, break down at room temperature, producing an off-gassing odor. These chemicals, called Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), are normally found in paints, aerosol sprays, upholstered furniture, or air fresheners. The odor from these VOCs can result in nausea, breathlessness, and even impact your cognitive functions.
Electronic air purifiers are successful in trapping these gases, reducing pollutants in the indoor environment.
Let’s say you’re expecting guests for dinner. You don’t have to be concerned with the odor of cooking oil and spices bothering them since an electronic air purifier will absorb all the smells, making your rooms fresh and clean.
Note: Several of the issues listed above can best be overcome with an electronic air purifier that’s equipped with HEPA and activated carbon filters. Your J&A South Park HVAC specialist can recommend what is best suited for your particular situation.
Introducing RFG electronic air purifiers
There is another breakthrough technology that’s been employed in electronic air purifiers referred to as advanced oxidation. Manufactured by RGF Environmental Group, advanced oxidation technology can be found in the company’s Guardian Air family of products.
The Guardian Air electronic air purifier, named the REME-HALO, does not need the pollutants to travel through to the air purifier for treatment or filtration. Rather, the unit is proactive in that it produces Hydro-Peroxide plasma that’s distributed via the air purifier, through the duct system, and into the living space.
Unlike passive air technologies, which need pollutants to pass through the unit to be purified, the REME HALO air purifier sweeps through your home, actively purifying pollutants at the source.
You can be assured that the REME HALO air purifiers provide the same benefits as other types of electronic air purifiers described above.
J&A South Park is delighted to be an authorized REME HALO distributor. Give us a call for complete details.
If you have additional questions about how an electronic air purifier can improve indoor air quality in your home, we are here to help with all of your needs. Simply reach out to us to schedule an appointment with one of our certified heating and air conditioning specialists.
