You may hear about ultraviolet (UV) light more often in reference to tanning—or getting a sunburn. But UV light can do a lot of good when it’s not touching your skin. A small amount of UV light can actually kill tiny organisms that float around in your air. Airborne contaminants like bacteria, viruses, and mold spores are no longer harmful with the help of a UV light air purifying system.
ACI Northwest Blog: Archive for the ‘Indoor Air Quality’ Category
How UV Light Can Clean Your Air
Monday, November 16th, 20155 Indoor Air Quality Systems and Services to Reduce Allergens in Your Home
Monday, April 13th, 2015One of the most important things that you can do for your family members is to improve the condition of the air in your home. You run your air conditioning system to keep everyone in the home more comfortable, and you try to change the filter as often to filter out some of the harmful particles that move through the air. But are you really doing all you can to reduce allergens? Take a look at some of the products and services you can bring into your home to make your air a little bit healthier.
How a Clogged Air Filter can Cause Furnace Problems
Friday, March 13th, 2015The air filter is a relatively small part of the overall structure of a furnace. It is basically just a woven mesh, stretched over a frame and installed in the air return duct. Despite its small and simple construction, however, the air filter plays a very important role. Let’s take a look at how the air filter works, and why neglecting yours could lead to problems with your furnace.
The Role of the Air Filter
There is a lot of dust and other debris that is frequently circulated through the ductwork of a home. If that debris is allowed to infiltrate the furnace, it can cause all sorts of havoc with the system. The air filter is there to prevent that from happening. As the air from the ducts flows into the furnace, any airborne debris is captured in the fibers of the filter. The air itself passes through the filter and into the furnace, now free of harmful debris.
There is one problem with these air filters, however: they have no way to rid themselves of the particles they capture. This means that if they are not cleaned or replaced every few months, they can become so clogged that they restrict the flow of air into the furnace. That’s where things start becoming problematic.
Furnace Issues
There’s one very big problem resulting from clogged air filters that you should be aware of: short-cycling. This is when your furnace keeps turning itself on and off over and over again throughout the day. When the air filter restricts airflow into the furnace, heat becomes trapped inside the unit. When that happens, the internal temperature of the furnace rises to dangerous levels. This activates the limit switch, a safety device that monitors the temperature of the furnace. The limit switch shuts down the system to prevent it from damaging itself by overheating.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t solve the original problem. When the furnace cools off enough to start again, the clogged air filter causes it to overheat again and the short-cycling repeats indefinitely. This puts the entire system under a lot more strain than it is designed to handle, increasing the likelihood of a breakdown. If allowed to continue for a long enough period of time, short-cycling may damage the furnace beyond repair.
If you notice your furnace short-cycling, call ACI Northwest immediately. We provide furnace repair services throughout Sandpoint.
Why Is a Boiler System Good for Allergy Sufferers?
Monday, February 2nd, 2015If you’re an allergy sufferer, the very air you breathe can seem hostile at times. Even when you’re inside, it can seem like your nose and eyes are going to swell shut from irritation.
Though it may seem like you just have to take allergy medication and deal with it, there are actually several ways to improve the air quality in your home. Let’s take a look at why a boiler system is one of the best heating systems available for allergy sufferers.
Airborne Contaminant Circulation
The reason that you seem to have just as many, or more, allergy attacks inside as outside is that the air inside your home is not as clean as you think. The air inside the average home is rife with millions of different airborne contaminants, including dust, pollen, dander, viruses, bacteria, and mold. These contaminants find a haven and transportation system in the form of the home’s ducts. When the heat is turned on, the contaminants are blown throughout the house and into the lungs of the home’s occupants.
Boiler Systems
Boiler systems are helpful to allergy sufferers primarily because they don’t make use of ductwork. A boiler heating system, often called a “radiant” heating system, involves the installation of a network of water pipes throughout the house. These pipes are installed either in the walls or the subfloor of each room that needs heating. The entire network is then connected to the central boiler.
When the heat is turned on, the boiler heats and distributes water through the pipe network. As the water flows through the pipes, it transfers its heat through the pipes, the floor, and out into the room. This method of heating has a number of advantages, but the biggest one for allergy sufferers is that it does not circulate air.
The lack of ductwork involved in boiler heating systems removes the biggest contributor to indoor air quality problems: dirty ducts. By utilizing a boiler system, you’ll be taking one big step towards better air quality and better quality of life.
If you’re suffering from severe allergies, call ACI Northwest. We provide boiler installation services throughout Hayden, ID.