If you have a newly built house in Des Moines, it was in all likelihood made with energy efficiency in mind. This means increased insulation and windows and doors with enhanced seals. While these enhancements are great for keeping your utility costs affordable, they’re not so great for your indoor air quality.
Your HVAC system needs to work with a filter. But if you rely on a flat filter, you won’t be getting adequate filtration. This type only delivers 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 house has allergies or other respiratory problems.
That’s where a whole-house air purifier can be a good option. These systems are attached within ductwork to give mighty filtration around your residence. Depending on the model you select, you’ll be able to remove allergens, odors and even some viruses under certain airflow conditions.
Here are our best 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 created to defend scientists as they worked on the atomic bomb. Today, they’re a staple in hospitals and other medical buildings.
The Healthy Climate HEPA Filtration System has a three-step filtration procedure. A prefilter attracts significant irritants before the HEPA filter captures the remainder of miniscule irritants. Then, a charcoal filter wipes out odors and chemical vapors.
The PureAir™ S Air Purification System connects to all HVAC brands and easily works with with your smart home. It fights the three major kinds of indoor air pollutants:
- Airborne particles
- Chemical odors and vapors
- Germs and bacteria, under certain airflow conditions
This air purifier can get rid of 99.9%* of pollutants, such as mold spores, pollen, dust and pet dander. It’s also potent at removing or eradicating 90%1 of flu and cold viruses under certain airflow conditions. And, according to laboratory and field studies, it decreases and destroys approximately 50% of your home’s odors and chemical vapors within 24 hours.
The PureAir S includes sensing features that make it easy to serviced. When linked with an iComfort® S30 smart thermostat, you’ll receive an alert to change the filter and UVA light.2 This home air purifier must be linked with communicating Lennox systems and the iComfort S30.
2. Media Air Cleaners
Lennox Healthy Climate® Media Air Cleaners come in in a variety of MERV ratings to fit your needs. This rating determines how good filters are at capturing contaminants. The greater the number, the greater the filtration.
The Healthy Climate Carbon Clean 16® Media Air Cleaner is recommended for residences with allergy suffers and pets. This is a HEPA filter air purifier, as it has a MERV 16 rating for hospital-strength filtration. And it removes more than 95%3 of aggravating particles from your residence’s air.
The Healthy Climate 13 Media Air Cleaner is great for homes who want stronger protection from viruses and bacteria. This filter catches 99% of larger particles including dust, pollen and lint. And up to 54% of finer particles down to 0.3 microns.4
The Healthy Climate 11 Media Air Cleaner is a a great air purifier for allergies and in homes with pets. It removes more than 87% of bigger particles down to 3 microns and more than 28% of finer ones down to 0.3 microns.4 It’s able to deliver this powerful filtration without driving up the cost of using your home comfort system.
These three media air cleaners are compatible with any brand of HVAC system. But despite that, it’s essential to know that some of the denser ones, such as MERV 16 and 13, may limit your system’s airflow. This can increase your heating and cooling costs.
3. UV Air Purifiers
The sun’s UV rays are to blame when you get a stinging sunburn. But this wavelength of light has a beneficial application when installed inside your ductwork. It’s also tough enough to decrease germs, mold and fungi under certain airflow conditions.
In actuality, the Healthy Climate UV Germicidal Light can reduce the concentration of airborne microorganisms by 50% in as fast as 45 minutes.5 This light wrecks cell structure, which prohibits these microorganisms from growing and moving across your home.
And this UV air purifier can also help keep your heating and cooling system clean and working properly. It eliminates of germs, mold and fungi lurking in ductwork and your system itself. This UV light air purifier does all this work without producing lung-inflaming ozone.6
Breathe Healthier Air with the Support of Our Air Purification Pros
Your family’s comfort and health is important to us at Heartland Heating & Cooling. We are aware there are lots of options out there. That’s why we make it easy to partner with our indoor air quality specialists. We specialize in creating solutions that fit your needs and budget, and we’d love to find out more about your house and your air quality problems. Give us a call at 515-344-3579 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.