If you own a newly constructed house in Rapid City, it was probably built with energy efficiency in mind. This means greater amounts of insulation and windows and doors with enhanced seals. While these enhancements are great for keeping your utility expenses affordable, they’re not so great for your indoor air quality.
Your heating and cooling system needs to work with a filter. But if you have a flat filter, you won’t be experiencing adequate filtration. This kind only delivers the lowest level of protection by keeping dust out of 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, even more so if someone in your house has allergies or other respiratory issues.
That’s where a whole-house air purifier comes in. These systems are placed within ductwork to provide powerful filtration throughout your home. Depending on the type you select, you’ll be able to get rid of allergens, odors and even some viruses under certain airflow conditions.
Here are our favorite 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, delivers the best filtration. These filters were first created to guard scientists as they worked on the atomic bomb. Today, they’re must-have in hospitals and other medical settings.
The Healthy Climate HEPA Filtration System features a three-step filtration process. A prefilter attracts larger pollutants before the HEPA filter traps 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 types of indoor air irritants:
- Airborne particles
- Chemical odors and vapors
- Germs and bacteria, under certain airflow conditions
This air purifier can remove 99.9%* of pollutants, such as mold spores, pollen, dust and pet dander. It’s also capable of reducing or eliminating 90%1 of flu and cold viruses under certain airflow conditions. And, based on laboratory and field studies, it reduces and eradicates approximately 50% of your home’s odors and chemical vapors within 24 hours.
The PureAir S comes with sensing features that make it easy to serviced. When linked with an iComfort® S30 smart thermostat, you’ll receive an alert to install a new 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 match your needs. This rating determines how good filters are at trapping contaminants. The higher the number, the finer the filtration.
The Healthy Climate Carbon Clean 16® Media Air Cleaner is great for residences with allergy suffers and pets. This is a HEPA filter air purifier, since it has a MERV 16 rating for hospital-grade filtration. And it removes more than 95%3 of unhealthy particles from your house’s air.
The Healthy Climate 13 Media Air Cleaner is recommended for families who are seeking stronger protection from viruses and bacteria. This filter removes 99% of larger particles like dust, pollen and lint. And up to 54% of miniscule particles down to 0.3 microns.4
The Healthy Climate 11 Media Air Cleaner is a a fantastic air purifier for allergies and in homes with pets. It traps 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 powerful filtration without driving up the cost of operating your home comfort system.
These three media air cleaners work with any brand of HVAC system. But despite that, it’s critical to realize that some of the denser ones, like MERV 16 and 13, may decrease your system’s airflow. This can increase your heating and cooling expenses.
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 helpful application when concealed within your ductwork. It’s also strong enough to decrease germs, mold and fungi under certain airflow conditions.
In actuality, the Healthy Climate UV Germicidal Light can lower the number of airborne microorganisms by 50% in as little as 45 minutes.5 This light destroys cell structure, which halts these microorganisms from multiplying and infiltrating throughout your house.
And this UV air purifier can also help keep your home comfort system clean and working like it should. It takes care of germs, mold and fungi hiding in ductwork and your system itself. This UV light air purifier accomplishes all these things without developing lung-irritating ozone.6
Breathe Healthier Air with the Support of Our Air Purification Professionals
Your family’s comfort and health is important to us at Street Heating and Cooling. We know there are a lot of options out there. That’s why we make it easy to collaborate with our indoor air quality specialists. We specialize in recommending solutions that match your needs and budget, and we’d love to hear more about your house and your air quality challenges. Give us a call at 605-206-3915 today to get started.
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.