If you live in a newly built house in Norton, it was in all likelihood built with energy efficiency as a priority. This means greater amounts of insulation and windows and doors with enhanced seals. While these advances are excellent for keeping your energy costs reasonable, they’re not so fantastic for your indoor air quality.
Your heating and cooling system needs to run with a filter. But if you have a flat filter, you won’t be getting enough filtration. This type only delivers the smallest amount of protection by stopping dust from getting into your heating and cooling system.
While you can get a pleated filter or one with a higher MERV rating, it still might not be adequate filtration, especially if someone in your residence has allergies or other respiratory issues.
That’s where a whole-house air purifier can be a good option. These systems are attached within ductwork to provide strong filtration around your residence. Depending on the type you go with, you’ll be able to remove allergens, odors and even some viruses under certain airflow conditions.
Here are our best systems 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 developed to defend scientists as they created the atomic bomb. Today, they’re essential in hospitals and other medical buildings.
The Healthy Climate HEPA Filtration System includes a three-step filtration procedure. A prefilter draws larger irritants before the HEPA filter captures remaining smaller particles. Then, a charcoal filter wipes out odors and chemical vapors.
The PureAir™ S Air Purification System works with all HVAC brands and easily integrates with your smart home. It reduces the three leading varieties of indoor air pollutants:
- Airborne particles
- Chemical odors and vapors
- Germs and bacteria, under certain airflow conditions
This air purifier can eliminate 99.9%* of pollutants, like mold spores, pollen, dust and pet dander. It’s also potent at decreasing or eradicating 90%1 of flu and cold viruses under certain airflow conditions. And, as the result of laboratory and field studies, it decreases and destroys approximately 50% of residential odors and chemical vapors within 24 hours.
The PureAir S comes with sensing features that make it easy to service. When linked with an iComfort® S30 smart thermostat, you’ll be notified when 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 are made in a variety of MERV ratings to work with your needs. This rating measures how effective filters are at trapping contaminants. The greater the number, the greater the filtration.
The Healthy Climate Carbon Clean 16® Media Air Cleaner is great for households with allergy suffers and pets. This is a HEPA filter air purifier, because it has a MERV 16 rating for hospital-grade filtration. And it gets rid of more than 95%3 of irritating particles from your house’s air.
The Healthy Climate 13 Media Air Cleaner is suggested for households who are looking for improved protection from viruses and bacteria. This filter captures 99% of larger particles including dust, pollen and lint. And up to 54% of smaller 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 eliminates more than 87% of bigger particles down to 3 microns and more than 28% of miniscule ones down to 0.3 microns.4 It’s able to provide this strong filtration without running up the cost of turning on your heating and cooling system.
These three media air cleaners work with any brand of HVAC system. Regardless, it’s important to realize that some of the more substantial ones, like MERV 16 and 13, may restrict your system’s airflow. This can hike up your energy costs.
3. UV Air Purifiers
The sun’s UV rays are the reason why you get a painful sunburn. But this kind of light has a beneficial application when installed inside your ductwork. It’s also powerful enough to decrease germs, mold and fungi under certain airflow conditions.
In actuality, the Healthy Climate UV Germicidal Light can lower the amount of airborne microorganisms by 50% in as quickly as 45 minutes.5 This light wrecks cell structure, which halts these microorganisms from flourishing and moving across your home.
And this UV air purifier can also help keep your home comfort system clean and operating efficiently. It wipes out of germs, mold and fungi lurking inside ductwork and your system itself. This UV light air purifier does all these tasks without producing lung-aggravating ozone.6
Breathe Healthier Air with the Assistance of Our Air Purification Professionals
Your household’s comfort and health is important to us at HCE Systems. We know there are many solutions out there. That’s why we make it simple to work with our indoor air quality pros. We specialize in recommending solutions that meet your needs and budget, and we’d love to learn more about your house and your air quality issues. Give us a call at 276-302-0076 right away to begin.
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.