DeHart Plumbing, Heating, and Air Inc. Blog: Posts Tagged ‘Air Filtration’

How We Can Improve Ventilation in Your Home

Monday, July 12th, 2021
airflow-diagram

Proper home ventilation is on people’s minds more. Too many houses today have limited ventilation to allow for the proper movement of air and to allow fresh air to circulate. This poor ventilation is one of the main causes of bad indoor air quality, which has been on the rise over the past few decades. 

At Greenhart, our goal is to help our customers enjoy the best quality of living in their homes thanks to better indoor air quality—and helping their homes achieve energy efficiency at the same time. There are steps you can take to help with better fresh air ventilation, such as opening multiple doors and windows and remembering to use exhaust fans in the kitchen and bathrooms. But we have several ways to better your ventilation and improve your home’s indoor air quality in Modesto, CA.

Energy and Heat Recovery Ventilators

These devices allow for fresh air circulation through a home without also causing heat loss or heat gain that will affect energy efficiency. Opening up windows and doors brings the outside temperatures with it, but energy recovery ventilators (ERVs) and heat recovery ventilators (HRVs) solve this problem. They draw fresh air into the HVAC system and use the air from indoors to either pre-heat or pre-cool it. This can recover 80% of the energy that would otherwise be lost to opening up windows and doors. There are differences between the two types, and we’ll help determine which one is best for your home.

Duct Sealing

Your house may have problems with leaky air ducts without you even knowing it. Duct leaks are common issues, and they can throw off air circulation for the whole house as well as cause the AC and heater to waste power. We recommend you schedule duct testing with our team if you aren’t certain about the condition of your ducts. We’ll discover if you have duct leaks and how extensive the problem is, then use advanced techniques to make the ventilation system airtight once more. 

Duct Cleaning

After three to five years, the ducts in your home will have picked up enough dust, lint, and other debris on the walls that it will interfere with proper airflow and ventilation. Professional duct cleaning can restore the ducts—just make sure you have actual professionals like our team to do the job. There are many low-cost “duct cleaning” services that do next to nothing at all. You can expect the best from us. 

Air Filters

You already have an air filter on your HVAC system, but it isn’t there to help with the indoor air quality; it protects the interior of the cabinet. If you want to have healthier air circulating through the house, you’ll need to have professionals install powerful pleated or media filters into the ductwork. These filters will remove dust, lint, dander, dust mites, and more. You will need to change the filters every few months or else they will start to block proper airflow. 

Talk to our experts today for great IAQ solutions. At Greenhart, we help you “Live Green, Save Green!”

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Why Your House May Need an Air Purifier

Monday, April 5th, 2021
clouds-in-sky

You want air in your home that’s not only pleasant to breathe, but healthy for you and your family. Good ventilation is a starting place, followed by having our professionals install an air filtration system. Sometimes, these steps will do the job necessary for the best indoor air quality.

But you may need to go a step further and have an air purification system installed; i.e. an electronic air purifier that uses ionization, UV lights, or another process to remove pollutants from the air. We think air purifiers are a good idea in general, but we want to address why your house specifically may need air purification along with air filtration and improved ventilation.

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Your Home vs. Allergy Season—We Can Help You Win!

Monday, March 8th, 2021
sprinkler-in-spring

This is a big title fight—one held in many homes each spring. It’s allergy season taking on the air quality in a house, and the losers can be anyone in the house who suffers from even mild allergies and asthma. This can be a miserable time of the year for these people, and with many trapped indoors this year, there isn’t much chance to get away from the concentration of allergens and asthma triggers that build up indoors.

But if your home has to duel it out with allergy season each year, you don’t have to fight the battle alone. We can help you! 

The allergy season dilemma

Let’s get to know the enemy. Why does “allergy season” happen at all? 

When the weather starts to warm up, it causes a spring bloom. The warmer weather is pleasant—who doesn’t like it when the cold starts to ebb?—and the flora sure looks pretty. But the bloom of plants and the warmer temperatures causes a release of pollen into the air, where it thrives. This pollen isn’t just from flowers. Ragweed, trees, and grass are major sources of allergens in the air. Mold spores are common as well during spring, and these are big allergy triggers. If your house has pets, they also start to shed fur at this time and that puts more dander into the air. 

As the pollen count rises in the air, it leads to many seasonal allergy problems, such as runny noses, sneezing, congestion, raspy breathing, itchy eyes and skin, and a general feeling of “ickiness.” Hay fever (allergic rhinitis) is the most common allergic reaction during the season. 

Staying inside isn’t much protection

“Wait, I’m staying indoors most of the time because of COVID-19. Why should I have problems with spring allergies?” 

It sounds sensible, right? But your home isn’t the fortress against outside air you may think it is. Pollen travels—that’s the point of pollen as a plant reproductive strategy. You only have to go for a short walk outside or open up the windows for fresh air and you’ll let the allergens inside, where they’ll circulate through your HVAC system. 

How we can help

Now, don’t despair. You don’t have to find a way to seal up your house entirely and give up those healthy walks that are necessary during the pandemic so you don’t go stir crazy. We can help you enjoy better air quality with IAQ solutions that trap or zap the most common allergens of the season. Air filtration systems can remove the larger particles, and to handle smaller ones we can find an air purifier in Ceres, CA that targets the specific seasonal allergens that bother your house. For example, a UV air purifier targets mold spores and bacteria, which are huge troubles for people with asthma and allergies. 

Spring hasn’t officially started, but it’s almost here—as is the warmer weather that will cause the pollen count to skyrocket. Now is the time to prepare your home and family with indoor air quality services. Speak to our experts today and we’ll see what you need to make allergy season as sniffle and sneeze-free as possible. 

Greenhart serves Modesto, CA with great indoor air quality services. Let us help you “Live Green, Save Green!”

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“Is My HVAC Air Filter Protecting My Indoor Air Quality?”

Monday, January 18th, 2021
woman-leaning-back-on-couch-looking-comfortable-in-her-home

The short answer to this is, “No.”

It’s not that the standard HVAC air filter hurts your indoor air quality. In fact, it does help a little. However, it’s not doing much to protect your indoor air quality, because that is not its purpose.

The air filter that comes standard with your HVAC system is actually in place to protect the system itself. It’s placed on the intake side, where your HVAC system draws in air. This prevents the system from sucking in dirt, dust, and other debris that can build up on its components and do the system harm. While it’s a very important component, it won’t do a whole lot to protect or help your indoor air quality in a significant way.

What will, then? A whole-house air purification system.

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A Few Sources of Poor Indoor Air Quality in Homes

Monday, November 16th, 2020
woman-with-allergies

The quality of air in many homes is much worse than it should be. This isn’t because polluted air from outside is moving inside. It’s because too many pollutants indoors are trapped there, with scant circulation of fresh air to remove them. This is an unfortunate side-effect of the improvement in home construction to make houses more energy efficient. The tight construction limits the ventilation that removes the concentration of pollutants.

The Pollutant Sources

“But where are these pollutants coming from?” That’s the big question. There’s no single answer because there are a range of sources for indoor pollutants that lower the quality of the air in a house. Below we’re going to look at some of the most common.

Appliances the combust fuel

If you live in a house that uses natural gas for cooking, heating, and other tasks, that is one of the main sources for harmful chemicals. True, you aren’t dealing with a toxic level of carbon monoxide (you have CO detectors to warn you if this is the case) or other gases, but they still have long-term health effects.

Building materials

Many modern materials used for the construction of homes have potentially harmful chemicals in them that will enter the house. An older home may have asbestos in it. Pressed-wood, which is much more common in homes today than even ten years before, often has chromated copper arsenate (CCA) in it, which contains arsenic, chromium, and copper, all of which can create health problems.

But the most common harmful chemical found in building material is formaldehyde—which also can result from combustion and cleaning products. Formaldehyde is often found in particleboard, hardwood paneling, and fiberboard.

Cleaning/Hobby/Personal Care Products

A large number of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) arise from these materials that can be found in almost every household. VOCs include numerous chemicals that can affect people’s health in both the short and long-term.

Mold

Yes, you may have mold hidden somewhere in your house, possibly in the ductwork or located under floorboards where excess moisture has allowed it to grow. Toxic mold spores are a significant danger in homes where mold is growing.

The Horror! What Can I Do About This?

You’re probably not likely to tear out all the walls and throw away every cleaning supply you have and then stop using your gas stove. But although you don’t have many options for reducing these sources of air pollutants in your house (aside from mold and asbestos remediation), you do have options for better indoor air quality in Modesto, CA when you work with us. We offer numerous IAQ solutions, including:

  • Air filters and air purifiers to remove contaminants.
  • UV air purifiers to target organic pollutants, including mold spores.
  • Heat and energy recovery ventilators, which allow for fresh air circulation without a loss of energy efficiency in the house.
  • Dehumidifiers to remove the source of mold growth.
  • Duct sealing and repair to improve ventilation.

Get in touch with our professionals, and they’ll get started finding out exactly what your house needs for better, healthier indoor air quality.

Your home should be a breath of fresh air. With Greenhart, you can Live Green, Save Green!

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The Air Filter on Your AC/Furnace? It’s NOT to Make Your Air Healthier

Monday, August 24th, 2020
man-with-furnace-filter

Air filtration systems are one of the standard ways we can help a home enjoy healthier air free from the majority of large contaminants circulating through the HVAC system. But often when we bring up air filters, homeowners are confused. “But I already have an air filter. It’s in the HVAC cabinet, and I change it every few months with a fresh one. Isn’t that helping with air quality?”

We understand why people are confused about this. The truth is that the air filter on your AC and furnace is not designed to improve indoor air quality. It may have a minor effect on it, but to enjoy tangible benefits to air quality requires having professionals install dedicated air filtration systems in Modesto, CA.

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The Dilemma of Modern Homes and Indoor Air Quality

Monday, August 10th, 2020
spinning-fan

Our company exists to help homeowners overcome the dilemmas they face with houses that are uncomfortable and energy inefficient at the same time. It’s an unfortunate fact for many people that they live in homes that are stuffy and uncomfortable with air quality far worse than it should be, and yet they’re paying high energy bills for the “privilege” of inferior living.

Today we want to specifically address the trouble with indoor air quality Modesto, CA. IAQ is a big trouble spot for homes, and we’re going to explain why this situation exists. Part of it is because attempts to make homes more energy-efficient end up creating a new problem (often without solving the original energy waste problem).

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Understanding the MERV Rating and Air Filters

Monday, July 27th, 2020
air-fliter-cu

Air filtration systems are one of the basic building blocks of indoor air quality for a home. We offer many types of IAQ services for our clients, but air filtration in Modesto, CA solutions are one of the most common. Among the top systems we install are PureAir S, the Carbon Clean 16, and the Clean Air 11.

However, finding the right air filtration for a home isn’t something we do by selecting the most powerful filters available. That can lead to serious problems with the HVAC system in the house. We take into account many factors when it comes to choosing air filters. One of the key factors is MERV, the rating system measuring air filter strength. To help understand the importance of finding the right air filters, we’re going to go into more depth about MERV.

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Finding the Right Air Filtration for Your Home

Monday, June 1st, 2020
pleated-air-filter

The concerns about indoor air quality in homes are higher than ever. So now more than ever, you need answers about proper air filtration in Modesto, CA and what will work for your home.

If you’re already asking questions about what kinds of filters will match your specific household IAQ needs, you’re on the right track. Running out to purchase some off-the-shelf purifier or doing your hunting through online retailers can lead to a disaster–something worse than poor air filtration. You won’t get much better results if you go to inexperienced or amateur technicians to have air filters put in.

We are here specifically to answer your questions and provide solutions, and we’re fully qualified for the job: BPI-Certified, NATE-certified, Green, and EPA-Certified. We also carry the best air filtration and purification products.

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