Improve Your Home’s Indoor Air Quality with UV Lights

Improve Your Home's Indoor Air Quality with UV LightsThe long months of summer don’t do much for indoor air quality (IAQ), especially if your home doesn’t have much air infiltration. If you want fresher air without driving up your cooling costs, consider installing UV lights (ultraviolet) inside your HVAC system.

The UV spectrum of light has remarkable properties. It comes from sunshine and sanitizes whatever it strikes. When it hits bacteria, viruses and mold spores, it changes their DNA structures. Once exposed, they won’t be able to reproduce. Over a short period of time, the germ population inside your home will fall.

This type of light is one of the few that reduces the toxicity of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These gases come from common products used in homes, like household cleaners, scented air sprays, makeup, new paint, flooring and furniture, along exhaust from vehicles.

People have varying levels of sensitivity to VOCs, and exposure can be toxic. The best way to control them is by avoiding products that have them, or ventilate the area thoroughly. Since it’s not practical to open windows in the summer, UV lighting provides a solution to mitigating polluting gases indoors.

Where They Go

Forced-air HVAC systems are perfect places for UV lighting systems. When placed in the ductwork, the lights will reduce the bacterial and viral populations in the air flowing by, and the mold spores that land on surfaces won’t be able to reproduce.

Although Yuma summers are considered dry, sometimes the best place for the UV lights is inside the air handler pointed at the evaporator coil. Every time your cooling system runs, the water vapor in the air flows over this coil and it condenses.

Eventually, mold or other biological growths can grow on this coil since it has plenty of moisture. As they grow, they reduce the efficiency of the air conditioner, and can set the stage for serious system breakdowns. They also spew irritating particles into the air through the ducts.

UV lights will improve IAQ year-round, and especially in the summer. To learn more, contact Hansberger Refrigeration and Electric Company, providing HVAC services for Yuma homeowners.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Yuma, Arizona about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about indoor air quality and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Guide or call us at 928-723-3183.

Credit/Copyright Attribution: “TheLight/Pixabay”