Air cleaners filter the air in your home to remove such irritants as pollen, dust and smoke. You can purchase a portable machine that cleans the air in a specific room, or a whole-house system that filters the air throughout your home. There are several factors to consider before you make a purchase.
Whole-House or Room Unit
A whole-house unit makes sense if you have a forced-air HVAC system and you suffer from allergies or respiratory issues that warrant the expense. It can be plumbed into your equipment, so that all of the air moving through will be treated by the air cleaner. This will contribute to better indoor air and improved health for occupants. Otherwise, consider using portable air cleaners in sleeping areas or in the rooms that get the most dust, pollen or smoke.
Efficiency
With air cleaners, there are different ways to measure efficiency. For a room or portable air cleaner, the CADR (clean air delivery rate) shows the maximum square footage recommended for the air cleaner and how rapidly it can capture and remove three types of pollutants: pollen (with ratings ranging from 25-450), smoke (10 to 450), and dust (10 to 400). The higher values reflect the air cleaner’s speed at treating the air, though remember that quick isn’t always efficient in terms of how well the dirty air gets treated. A whole-house air cleaner is likely to use a HEPA filtration system – standing for high-efficiency particulate air. This is a sophisticated filter that will remove the vast majority of pollutants from the air. If anyone in your home has asthma or allergy issues, consider an air cleaner that’s been certified as “Asthma and Allergy Friendly.” This confirms that the air-cleaning unit will capture and remove allergens, and not just redistribute them in the home.
Air Cleaning Strategies
A variety of technologies work in air cleaners, with some actually combining those strategies for cleaning indoor air. For example, UV light germicidal filtration will specifically target microorganisms in your indoor air, such as mold, mildew, viruses and bacteria. Electrostatic air cleaners use opposite electric charges to stop and neutralize airborne particulates. You’ll get better results from a unit with a fan that recirculates the clean air.
Call or email Mathews CCACÂ for help in choosing the best air-cleaning option for your Corpus Christi area home.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Corpus Christi, Texas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about air cleaners and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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