Indoor Air Quality Part IV: Whole House Humidifier

Welcome to Part IV of our Indoor Air Quality series. Today we discuss whole house humidifiers. A whole house humidifier or whole house dehumidifier can be a life saver if you are in climates with any type of humidity extreme. Whether a cold, dry Chicago Winter or a hot and humid Georgia summer season. This fourth part of the indoor air quality product suite is definitely key.



Whole House Humidifier
When the Winter climate is dry Winter, a whole house humidifier can be the end to itchy dry skin. It can also avoid damage to instruments and wood furniture, static electricity and other discomforts. A whole house humidifier is installed onto your HVAC system, and adds humidity to the air leaving your furnace (or air handler). There are different types of humidifiers including fan powered, bypass and even steam humidifiers.

There are two primary types of whole home humidifiers: powered and bypass. A Bypass Humidifier is installed before the furnace, on the return air ducting, and has a bypass pipe that is attached to the "warm air" or "supply" duct. A bypass humidifier doesn't have a fan, so it takes the forced air leaving the furnace and uses that to flow through the humidifier. Obviously, if your furnace is crammed in a closet, you might not have room for this setup. A powered humidifier has its own fan which means some electricity used, but they can also out perform a bypass humidifier and don't require the extra installation space. A powered humidifier is mounted on the warm air ducting (never on the cool air return).

Automatic controls: Advanced humidifiers can sample the outdoor air to gauge how they run. A humidifier with automatic control is the best because it will adjust to daytime and nighttime humidity changes. Just because your air needs humidity doesn't mean pumping too much in is healthy either. That introduces other problems. You want a humidifier and control that can keep humidity levels right where they need to be year round.

Another humidifier on the market is a steam humidifier. They can churn through 10-12 gallons of water a day for large homes, but they also required much more power to run. Additionally, for ultra humid climates, whole home dehumidifiers exist to help maintain proper moisture levels.

Whole home humidifiers are tricky to install. If they are not done right you can ruin controls (never mount the humidistat on the hot air return for example), you can loose major performance (if placed on the wrong ducting) and much more. Do your research, but let a pro install it. One technician stated that he has had more business fixing bad humidifier installations than installing new ones. Don't be a statistic!

Whole House Dehumidifier
An air conditioning system dehumidifies indoor air as it cools it, because moisture condensates on the frigid piping in the indoor coil as the warm indoor air passes through. However, a whole house dehumidifier can step it up a notch, and for our humid Atlanta summer weather, that can be nice. Similar to a whole house humidifier, a dehumidifier integrates into your HVAC system, and removes humidity your indoor air as it passes through your cooling system.

For more information on our HVAC service please visit Atlanta Heating & Air Conditioning.

Thank you for reading our four part series on indoor air quality! We know these products will transform the health and comfort of your home. Call us at (770) 860-1837 for more information!

Indoor Air Quality Part 3: Ventilators

Welcome to part three of indoor air quality products from your Atlanta HVAC Contractor! Today we are reviewing the benefits of a Ventilator. Warning: you'll probably want one of these after reading.

*As mentioned in the previous Zack hammonds indoor air quality articles, no indoor air quality components are mutually exclusive. If you want to really harness the power given to you by modern air purification technology, you have to consider them all.

Ventilators (ERV and HRV)

Have you ever stunk up the house with food or old garbage? Been worried about CO2 buildup, or other airborne pollutants like cleaning products that get recycled through your HVAC system? What's the answer? Open the windows right? But let's say it is 100 degrees outside with crazy high humidity - in other words, a normal Atlanta summer - opening windows isn't the best for the utility bill. If it is freezing outside, you again don't want warm air funneling out an open window. The answer? A ventilator. Ventilators takes the stale air from inside your home, and exchange it with fresh air from outside. During the exchange, the cooled air that is passing out is used to cool the air coming in....the energy is exchanged. Not flawless, but very energy efficient. With a ventilator, you can bring fresh air inside during the middle of a hot Atlanta summer without killing your air conditioning bill. The same is true for the Winter season.

There are two types of ventilators: Heat Recovery Ventilators (HRV) and Energy Recovery Ventilators (ERV). The latter exchanges humidity as well as heating and cooling energy. So if you are using a whole home humidifier in the winter, an ERV is the better way to go, to adjust the dry air coming in.

Ventilators sit downstream of your HVAC system. Assuming you have all four indoor air quality (IAQ) product types installed, when air is pulled from your home and heated or cooled, it is first taken through the Advanced Air Cleaner to filter microscopic particles like dust, pollen, toxins and viruses. The next IAQ product the air goes through, or by, is the UV Lamp. Remember, the UV Lamp isn't doing anything to the air. It is killing mold that grows in the damp indoor evaporator or fan coil. After the UV Lamp, the air is humidified or dehumidified, and then we hit the Ventilator. See the image below:

As always, thank you for reading the Zack Hammonds blog! If you need a local HVAC specialist in the Atlanta, GA area, we are your best choice. To read more about us please visit: Atlanta Air Conditioning. We'll see you soon for Part IV of Indoor Air Quality!

Indoor Air Quality Part 2: Advanced Air Cleaners

Welcome back to Indoor Air Quality Part II: Advanced Air Cleaners.

Zack Hammonds is happy to post our IAQ blog part 2 to further educate Atlanta homeowners on the purpose and importance of indoor air quality products.

If this is your first reading, you should catch up with our first IAQ blog post that talks about UV Lamps and how they help the efficiency of your air conditioning system while protecting your home's indoor air from mold. Now we are moving on to advanced air cleaners.

If you are not familiar with the layout of a typical air conditioning and heating system, take a look at the image below. See the bubble identifying the Advanced Air Cleaner. It is installed after the return air duct, and before the furnace (or air handler). Normally there is a small filter that comes with your HVAC system. These filters are thin, and made to just capture larger particles in the air. They do not filter at very high levels.



Remember that the job of a UV Lamp is to kill mold growing in an evaporator coil (or a fan coil). A UV lamp does not clean the air, but protects the air. The job of an advanced air cleaner is to clean & filter the air returning being drawn from your home before it goes back into the HVAC system, and then back into every room of your house.

What are the advantages? We're so glad you asked. Read on:

1) Cleans your indoor air. When we say these air cleaners clean your indoor air, we really mean it. Down to microscopic things like pet dander, chemicals, smoke, and bacteria. Some can even kill the flu virus! Think about that....someone has the flu at home. What does your current system do? It potentially pumps those germs throughout the entire house. Not anymore. Advanced air cleaners are also great ways to remove seasonal allergens from your air.

2) Protects your air conditioning system. An advanced air cleaner keeps your air conditioning and heating system clean and running more efficiently. Every system has a filter - they are typically 2 inches thick and made to be replaced monthly. These filters keep out the big stuff, but are not the ideal choice for really keeping your system clean, and definitely do not do much for indoor air quality.

Measuring the ability of an Air Cleaner

The ability of air cleaners or filters is measured with a Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value (MERV). MERV ratings tell you what an air cleaner is capable of doing. MERV 16 is high end for residential applications. MERV 17-20 is most often found in labs with radioactive or carcinogenetic materials...meaning, not your place. MERV 16 will filter most tobacco smoke, all bacteria, and many other things including hair spray, mold spores, pollen, dust mites and the list continues. Imagine your home with the dust, bacteria and chemicals filtered every time your system turns on. Now that is a great start to pure indoor air.

Another note to consider when using an Advanced Air Cleaner: a variable speed fan motor in your furnace or air handler will also increase your air quality, as these fans control climate and air flow much better than traditional fan motors in older HVAC systems.

Thanks for reading the Zack Hammonds blog! We are your finest choice for Atlanta air conditioning and indoor air quality solutions. Visit our website at Atlanta Air Conditioning.

The next IAQ blog is Indoor Air Quality Part III: Ventilators.

Indoor Air Quality Part 1: UV Lamps

Zack Hammonds is starting a five part series on indoor air quality. Maintaining a healthy home is critical, and something that can be overlooked in many HVAC installations.

The primary thing to take away from this series is this: indoor air quality components all do different things. They are not mutually exclusive. Each component we talk about has a specific purpose that cannot be replaced with another IAQ product.

Indoor Air Quality Part I: UV Lamps

To start this series, we are discussing UV lamps. A homeowner one time, at the mention of a UV lamp said, "I heard those things don't work". Why did he have that perception? Because he wanted a UV lamp to filter air, or do some other indoor air quality task that it was never meant to do. A UV lamp has one purpose: to kill mold in your evaporator coil.

What is an evaporator coil? When running your air conditioner (or heat pump) in the summer, chilled refrigerant is pumped from the air conditioner outside via copper tubing to the evaporator coil inside. The fan in your furnace then pulls air from inside your home, and pushes the air through the chilled copper tubing. The air is cooled and dehumidified as water condenses on the coil. (homes that do not have a furnace typically have a "fan coil" which in a basic sense is a combination of the evaporator coil and the fan from a furnace). More information on this process is available at: Heating & Air Conditioning 101

Now that you understand what an evaporator coil is, let's move back to the UV Lamp. The dark, damp interior of an evaporator coil is a breeding ground for mold. Once mold begins to grow in the coil, air conditioning efficiency drops, and mold spores can be released into your indoor air. A UV lamp mounts inside the coil, and kills mold that tries to grow. This protects your air from mold spores, and helps the indoor cole run efficiently to keep air conditioning bills (and heating bills when using a heat pump) at a minimum.

Thanks for reading the Zack Hammonds blog. Visit Atlanta Heating for more information. The next IAQ topic: Indoor Air Quality Part II: Advanced Air Cleaners.