Whole Home Air Filtration System: Should You Have One?

As people are becoming more and more environmentally and health conscious, home air filtration systems are growing in popularity. The question is: what are the benefits of whole home air filtration systems and should you have one?

What are the Benefits?

Your HVAC system has filters in place to try to make your air quality better, but these are usually insufficient. A whole home air filtration system does more to clean your air. They are being marketed as being able to alleviate breathing problems for asthma, allergies, and other respiratory illnesses.

More and more whole home air filtration systems are including carbon filters. Carbon is excellent for filtering and can filter out odor from cooking and tobacco smoke. One of the best pollutants that carbon reduces is ozone. Many electronics and items in our homes produce ozone, which can be harmful when inhaled.

Such items that produce ozone are home furnishings, cleaning chemicals, electrical motors, and vehicle emissions in garages. Unfortunately, the very air filtration systems that are designed to help you breathe can also produce ozone, which means if you do decide to go with an air filtration system, it is a good idea to get one with a carbon filter.

Are They Effective?

Many say that whole home air filtration systems are not effective, especially for the cost. The cost of a carbon filter ranges from $35 to $60 and they have to be replaced every three months to be effective. Another expensive problem is that, in order for whole home air filtration systems to work properly, the fan hooked up to the system must be going all the time. These means huge electric bills for something that only works well in one part of your house.

Why Do They Only Work in One Part of the House?

Most HVAC systems only have one air return and the air filtration systems are connected through your HVAC. This means that the air going into the system is only in one part of the house and that is really the only air being filtered. So it may still work, but only in the area of your house that is near the air return. The only way a whole home air filtration system could truly work is if it is combined with single room air filtration systems.

The question of whether or not you should have an air filtration system is really up to you. It can be effective when used with other systems, but it also can be costly. If you have the money to spend, then it is not going to hurt your home to have one installed.

For more information, contact a company such as Drew Green Heating & Cooling.