Filters page 2

James' A/C, Co.--The Air Conditioning Do-it-Yourselfer information and diagnostics Center

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James' A/C Co. -- The Do-It-Yourselfers Repair Haven

FILTRATION PART TWO:

Unlike the football field, though, the air in the home doesn't move away and get diluted or replenished but very little and it never gets that occasional washing from a good rain shower. It is a reasonably small volume of air and it just gets moved around and around over and over with some minor infiltration from the outside through door openings and leakage, window seepage and other tiny openings in the construction. But, this is partly good because if it were filtered well, it could continue to become cleaner and cleaner on each pass through the system. It would, of course, be very beneficial to have really clean air.
Because of the modern construction techniques and advancement in material quality and performance, most of the homes now are reaching the point of being almost too tightly sealed from the outside air infiltration. The air inside the home will seldom or never be as clean as the air on the outside in nature. Sounds incredible, but it is true.

Inside the closed home many things get trapped and literally pollute the space we occupy. The things that you can see drifting in the sun beams in the sun light through the window and other things you can see with the eye make up only ONE PERCENT of the pollutants inside the home. Actually, over 99% of the particles contaminating our indoor air can't be seen without a microscope.

I hesitate, but I must tell you what some are---these particles of contamination. They are quite real and without knowing them you cannot comprehend the necessity for combating them and how complex is the problem and even more difficult, the solution:

Plant spores and pollen
Dust
Viruses, bacteria, and fungi
Dust mites, their carcasses, and droppings
Human skin flakes
Pet dander
Tobacco and candle residue
Wood smoke from fireplaces and wood-burning stoves
Cooking smoke and airborne grease and oils
Mildew and mold spores
Radon gas, chemical fumes and volatile organic compounds generated by household cleaners and chemicals
Fact Sheets from The Environmental Health Center are available online.
Try this! Remove the door from your blower compartment and examine very carefully what you see. Is there dust, large deposits of lint-like build-up or is there that as well as maybe some splotches of something that you first think is dust but may not be dust. Look very carefully at this. Is it alive? It may very well may be alive.
It may be a type of fungal contamination that just loves to grow in todays highly efficient cooling systems. I think that in my area it is significantly infecting as many as two in three homes. It sometimes looks a lot like the mold on bread. It is sooty in appearance and in concentrated areas will grow in the direction of the air flow. This is what is known as an arosol microbial contamination. If you have a good growth of it, it will have built up in the cooling coil, on the blower wheel blades and even into the duct system and possibly even onto the outlet grills in the rooms. Some customers of mine even had such a case of it that it flaked out onto the furniture.
I have devoted a page to this fungal invader for more detailed information.

Each breath of air you breath carries in possibly millions of these particles. In reasonable concentrations, they may make you uncomfortable. In larger amounts or continual breathing of them, you may actually get sick periodically and wonder at the cause.
There are four methods that reduce the number of problem pollutants in your home.
SOURCE CONTROL--For example, if you won't permit smoking in your home you have source control.
DILUTION--Natural infiltration or the forced introduction of outside air into a home cause dilution.
FILTRATION--Using a filter or air cleaner to control the air quality.
ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT--Using ultraviolet lite to treat the air contaminants.
OPTIMUM CONTROL of indoor air quality involves a combination of all four methods. None of these methods can solve all of the potential problems alone. (Honeywell Perfect Climate data)
Of course, there are better filters than the standard disposable fiberglass one that I mentioned before as the
$ .59 variety. That is the same quality that is supplied from the factory initially, by the way. Naturally, they are not going to supply some very expensive filter with the purchase. The original filter was intended to simply protect the blower and motor and cooling coil from a major collection of the really big particles until it gets out of warranty. That is what that type of filter does---collect the really big particles. Many of the systems in use never see anything but this type filter. AND THEY ONLY FILTER OUT 3 TO 7 PERCENT OF THE FOREIGN MATTER--LEAVING 93 TO 97 PERCENT TO POLLUTE YOUR SYSTEM AND YOUR BREATHING AIR AGAIN.
If this sounds unbelievable, try this experiment. Tape a piece of cheesecloth over a ceiling (outlet vent) register. Place the fan in the constant run position for 48 hours. See the collection of stuff on it build up that slipped through your system and through your filter. Remember, this is only one of your grills. This collection is just a tenth or less of all the air that the system was circulating and a lot more smaller particles slipped through the cheesecloth. Remember, you can SEE only one percent of what is really going through it.

If you have comments, suggestions or you solved a problem with the aid of this free site, please email me at jamesnix@longviewweb.com

* photo by ACDelco