Call Us TodayWhat is an Air Scrubber and Why Do I Need One?
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the air inside our houses is up to five times as polluted as the outdoor air. Therefore, if you think your indoor air is clean, you may be very mistaken. It’s important to be concerned about your indoor air quality, particularly if anyone in your family has been suffering from asthma, allergies or respiratory issues.
It is difficult to be comfortable, healthy and happy if your home contains allergens, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), mold and other pollutants. Luckily, you can improve your indoor air quality easily with a device known as the air scrubber. This appliance will remove dust, odors, pet dander, VOCs, surface contaminants and other pollutants that have been afflicting your family and make life incredibly easier for you. Keep reading to find out exactly what this device is, what it does and why you need it.
What an Air Scrubber Is
An air scrubber is a specialized machine that is used to purify air without any ductwork. This device can also be used inside existing ductwork as a permanent fixture. Besides cleaning your indoor air, this machine can clean your home surfaces, including countertops, doorknobs and bathrooms.
How the Air Scrubber Works
When a professional installs this device in your ductwork, it eliminates contaminants in your indoor air using the “search and retrieve” method. More precisely, when air is flowing through the ducts, the air scrubber produces negative ions to capture floating air pollutants in your home.
The air scrubber has tiny metal tubes that it uses to create these ions. Air passes through these tubes before passing through an area containing ultraviolet light. When this happens, negative ions are produced and sent to all corners of your home; their mission is to find positively charged particles, such as pollen and bacteria and attach to them. Once they bond with them, larger and heavier particles are created, and they fall on the floor and various surfaces in your home.
These particles are then pulled into your ductwork system when the air handler’s fan is switched on, eventually landing on your air filter.
When you start using this device, it’s, therefore, possible to see an increase in dust in different parts of your home because of how this device works. After this first instance, you’ll not encounter much dust at all.
Nearly every air scrubber is a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) rated machine, and it filters air particles that are at least 0.3 microns in size. To get a good idea of how small such a particle is, consider that human hair is between 40 and 300 microns in size. A standard mold spore is usually 10 to 30 microns in size.
Now that you have a good idea about how the air scrubber works, let’s go through a few reasons why you should get one for your home.
It Improves Breathing and Overall Comfort
If you are finding it a lot easier to breathe when you’re outside your house than indoors, then you need an air scrubber. Fresh air is not something you should only access by going outside. The air scrubber helps create fresh air inside your house by filtering out all those particles that make it difficult to breathe comfortably, such as dust and other irritating airborne particles. For instance, if you are sharing your house with a pet, then it’s to find yourself struggling with pet odors, dander and urine. In most cases, vacuuming doesn’t get rid of all the air pollutants.
A good air scrubber can help you clear all these and many more pollutants present in your air and make life easier for your family to breathe.
Actually, air scrubbers can capture particles that are too small for regular air filters. That means that common nuisances like cigarette smoke, odor arising from bacteria and harmful pollutants will stop making your breathing difficult once you have your own air scrubber in place.
It’s no secret that our homes are filled with contaminants, and not many methods are effective at getting them off our living spaces. The air scrubber has been proven to eliminate as high as 99% of all surface contaminants. Similarly, this device destroys about 90% of the airborne contaminants in your home, thereby improving your indoor air quality.
It Protects Your HVAC System
Dirt is the last thing to have in your home if you want to extend the life of your HVAC system. Dust and other airborne particles usually damage heating and cooling systems when they penetrate and form a layer of grime inside the units. Forced air systems contain an air filter that traps debris and dust to prevent it from getting into the cabinet. When the dust and debris are too much, the unit can easily break down and call for expensive repairs.
Similarly, as dirt builds up on the system’s parts, it creates unnecessary stress to the mechanical parts. For instance, the motors running the compressor may start wearing down and burning out. The motor bearings can also become ruined as the dust accumulates. Moreover, the extra strain that is forced on the internal parts makes the other components to overwork, leading to their breakdown.
The air scrubber effectively traps dust, dirt and other debris before it gets through your filters, protecting parts of your units, such as the coils and blower. It also keeps the particles from building up in the ductwork when paired with an effective air filtration system. By doing so, this device leads to less repairs and replacements; it also extends the life of your heating and air conditioning system.
It Protects Your Family Against Certain Diseases
An air scrubber doesn’t just reduce air pollutants like cigarette smoke and odor; it also reduces the number of toxins in your indoor air. These toxins can irritate your nose, eyes, throat, creating fatigue, headaches, sinus issues, dizziness, nausea and coughs. A good air scrubber cleans the air by removing airborne particles to prevent these and other similar issues. As you may already know, airborne particles contain harmful microorganisms. All those viruses and bacteria don’t float around your indoor air by themselves; they are carried on dust particles and droplets. When you remove these airborne particles from your air effectively, you prevent the microorganisms from reaching your family.
If anyone in your family is suffering from allergies or asthma, having a good air scrubber installed in your home would be a great move to reduce asthma attacks. Asthma is often aggravated by air pollution while allergies are triggered by many substances, including pollen and dust. Although it cannot assure you absolute health, an air scrubber can help you reduce asthma attacks and allergy symptoms. This could lead to better health and comfort in your home.
If you are ready to have your air scrubber installed today, you have to make sure you partner with a certified HVAC expert. That will guarantee you excellent indoor air quality and efficiency. The good news is that we have all the experience, expertise and technology you need to install the right air scrubber for you in O’Fallon, MO.
Call Hoff Heating & AC today to improve your indoor air quality today. We also repair, maintain and install heating and cooling systems.
