If you have a newly constructed house in Hodgenville, it was in all likelihood constructed with energy efficiency as a priority. This means greater amounts of insulation and windows and doors with improved seals. While these improvements are great for keeping your energy costs economical, they’re not so good for your indoor air quality.
Your home comfort system needs to work with a filter. But if you rely on a flat filter, you won’t be experiencing adequate filtration. This model only delivers the bare minimum of protection by keeping dust out of your heating and cooling system.
While you can upgrade to 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 problems.
That’s where a whole-house air purifier comes in. These systems are placed within ductwork to deliver powerful filtration throughout your residence. Depending on the model you select, you’ll be able to filter 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, provides the best filtration. These filters were first made to defend scientists as they made the atomic bomb. Today, they’re essential in hospitals and other medical operations.
The Healthy Climate HEPA Filtration System includes a three-step filtration method. A prefilter attracts larger pollutants before the HEPA filter traps the remainder of smaller particles. Then, a charcoal filter takes care of odors and chemical vapors.
The PureAir™ S Air Purification System connects to all HVAC brands and smoothly integrates with your smart home. It fights the three key types of indoor air irritants:
- Airborne particles
- Chemical odors and vapors
- Germs and bacteria, under certain airflow conditions
This air purifier can get rid of 99.9%* of pollutants, including mold spores, pollen, dust and pet dander. It’s also effective at decreasing or eliminating 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 is equipped with sensing features that make it uncomplicated to serviced. When used with an iComfort® S30 smart thermostat, you’ll receive an alert to change the filter and UVA light.2 This home air purifier must be installed with communicating Lennox systems and the iComfort S30.
2. Media Air Cleaners
Lennox Healthy Climate® Media Air Cleaners are available in a variety of MERV ratings to fit your needs. This rating measures how good filters are at removing contaminants. The higher the number, the greater the filtration.
The Healthy Climate Carbon Clean 16® Media Air Cleaner is recommended for families with allergy suffers and pets. This is a HEPA filter air purifier, because it has a MERV 16 rating for hospital-level filtration. And it eliminates more than 95%3 of irritating particles from your house’s air.
The Healthy Climate 13 Media Air Cleaner is recommended for homes who want improved protection from viruses and bacteria. This filter captures 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 a great air purifier for allergies and in residences 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 powerful filtration without increasing the cost of turning on your home comfort system.
These three media air cleaners are compatible with any brand of HVAC system. But despite that, it’s important to realize that some of the more substantial ones, like MERV 16 and 13, may decrease your system’s airflow. This can inflate your energy costs.
3. UV Air Purifiers
The sun’s UV rays are to the reason why you get a painful sunburn. But this wavelength of light has a useful application when concealed within 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 decrease the amount of airborne microorganisms by 50% in as little as 45 minutes.5 This light wrecks cell structure, which stops these microorganisms from flourishing and spreading throughout your residence.
And this UV air purifier can also help keep your HVAC system clean and operating efficiently. It takes care of germs, mold and fungi lurking within ductwork and your system itself. This UV light air purifier does all this work without producing lung-irritating ozone.6
Breathe Better with the Support of Our Air Purification Professionals
Your loved ones’ comfort and health matters to us at Phelps Heating & Cooling. We realize there are lots of solutions out there. That’s why we make it uncomplicated to partner with our indoor air quality professionals. We specialize in making solutions tailored to your needs and budget, and we’d love to learn more about your home and your air quality issues. Call us at 270-358-3167 today 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.