While indoor air quality has always been important, up until recently it isn’t something many of us thought about on a regular basis. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the quality of the air in our homes and workplaces to the forefront of our minds as we work to make our indoor spaces as safe and healthy as possible. You may not realize this, but according to the EPA, the air inside a home or business can be 2-5 times more polluted than the air outside! Indoor air can be polluted with a variety of different things, including mold, bacteria, and viruses. But luckily there is something you can do about that: Installing an HVAC air purifier can significantly improve the quality of the air in your home or workplace. Let’s take a closer look at how an HVAC air purifier does this. HVAC Air Purifier vs Paper Filters—What’s the Difference? Ordinary paper filters found in most HVAC systems do a great job of removing dust from the air, but many of them stop there. Your indoor air can still be full of other tiny particles that can be harmful to your health. Air purification systems, on the other hand, do much more. In addition to removing dust from the air, HVAC air purifiers can also remove volatile organic compounds (VOCs), mold, bacteria, and viruses (including COVID) that circulate throughout your space, leaving your air significantly cleaner than with a traditional paper filter. Benefits of an HVAC Air Purifier Having cleaner air to breathe is a benefit in and of itself, but there are several specific ways that an HVAC air purifier can benefit you: Trapping allergens such as pet dander and mold.Trapping dust mites and dust.Removing VOCs from the air.Neutralizing smoke and odors from cigarette smoke, your fireplace, cooking, garbage, and more.Trapping bacteria and viruses, helping to prevent the spread of germs. These things can benefit anyone, but if you suffer from allergies, asthma, chronic respiratory problems, or other breathing-related health issues, an air purifier could prove to be an indispensable part of maintaining your health. Who Should Consider an HVAC Air Purifier? An HVAC air purifier can benefit anyone who wants to create cleaner air in their home or workplace. But in some cases installing an air purifier is imperative to maintaining a healthy indoor environment.  For example, any business that uses VOCs, cleaning chemicals, or printers—including salons, print shops, dry cleaners, auto repair shops, and furniture refinishers—should consider an air purifier to keep the air free of toxins. And for those who regularly use a fireplace, those who live with a smoker, and those suffer from allergies or other respiratory troubles despite their best efforts to maintain a clean, dust-free home, an HVAC air purifier would be a worthy investment toward better respiratory health. Types of HVAC Air Filtration & Air Purifier Systems There are several types of HVAC air purifiers on the market, and they don’t all provide the same function. A few of the more common air purifiers are: HEPA filters can trap more than 99 percent of airborne particles that are .3 microns or larger. But HEPA filters don’t work for every system, so depending on your system this type of purifier may not be an option for you.Carbon-activated filters have absorbent pores that trap contaminants as they pass through, and work well to remove VOCs, smoke, and odors.HVAC ultraviolet light air purifiers are often used alongside HEPA filters, and use rays of ultraviolet light to kill tiny microorganisms like bacteria.Electrostatic air purifiers use static electricity to clean the air. Air flows through a network of static-prone fibers to create an electrostatic charge, which traps airborne particles.Ionizing air...

Read More