If you live in a newly built house in Rapid City, it was likely constructed with energy efficiency as a priority. This means more insulation and windows and doors with improved seals. While these advances are fantastic for keeping your heating and cooling expenses economical, they’re not so excellent for your indoor air quality.

Your home comfort system needs to work with a filter. But if you have a flat filter, you won’t be experiencing enough filtration. This type only gives the smallest amount of protection by blocking dust from infiltrating your home comfort system.

While you can upgrade to a pleated filter or one with a increased MERV rating, it still might not be adequate filtration, particularly if someone in your home has allergies or other respiratory troubles.

That’s where a whole-house air purifier can be a good option. These systems are placed within ductwork to provide strong filtration around your home. Depending on the type you select, you’ll be able to remove allergens, odors and even some viruses under certain airflow conditions.

Here are our top 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 top-of-the-line filtration. These filters were first developed to shield scientists as they created the atomic bomb. Today, they’re a must-have in hospitals and other medical buildings.

The Healthy Climate HEPA Filtration System features a three-step filtration method. A prefilter catches bigger particles before the HEPA filter traps the rest of smaller irritants. Then, a charcoal filter eradicates odors and chemical vapors.

The PureAir™ S Air Purification System works with all HVAC brands and easily works with your smart home. It fights the three key kinds of indoor air contaminants:

• Airborne particles
• Chemical odors and vapors
• Germs and bacteria, under certain airflow conditions

This air purifier can eliminate 99.9%* of pollutants, such as mold spores, pollen, dust and pet dander. It’s also capable of decreasing or destroying 90%¹ of flu and cold viruses under certain airflow conditions. And, as the result of laboratory and field studies, it decreases and eradicates approximately 50% of residential odors and chemical vapors within 24 hours.

The PureAir S comes with sensing features that make it easy to maintain. When used with an iComfort® S30 smart thermostat, you’ll receive an alert to replace the filter and UVA light.² This home air purifier must be used 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 match your needs. This rating measures how effective filters are at trapping contaminants. The higher the number, the better the filtration.

The Healthy Climate Carbon Clean 16® Media Air Cleaner is ideal for households with allergy suffers and pets. This is a HEPA filter air purifier, as it has a MERV 16 rating for hospital-strength filtration. And it gets rid of more than 95%³ of aggravating particles from your home’s air.

The Healthy Climate 13 Media Air Cleaner is recommended for households who desire improved protection from viruses and bacteria. This filter removes 99% of larger particles such as dust, pollen and lint. And up to 54% of finer particles down to 0.3 microns.⁴

The Healthy Climate 11 Media Air Cleaner is a an excellent air purifier for allergies and in homes with pets. It removes 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 effective filtration without driving up the bill for operating your heating and cooling system.

These three media air cleaners can be used with any brand of HVAC system. But despite that, it’s critical to know that some of the more substantial ones, like MERV 16 and 13, may limit your system’s airflow. This can inflate your utility costs.

3. UV Air Purifiers

The sun’s UV rays are the fault of why you get a stinging sunburn. But this wavelength of light has a beneficial application when concealed in your ductwork. It’s also powerful enough to eliminate germs, mold and fungi under certain airflow conditions.

In actuality, the Healthy Climate UV Germicidal Light can reduce the concentration of airborne microorganisms by 50% in as fast as 45 minutes.⁵ This light destroys cell structure, which halts these microorganisms from growing and spreading around your house.

And this UV air purifier can also help keep your heating and cooling system clean and operating efficiently. It takes care of germs, mold and fungi that are hidden within ductwork and your system itself. This UV light air purifier achieves all these things without producing lung-inflaming ozone.⁶

Breathe Better with the Support of Our Air Purification Professionals

Your household’s comfort and health is our top priority at Street Heating and Cooling. We know there are a lot of options out there. That’s why we make it uncomplicated to partner 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 home and your air quality issues. Reach us at 605-206-3915 right away to start the process.

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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.