There’s no doubt that California’s wildfire season can bring a lot of unwanted microscopic particles into the air. As you enter and exit your home, some of that poor-quality air can penetrate your home and reduce your indoor air quality level. Fortunately, a whole-home air scrubber can be a great investment to boost your air quality and give you peace of mind about the air that your family is breathing in.
What Is a Whole-Home Air Scrubber?
An air scrubber is an advanced air purification device that works to clean and filter the air in your home. These whole-home units get installed directly into your existing HVAC ducting so they can treat all the air as it travels throughout your ducting system.
What Contaminants Do Air Scrubbers Remove?
Whole-home air scrubbers can remove or neutralize all sorts of airborne contaminants like smoke particles, gases, and toxins. It protects your lungs from breathing in these toxic fumes to better protect your health during California’s wildfire season.
Wildfire smoke is known to contain many tiny particles that can easily enter your lungs and bloodstream. As the fire burns area vegetation, plastics, buildings, and other items, harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are emitted into the air. Additionally, byproduct fumes of carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, and other gases enter the outdoor air.
A whole-home air scrubber has many components that work to effectively remove these toxic fumes from the air that penetrates your home. This is an absolutely essential tool to have in your home during wildfire season to keep your family breathing safely.
The Components of an Air Scrubber
Air scrubbers can use various components to effectively treat different contaminants in your home. One of the most used is HEPA filtration. This works to trap unwanted particles in your home down to .3 microns in size. Activated carbon is great for absorbing unwanted smoke odors and chemical fumes in your indoor air.
UV-C germicidal lighting is perfect for deactivating airborne pathogens, like viruses, mold, and bacteria. Photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) works to break down unwanted airborne pollutants on a molecular level. Ionization technology boosts air quality by releasing ions into your home’s air that clump unwanted pollutants together so they can be filtered by your HEPA air filter.
What Are the Benefits of Air Scrubbers?
Most homeowners are familiar with investing in portable air scrubbers and purifiers. Investing in a whole-home air scrubber, however, comes with many great benefits. The most obvious is that it works to enhance your home’s indoor air quality level.
Poor-quality air can lead to unwanted health problems, worsened allergy symptoms, and even unfavorable symptoms like headaches, fatigue, and sinus irritation. By enhancing your indoor air, you can rest assured that your family won’t have to deal with the aggravation that poor-quality air can have on their allergy, asthma, or other respiratory condition symptoms.
Another great benefit of air scrubbers is that they can remove unpleasant odors from your home. Whether the odor was caused by cooking or leaving spoiled food out, your air scrubber will take care of it. This better-quality air will even boost the operating efficiency of your HVAC systems, reducing your need for frequent air duct cleanings.
Maintenance Requirements
A whole-home air scrubber is a very low-maintenance device. However, it does require some professional intervention to keep it in tip-top condition. The UV-C light should be replaced about every one to two years, depending on the specific brand of air scrubber that you purchase. Its internal HEPA filter will need replacing about every six to 12 months, depending on how much usage it receives. The carbon filter needs replacing every three to six months. The ionization emitter tips must be properly cleaned off about every six to 12 months. Furthermore, the PCO cells need replacing every two to three years.
We highly recommend having one of our HVAC technicians visually inspect and perform maintenance on your air scrubber at least once a year.
Useable Life Span
Whole-home air scrubbers have an estimated usable life span of between eight and 15 years, assuming they receive regular care and upkeep. How long your particular air scrubber lasts will depend on numerous factors like how often it gets used, whether it was professionally installed, its brand name, and so forth. The key to a long life span is ensuring you replace its necessary internal components on a set schedule.
Reliable Indoor Air Quality Service
Of Course! Heating and Cooling offers reliable indoor air quality service for the Yucaipa, Beaumont, and Banning, CA areas. We can gladly help with all your whole-house fan, duct services, dryer vent cleaning, and air scrubber needs. Simply call our friendly office staff today to book your next service consultation.
Today!
