Air quality is top of mind for everyone these days. We are concerned with the quality of air we are breathing both in and out of the house. Most homeowners understand the basics of keeping the air clean: changing air filters, dusting, and vacuuming. But is that enough to make sure that your air quality is the best it can be? Lets take a look!
What is contaminating your air?
In order to understand air quality, it is important to understand the three categories of air contaminants:
- Particulates. Things like dust, pet dander, mites, and spores are the contaminants your air filters are designed to catch. Keeping the air filters clean and the house dusted are great steps to minimizing particulate contamination. Particulates constitute roughly 35% of the contaminants in the air.
- Microbes. Microscopic particulates such as allergens, viruses and mold constitute 34% of contaminants in your air. Antibacterial surfactants and sprays are only but so effective in dealing with these, and they pass right through your air filters.
- Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s). Many things in the home put out harmful chemicals: the paint on the walls, your carpet, chemicals stored in the garage, and even your cooking. Like microbes, VOCs will pass right through air filters. Also, VOC’s constitute 31% of air contaminants.
How can you improve your air quality?
So to be blunt, air filters are only taking care of 35% of air contaminants in the home! Which means that 65% of most homes have air contaminants that are passing right through air filters. Here’s the good news: there is a solution. Brooks Heating and Air can install a system from APCO that takes care of the rest. Using UV light, this system employs a process called photocatalytic oxidation. This process breaks down the remaining 65% of air contaminants into oxygen and filterable components in the whole house, including mold, viruses, VOCs and even cooking odors. What this means is that a breakfast can be cooked in the morning and within an hour there will be no cooking smells.
If you’d like to take care of the other 65%, get at us! Let Brooks Heating and Air make your air more breathable. Click here to schedule a consultation!