Why You Should Install UV Lighting in Your HVAC System … Yesterday

Presidential Heating & Air Conditioning

Gaithersburg HVAC Contractors

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Your HVAC system helps to maintain a consistently comfortable environment inside your home— compensating for the variable temperatures outside. A safe and clean HVAC system is crucial to preserving the air quality in your home, but did you know that your HVAC system is also one of the places in your home most susceptible to mold and bacteria growth? Mold and bacteria can severely impact the quality of air circulated around your home, and lead to respiratory issues, headaches, dizziness, and poor sleep if left to spread. Only through proper maintenance and servicing can you fully ensure your system doesn’t become compromised.

Factors that determine indoor air quality include temperature, ventilation, humidity, the presence of pets, and the existence of chemicals, microbes, suspended particles, and even radon. It’s evident that your HVAC system has a great deal of obstacles to overcome in order to provide pure air and good health for your family. Some of these factors are out of our control, but there are still some things you can do to easily lower the risk of poor air quality in the home.

One tech solution to the presence of mold and bacteria is the installation of UV lighting into your HVAC system. Ultraviolet lighting is incredibly useful as it will sterilize the air that enters into your HVAC system—before it is pushed back out and circulates around the house.

Think of UV lighting as the first line of defense for the quality of your home’s air, safeguarding your HVAC system from contaminants big and small. UV lighting is such an effective defense because it operates at a cellular level, penetrating cells and neutralizing the organic contaminants you don’t want in your home’s air.
Installing UV lighting in your HVAC system is a practical way of significantly improving the air quality of your home.

Benefits of Installing UV Lighting

Elimination of Molds

Mold can result in a number of negative health effects, particularly if your family faces an extended period of exposure. If a person is particularly sensitivity to molds, they can experience more drastic symptoms including nasal blockage, irritated throat, coughing or wheezing, and eye or skin irritation. Additionally, those with an impaired immune system are at greater risk of developing severe symptoms from mold proliferation. For example, infants, the elderly, or people with chronic illnesses face significantly higher risk of developing lung infections when exposed to mold.
The Institute of Medicine found enough evidence to link mold exposure to the development of respiratory problems like bronchitis and dyspnea, even in those who otherwise were generally healthy. Mold has also been found to exacerbate asthma symptoms and impair the breathing of children who are otherwise healthy.

For the sake of your family’s health, it is imperative to prevent the spread of mold through your home and HVAC system. Installing UV lighting in your system is a great first step to avoid the health concerns caused by long-term mold exposure.

Eliminates Bacteria

The air we breathe every day, both indoors and outside, is estimated to contain up to two thousand different kinds of bacteria. When we’re outside, our ability to control the quality and composition of the air we ingest is limited. When in our own homes, however, we have the ability to control and drastically improve the quality of air we consume by paying careful attention to the state of our HVAC system. HVAC systems that are professionally installed and regularly serviced go a long way in minimizing the proliferation of bacteria, however any HVAC system without UV lighting technology will inevitably circulate some bacteria throughout the home. UV lighting can help stop the spread of bacteria through your vents for good.

Protects your Family From Colds and Flu

Contaminants like dust, microbes, or mold in the air can all contribute to ill health and even cause sickness if left unchecked. Children are particularly susceptible to the negative health effects of air contaminants. Even if these irritants are not originating from within your HVAC system, your system can be an accomplice in the crime, as a convenient vehicle of distribution. If you want to protect your family from germs being circulated around the home, UV lighting is an excellent way to do so.

Eliminates Volatile Organic Compounds

Volatile Organic Compounds, or VOCs, are gases emitted from organic chemicals used as ingredients in household products like paint, cleaning materials, and cosmetics. According to the EPA, VOCs can have both short and long-term effects on a person’s health including conjunctival irritation, nausea, epistaxis, and fatigue. Concentrations of VOCs are consistently higher indoors (up to ten times higher) than outdoors. UV lighting eliminates VOCs as they pass through the coil of your HVAC unit, allowing you and your family to enjoy higher quality air, free from these dangerous organic pollutants.

Reduces Odors

No one wants to open the front door of their house after a long day at work, only to be greeted by a difficult-to-trace pungent odor. UV lighting helps to reduce the odors in your home due to the technology’s sterilizing power. UV lighting disrupts the DNA of the cells, preventing them from reproducing effectively thereby nipping odors in the bud. The germicidal properties found in certain wavelengths of UV light neutralize the viruses, bacteria, and mold spores that cause these odors.

Types of UV Lighting Systems

Air Sterilization

Air sterilization systems are mounted inside the air duct to sanitize the area as it circulates. These systems are activated when the air handler blower is switched on, neutralizing contaminants as the air is pushed through the system’s ductwork before being distributed throughout the home.

Coil Sterilization

Coil sterilization systems, on the other hand, operate a little differently. Coil sterilization systems are focused directly toward the air handler coil. In a coil sterilization system, the UV light is installed to shine directly upon on the coil to sterilize the air before it even reaches your system’s ducts. Because it is consistently damp, the air handler coil is the point most susceptible to mold and bacteria throughout your HVAC system.

Benefits for Home and Family

Having UV lighting installed in your HVAC system has other benefits in addition to the items discussed above. UV lighting can help prevent algae from growing inside your HVAC system. It also helps to maintain the effectiveness of your system’s coils, minimizing the need for expensive maintenance down the road. UV lighting also improves the general cooling efficiency of your system, lowering your energy bill.

There are so many reasons to install UV lighting in your HVAC system, what are you waiting for? Contact Presidential Heating & Air Conditioning today to schedule a free consultation with our UV lighting specialists to safeguard your home’s air quality and protect the health of your family.