Your HVAC system does not serve to create your home’s entire indoor climate. It certainly plays a role in helping to maintain a suitable temperature through all seasons, but other elements, such as the quality of your indoor air, can also play a role in your home environment.
The quality of the air inside your home can affect your HVAC system, and vise versa. It’s for this reason that maintaining healthy air quality in your home is not just good for your own health, but for the wellbeing of your HVAC unit as well.
How can air quality affect your HVAC system?
Because modern air conditioning units are so powerful, they cycle the entire air volume of your home through their systems multiple times every day during the hot summer months. As a result, if your indoor air is filled with small particles like dirt, dust or bacteria, those particles will inevitably be circulated throughout your air conditioning system and back into your home within a day. That cycle is also bound to repeat, especially in homes that like to keep windows shut.
If this happens often enough, your air conditioning unit’s filter is going to clog, which will in turn reduce airflow throughout your home. That will force your HVAC system to work twice as hard to maintain the same temperature throughout your house, which will drive up your energy bill.
Your air conditioner also has a part called an evaporator coil that is meant to draw heat energy and humidity from the air circulating through your home in order to keep temperatures nice and cool. But as this coil does its job, it can also suck dirt and dust out of the air in the process. This will limit the space around the coil, which can keep it from properly doing its job. If unaddressed, the coil will suck less heat energy out of the air and once again your air conditioner will lose energy efficiency and drive up your monthly bill.
The ducts inside your air conditioner can grab dirt and dust out of the air and can store it for years, causing mold to grow inside your system. Inspecting your ducts is the only way to know for sure when it’s time to replace them, which is why it’s best to leave these inspections to professionals like the staff at Berner A/C and Heat.
How can I improve the quality of air in my home?
Now knowing how vital maintaining high air quality in your home can be to your HVAC system, let’s address how to improve the quality of your indoor air.
Get an Air Purification System
For starters, installing a Global Plasma Solutions GPS-2400 air purification system with your HVAC can quickly improve the quality of air inside your home.
This air purification system works in conjunction with your air conditioner to clean your air every time your A/C is running. The GPS-2400 keeps the inside of your air conditioning unit clean so it’s not storing or circulating dirt, dust, bacteria and allergens throughout your home.
Frequently Replace Air Filters
Another way to keep clean air inside your home is to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to replacing your air filters. Being proactive rather than reactive is important when it comes to air filters. Those who wait and let an old filter deteriorate often have to spend more on a fix after the fact.
Luckily, Berner offers a low-cost, low-stress solution to this issue with its Berner A/C Filter Program. For more information on the program, click here.
Install a UV Light
Installing a UV light on the back of your A/C unit can also keep dirt and mold from accumulating around your coils by shining an ultra violet light to the areas where mold would grow. This is a minor addition to your system that can pay major dividends in the quality of your air and the quality of your HVAC system.
