If you live in a newly constructed home in Jefferson, it was in all likelihood made with energy efficiency in mind. This means more insulation and windows and doors with enhanced seals. While these advances are excellent for keeping your utility bills reasonable, they’re not so good for your indoor air quality.
Your home comfort system needs to run with a filter. But if you have a flat filter, you won’t be receiving enough filtration. This model only provides the lowest level of protection by blocking dust from infiltrating your heating and cooling system.
While you can get a pleated filter or one with a higher MERV rating, it still might not be adequate filtration, especially if someone in your residence has allergies or other respiratory troubles.
That’s where a whole-house air purifier comes in. These systems are attached within ductwork to provide powerful filtration across your house. Depending on the model you select, you’ll be able to filter allergens, odors and even some viruses under certain airflow conditions.
Here are our best options from Lennox, an industry leader in air purification.
Best Air Purifiers from Lennox
1. HEPA Air Purifiers
A HEPA air purifier, like the Healthy Climate® High-Efficiency Particulate Air Filtration System, delivers top-of-the-line filtration. These filters were first made to guard scientists as they created the atomic bomb. Today, they’re necessary in hospitals and other medical settings.
The Healthy Climate HEPA Filtration System has a three-step filtration method. A prefilter attracts bigger pollutants before the HEPA filter catches the rest of tiny pollutants. Then, a charcoal filter takes care of odors and chemical vapors.
The PureAir™ S Air Purification System is compatible with all HVAC brands and smoothly integrates with your smart home. It reduces the three leading kinds of indoor air contaminants:
- Airborne particles
- Chemical odors and vapors
- Germs and bacteria, under certain airflow conditions
This air purifier can get rid of 99.9%* of pollutants, including mold spores, pollen, dust and pet dander. It’s also capable of decreasing or eliminating 90%1 of flu and cold viruses under certain airflow conditions. And, based on laboratory and field studies, it removes and eradicates approximately 50% of household odors and chemical vapors within 24 hours.
The PureAir S is equipped with sensing features that make it uncomplicated to keep up. When paired with an iComfort® S30 smart thermostat, you’ll get a notification to replace the filter and UVA light.2 This home air purifier must be installed with communicating Lennox systems and the iComfort S30.
2. Media Air Cleaners
Lennox Healthy Climate® Media Air Cleaners are available in a variety of MERV ratings to match your needs. This rating calculates how effective filters are at capturing contaminants. The better the number, the finer the filtration.
The Healthy Climate Carbon Clean 16® Media Air Cleaner is great for homes with allergy suffers and pets. This is a HEPA filter air purifier, since it has a MERV 16 rating for hospital-strength filtration. And it eliminates more than 95%3 of aggravating particles from your house’s air.
The Healthy Climate 13 Media Air Cleaner is suggested for households who are seeking better protection from viruses and bacteria. This filter captures 99% of larger particles like dust, pollen and lint. And up to 54% of smaller particles down to 0.3 microns.4
The Healthy Climate 11 Media Air Cleaner is a an excellent air purifier for allergies and in homes with pets. It eliminates more than 87% of bigger particles down to 3 microns and more than 28% of finer ones down to 0.3 microns.4 It’s able to deliver this powerful filtration without increasing the bill for using your HVAC system.
These three media air cleaners work with any brand of HVAC system. Regardless, it’s essential to know that some of the more substantial ones, such as MERV 16 and 13, may decrease your system’s airflow. This can inflate your utility bills.
3. UV Air Purifiers
The sun’s UV rays are the fault of why you get a blistering sunburn. But this wavelength of light has a useful application when installed in your ductwork. It’s also strong enough to decrease germs, mold and fungi under certain airflow conditions.
In actuality, the Healthy Climate UV Germicidal Light can lower the concentration of airborne microorganisms by 50% in as quickly as 45 minutes.5 This light destroys cell structure, which stops these microorganisms from growing and infiltrating throughout your residence.
And this UV air purifier can also help keep your heating and cooling system clean and running efficiently. It takes care of germs, mold and fungi that are hidden within ductwork and your system itself. This UV light air purifier achieves all this work without making lung-irritating ozone.6
Breathe Easier with the Support of Our Air Purification Specialists
Your family’s comfort and health is important to us at Pratt Brothers. We realize there are lots of possibilities out there. That’s why we make it simple to partner with our indoor air quality pros. We specialize in creating solutions that match your needs and budget, and we’d love to hear more about your house and your air quality challenges. Reach us at 920-347-8495 right away to start the process.
1Based on laboratory and field studies.
2PureAir™ S requires the iComfort® S30 and a communicating indoor unit.
3Leading consumer magazine, January 2012. Based on the published CADR, which is the standardized measurement system to determine the cubic feet of clean air produced per minute. Particles captured range in size down to 0.3 micron. One micron = 1/25,000 of an inch in diameter.
4Based on lab tests conducted on filters with conditions included in ASHRAE standard 52.2 for E1 and E3 size ranges.
5Based on constant circulation of air in the home, 3,000-square-foot home with a 5-ton air handler.
6U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Ozone Generators that are Sold as Air Cleaners: An Assessment of Effective and Health Consequences,” August 2006.