After a hectic day at work or a fun-filled day in the summer sun, often what you want to do the most is come home, take a deep breath and relax. Don’t be surprised, however, if along with that deep breath you inhale pollutants that can trigger an asthma attack or allergies.
It’s not necessarily because you’re a bad housekeeper that you have indoor contaminants. It has a lot to do with your South Carolina home. Modern homes are tightly built to keep out the weather, but this same benefit also means that modern homes trap pollutants inside. If your Mt. Pleasant home is aging, leaks around windows and doors or holes in your ductwork often provide a way for outside contaminants to sneak into your home and lower your indoor air quality.
Why is Indoor Air Quality Important?
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, indoor pollution ranks among the top 5 environmental hazards to Americans. The EPA also reports that indoor air can be up to 100 times more polluted than the air outside. Exposure to these indoor contaminants often result in short-term health issues such as a runny nose, sore throat and sneezing; long-term exposure can lead to chronic respiratory disorders and even cancer.
Most Americans typically spend 90 percent of their time indoors; of the time we spend indoors, we spend 60 percent of it at home. It’s easy to see why maintaining a high level of clean indoor air is essential to reducing health risks stemming from indoor pollution.
Although practicing good housekeeping techniques and properly maintaining your HVAC system go a long way toward managing the visible dust collecting on your furniture, sometimes it isn’t enough to handle the microscopic airborne particles of pet dander, pollen and dust mites floating around in your air. For Mt. Pleasant residents who are sensitive to allergies, another solution is using an air purifier to clean your indoor air.
How Do Air Purifiers Work?
In addition to smoke, pet dander and dust mites, mold spores, bacteria and viruses often fill the air inside your home. Purifiers rid the air of these contaminants using several methods:
- A filter to trap particles
- Ozone to break down and destroy contaminants
- Carbon to capture particles
- Ultraviolet light to sterilize microorganisms
- Ionization to charge particles and collect them on a plate
The Carrier air purifiers we install at Berkeley Heating & Air Conditioning work by trapping contaminants in a filter and then breaking up the particles with an electrical charge. The effectiveness of a filter is expressed through its MERV (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value) rating; the higher the rating, the greater amount of particles it traps. Carrier purifiers use filters that carry a MERV rating between 10 and 15.
In addition to having an efficient filter, the air changes per hour (ACH) is a critical component of an air cleaner’s ability to remove invisible airborne contaminants. The ACH tells you how many times each hour the purifier filters the air. Ideally, the minimum ACH is four times per hour. The Carrier purifiers we offer at Berkeley Heating & Air Conditioning have an ACR of up to eight.
Berkeley Heating & Air Conditioning: Your Partner in Clean Air
Your air purifier needs to work in harmony with the HVAC system in your Mt. Pleasant home to ensure that it’s efficient enough to trap airborne particles while allowing adequate air flow. Our service technicians at Berkeley Heating & Air Conditioning carry NATE certification, which means they are experts in evaluating indoor air quality and recommending solutions to keep your indoor air fresh and clean.
Using an air cleaner to get rid of impurities and deliver fresh, clean air throughout your home is a proactive solution to minimizing your exposure and risk to indoor air pollution. To learn more about how air purifiers can improve the indoor air quality in your South Carolina home, check out the air purifiers we offer at Berkeley Heating & Air Conditioning or call (843) 277-6030.