If you own a newer house in Mount Pleasant, it was likely built with energy efficiency as a priority. This means greater amounts of insulation and windows and doors with better seals. While these advances are great for keeping your utility expenses reasonable, they’re not so excellent for your indoor air quality.
Your home comfort system needs to run with a filter. But if you have a flat filter, you won’t be getting ample filtration. This style only gives the lowest level of protection by stopping dust from getting into your home comfort system.
While you can upgrade to a pleated filter or one with a increased MERV rating, it still might not be adequate filtration, even more so if someone in your home has allergies or other respiratory problems.
That’s where a whole-house air purifier can be a great solution. These systems are installed within ductwork to provide mighty filtration around your home. Depending on the kind you go with, you’ll be able to filter allergens, odors and even some viruses under certain airflow conditions.
Here are our favorite styles from Lennox, an industry leader in air purification.
Best Air Purifiers from Lennox
1. HEPA Air Purifiers
A HEPA air purifier, like the Healthy Climate® High-Efficiency Particulate Air Filtration System, provides the best filtration. These filters were first developed to protect scientists as they worked on the atomic bomb. Today, they’re a staple in hospitals and other medical settings.
The Healthy Climate HEPA Filtration System includes a three-step filtration procedure. A prefilter catches significant irritants before the HEPA filter catches the rest of tiny particles. Then, a charcoal filter wipes out odors and chemical vapors.
The PureAir™ S Air Purification System connects to all HVAC brands and seamlessly works with your smart home. It fights the three major kinds of indoor air irritants:
- Airborne particles
- Chemical odors and vapors
- Germs and bacteria, under certain airflow conditions
This air purifier can get rid of 99.9%* of pollutants, like mold spores, pollen, dust and pet dander. It’s also capable of removing or eradicating 90%1 of flu and cold viruses under certain airflow conditions. And, according to laboratory and field studies, it removes and eradicates approximately 50% of household odors and chemical vapors within 24 hours.
The PureAir S includes sensing features that make it easy to maintain. When paired with an iComfort® S30 smart thermostat, you’ll be notified when to change the filter and UVA light.2 This home air purifier must be used with communicating Lennox systems and the iComfort S30.
2. Media Air Cleaners
Lennox Healthy Climate® Media Air Cleaners are available in a variety of MERV ratings to work with your needs. This rating calculates how good filters are at capturing contaminants. The higher the number, the finer the filtration.
The Healthy Climate Carbon Clean 16® Media Air Cleaner is great for families with allergy suffers and pets. This is a HEPA filter air purifier, as it has a MERV 16 rating for hospital-level filtration. And it gets rid of more than 95%3 of aggravating particles from your house’s air.
The Healthy Climate 13 Media Air Cleaner is recommended for homes who desire stronger protection from viruses and bacteria. This filter catches 99% of larger particles such as dust, pollen and lint. And up to 54% of miniscule particles down to 0.3 microns.4
The Healthy Climate 11 Media Air Cleaner is a an excellent air purifier for allergies and in homes with pets. It traps more than 87% of bigger particles down to 3 microns and more than 28% of miniscule ones down to 0.3 microns.4 It’s able to offer this effective filtration without running up the bill for operating your heating and cooling system.
These three media air cleaners work with any brand of HVAC system. Regardless, it’s essential to know that some of the more substantial ones, such as MERV 16 and 13, may limit your system’s airflow. This can inflate your energy bills.
3. UV Air Purifiers
The sun’s UV rays are the reason why you get a stinging sunburn. But this kind of light has a beneficial application when concealed within your ductwork. It’s also powerful enough to decrease germs, mold and fungi under certain airflow conditions.
In fact, the Healthy Climate UV Germicidal Light can lower the concentration of airborne microorganisms by 50% in as fast as 45 minutes.5 This light wrecks cell structure, which halts these microorganisms from multiplying and spreading around your residence.
And this UV air purifier can also help keep your HVAC system clean and running properly. It wipes out of germs, mold and fungi lurking inside ductwork and your system itself. This UV light air purifier accomplishes all these things without creating lung-aggravating ozone.6
Breathe Better with the Help of Our Air Purification Pros
Your household’s comfort and health is our top priority at Olde Towne Heating & Air. We realize there are many solutions out there. That’s why we make it easy to work with our indoor air quality pros. We specialize in making solutions that fit your needs and budget, and we’d love to hear more about your home and your air quality challenges. Call us at 843-485-0967 today to start the process.
1Based on laboratory and field studies.
2PureAir™ S requires the iComfort® S30 and a communicating indoor unit.
3Leading consumer magazine, January 2012. Based on the published CADR, which is the standardized measurement system to determine the cubic feet of clean air produced per minute. Particles captured range in size down to 0.3 micron. One micron = 1/25,000 of an inch in diameter.
4Based on lab tests conducted on filters with conditions included in ASHRAE standard 52.2 for E1 and E3 size ranges.
5Based on constant circulation of air in the home, 3,000-square-foot home with a 5-ton air handler.
6U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Ozone Generators that are Sold as Air Cleaners: An Assessment of Effective and Health Consequences,” August 2006.