All of us want clean homes, and traditional spring cleaning makes us aware of just how tough that can be sometimes. Allergens and germs are of particular concern during the spring, especially in homes with vulnerable family members (such as infants or those suffering from asthma). If bacteria, viruses, mold spores, and other contaminants are of concern to your household, we recommend the installation of a UV air purifier in your HVAC system. Doing so can help make your home a cleaner, safer place to be.
ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT
If you recall high school science class, you know that ultraviolet light is light that we can’t perceive with our naked eyes. We can certainly feel its effects on a hot day, however: it’s what causes our skin to tan and burn.
UV light bulbs provide much lower amounts of UV light for use in tanning beds and (at even lower levels) blacklights that make your white clothes glow in the dark at rock concerts and rides at amusement parks. (It’s caused when the light interacts with chemicals from our laundry detergent.) At those levels, they’re perfectly safe for human beings, dogs, cats, goldfish, and other pets. For germs and bacteria, however, the effect is lethal. It either kills them outright or renders them unable to replicate. Either way, they no longer present a danger of illness to your home. The question becomes how best to deploy this feature to keep your home clean.
HOW TO HARNESS IT
Obviously, it’s not practical to simply cover every square inch of your home in UV light. You need a place to shine it where it will do the most amount of good in the lease amount of space. For homes with centralized HVAC systems, that means the apex to your heating and cooling ducts. When the air conditioner runs in the summer and the heater in the winter, it cycles the air in the home through its system. All that air crosses the apex of the ducts en route to the different vent outlets in your home.
A UV air purifier shines a UV light in a sheet across the width of the ducts: far finer than any filter and forming an impenetrable web that not even the tiniest germ can escape. As your HVAC system runs, the air is gradually scrubbed clean: feeling fresher and containing fewer biological contaminants than it started the cycle with.
Over time, that leads to a healthier family and happier home overall. UV air purifiers are a great fit for any home, but they can work especially well for households concerned about bringing germs home with them, such as those working in the medical industry. UV air purifiers have few moving parts, and as long as the lightbulbs are periodically replaced, it should provide many long years of faithful and reliable service.
If a UV air purifier sounds like a healthy and useful addition to your Portland, OR home, call on Western Heating & Cooling to perform quality installation. We’re also available for maintenance, repair and replacement services!