Air cleaners/uv etc

[Danny]

What are those air cleaners you can hook to your central heat/ac and are they worth installing what do they do?

[Joseph Meehan]

There are three basic types I can think of.

Media: metal mesh, fiberglass or paper. The come in many flavors, from just enough to stop the really big stuff to very effective.

Electronic: Uses charged grids to capture mid to small dust and stuff. Very good in some situations. Electrostatic. I variation of the above that does not use a power supply. Less effective, but also can be useful.

UV - not really a filter it uses UV light to kill many kinds of microbes in the air. Good if you have that kind of problem, but it looses efficiency in time and many people don't service it often enough.

It might be better to describe your situation and what your concerns are and why you think you need some sort of air cleaner, so we might be able to better guide you.

[Ed Clarke]

They're home implementations of a "Cottrell Precipitator". They act by putting up a high voltage field that attracts dust to a charge plate. In industrial use, they collect between 90% and 98% of particles in smokestacks.

Home versions work the same way; you take out the collecting unit and wash it in a big plastic tub to remove the collected dust and dirt. This only works in forced air heating systems. I had one in my old home, my new house uses hot water heat.

[steve]

Yes., and Yes.

BUT, if you install one, you need to insure that the ductwork can handle the added resistance of one of the AirBear or like media scrubbers.

Now...UV-C band lights are not filters. They filter nothing. They are, when talking about the better brands, air disinfectants. The properly sized unit will have a 80%+ first pass kill rate, and yes...they are worth every penny IMO...and I have two installed in my system...(cant sell what you dont believe in, and I believe in them fully.

[steve]

Close... Kills mold, bacteria, and mildew spores and such.. Virus', it scrambles the DNA and therefore it cant reproduce...

[HeatMan]

Not quite, but close. The UV light mutate the mold and stuff so it can't reproduce.

[m Ransley]

Gee my 60s-70s black light room must of mutatated and scrambled my genes, no wonder the kids look like aliens.