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In the Air That You Breathe

It’s widely accepted that the indoor air in your home is as much as five times more polluted than clean, outside air. What pollutants are found in indoor air, where do they come from, and most importantly– how can you reduce or eliminate them?

Central Air Circulation

By design, central heating and air conditioning circulates the same air over and over inside of your home. Air is drawn into the cool air vents of your HVAC system, then the same cool air is heated or cooled depending on the season and pushed back out through your heating and cooling vents. The same air is circulated over and over. Unless some fresh, outside air is drawn into your home, the same dirty air continues to circulate over and over.

Dust and Pollen

It is no secret that dust accumulates in your home. If you don’t dust your solid surfaces occasionally, your home will definitely fail the white glove test. The dust doesn’t just settle on your floors, tabletops and bookcases; it also settles on your furniture, carpets, and curtains. The dust gets in from outside when your windows are open, when your pets come inside, and from your shoes and clothes. Seasonal pollen is usually included with the outside air duct, making its way inside. If anyone in your family is susceptible to allergies, they know when the pollen level is high.

With no fresh air, the same dirty air just keeps circulating and getting more concentrated, but fresh outside air introduces even more dust and pollen. There are solutions. The air filter in your central air system is the number one solution to improving indoor air quality. What is the best way to improve the purity of the air in your home? Use a good filter and change it often. Regular dusting and vacuuming will significantly improve your indoor air too.

Cleaning, Disinfecting, and Sanitizing Products

There is irony in that the products we use to clean, disinfect, and sanitize our home removes grime from surfaces but leaves volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the air we breathe. Some of the products that release VOCs include furniture polish, dishwasher and laundry detergent, oven cleaners, toilet bowl cleaners, bleach, air fresheners, hair spray, and other personal care products.

Formaldehyde is a harsh human respiratory system irritant. Unfortunately, formaldehyde is present in most homes because it is found in building materials. There is no safe level of formaldehyde exposure, exposure should be reduced as much as possible.

Mold is a VOC that can cause health problems. It can grow in areas where there is excessive moisture. In your home, mold might be found in leaking pipes, roof and window leaks, and areas that have been flooded. An air conditioner or dehumidifier will help keep your humidity level low and reduce the risk of mold growth.

The VOCs can be removed with activated carbon air purifiers. The professional technicians at Semper Fi Heating & Cooling can install a REMO HALO air purifier in your ductwork that will capture the VOCs. Over years, your air ducts collect dust and dirt. Semper Fi can clean and seal your air ducts.

Air Purification with UV-C Light

Air Purification with UV-C Light

Airborne pollutants like viruses, bacteria and mold are found in most homes. Modern construction standards and insulation do a great job sealing entire homes to improve heating and cooling efficiency. The downside of a well-sealed home is that moisture is prevented from escaping, which allows for the growth of harmful germs that cause a variety of illnesses.

Portable air purification devices help, but if you’re serious about removing harmful pollutants from your home, you need a whole home system that delivers purified air through your central heating and air conditioning system. You need to destroy bacteria and viruses on surfaces and in the air, making your whole home a safe haven for the health of you and your family.

HEPA air filters are great and it is highly recommended that you use them. They play an important role in removing larger dust and mold particles. However, air filters alone will not remove the smaller and more dangerous pollutants. There are other whole home technologies, but UV-C light, properly located in your central air distribution system, has clearly emerged as the best option for whole home air purification systems. Among UV-C systems, REME HALO is the leader for whole home air purification.

What Does REME HALO Do?

REME HALO uses patented REME Cell technology with UV-C light to create low-level, airborne hydrogen peroxide throughout an air-conditioned space. Not only does it kill bacteria and viruses, it reduces allergens, mold, microbials, smoke, odors and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). REME HALO utilizes patented and third-party tested and validated technology to eliminate 99.9% of COVID-19 in a simulated home environment.

The benefits of the REME HALO whole home air purification system go beyond the important work of killing bacteria and viruses. The tight construction prevents outside air from circulating in your home. Inside air can be up to five times more polluted than outside air. Whole home air purification from Semper Fi is a breath of fresh air in your entire home.

How Does REME HALO Work?

REME HALO is installed in the supply plenum of your home HVAC system. It uses reflective electromagnetic energy to produce hydrogen peroxide plasma that passes through your air handler and circulates through your whole house. Hydrogen peroxide is naturally occurring in the atmosphere. It is part of the natural process of purifying the clean outdoor air that we breathe. The hydrogen peroxide produced by REME HALO continues to eliminate pollutants in your home even when the blower on your HVAC system is not blowing.

REME HALO is not a filtration system that works to capture the pollutants that are circulating in your home air. It kills and eliminates the pollutants before they circulate. Also, it works with your filtration system by causing particle pollutants to solidify and stick together, making them larger and easier for your filter to catch. Don’t forget to change your filter often.

REME HALO can be installed quickly by the professionals at Semper Fi. It comes with a five-year warranty. It is recommended that the cell be replaced every two years. Call the professional HVAC technicians at Semper Fi today to learn more about how whole home air purification can reduce the pollutants in the air circulating in your home. It’s the new normal; air purification will help keep your family healthy and safe.

Do Your Air Ducts Need to be Cleaned?

The research has been available for some time now. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said that indoor air is one of the top five pollutants. Other research tells us that indoor air is 40 times more polluted than outdoor air.

Does that mean that you should clean your air duct system weekly or monthly? No, it doesn’t mean that you need to get your ducts cleaned as often as you do your laundry or vacuum your floors, however an annual air duct cleaning can make a huge difference in air quality.

For most people, breathing in a little dust is not a serious health hazard. But there are limits. If your ducts go for years without being cleaned, you may experience dust buildup on your registers and your indoor air may become hazardous to breathe.

Adding to the hazardous concern is that your home air circulates over and over. The air you breathe comes out of your heating/cooling registers and goes back into your ductwork to be heated or cooled again. Then that same air gets sent back through your ducts to be breathed again and again.

Semper Fi Heating and Cooling has the experience and equipment to clean your ductwork and improve the quality of the home air that you breathe. Duct cleaning is a job for trained professionals. An inadequate vacuum system can release more contaminants than if you had left the ducts alone. Beware of companies that make sweeping claims about duct cleaning improving your health. Such claims cannot be verified. However, a duct cleaning done properly will significantly reduce the dirt and contaminants in your home air.

What You Should Expect from the Duct Cleaning Process

  • Before you start vacuuming, your system should be checked for asbestos-containing materials. Asbestos requires specialized procedures and should not be disturbed or removed except by specially trained and equipped contractors.
  • Only equipment that exhausts particles to the outside of the home, or through HEPA filters, should be used.
  • The inside of ducts should be carefully brushed in conjunction with vacuuming.

Preventing Future Buildup of Dust and Contaminants

  • Use high-efficiency furnace filters and change them frequently. If filters get clogged, change them even more frequently.
  • When your unit is serviced, requesting add-on services to clean cooling coils and your drain pan is also recommended.
  • Remove dirt and dust from your home regularly and use high-efficiency filters in your vacuum.

Duct cleaning will improve your indoor air quality, but cleaning is not the only problem related to ducts. By most estimates, as much as 30% of the air that goes into your ducts leaks out before being delivered to wherever the ducts lead. While getting your ducts cleaned, consider taking the next step and get them professionally sealed. You can look for leaks and slap a piece of duct tape over the gap, but that is not professionally sealing your ducts. You won’t eliminate the majority of leaks unless you have the right equipment to find the leaks and the right materials to seal them up. Duct sealing systems like Aeroseal prevent leaky ducts from costing you more money on your cooling or heating bill – as much as $0.30 of every $1.00 on your energy bill can be wasted due to leaky ducts. Ask the trained professionals at Semper Fi for an estimate for Aeroseal duct sealing today. Click the link below to learn more about Aeroseal.