It might seem counterintuitive, but indoor air pollution can actually be several times worse than what you find outside your home. A big part of that is the fact that indoor air doesn’t get circulated as much, so airborne pollutants that happen in your home wind up staying there for a long time. You can improve your indoor air quality by using a good air filter, but you could also try an air purifier. As it turns out, there are benefits to using both at the same time.
Benefits of Air Filters
The primary benefit of an air filter is capturing dust and dander. These particulates can result from many different sources, but all of them can make it harder to breathe in your home. The right filter can capture debris from the air as it moves through the filter.
Being able to breathe easier is one benefit of removing dust and dander, but it’ll also be easier to clean your home and then keep it clean. Cleaning should remove a lot of dust, but it can also kick up dust and put it back into circulation. Your air filter can remove the dust that your own cleaning doesn’t catch.
Air filtration also makes life easier for your heating and cooling systems in your home. Dust and dander can accumulate in HVAC systems and ductwork. That makes it harder for your HVAC to work. When efficiency goes down, your utility bills start going up. Your system will also need repairs and replacement faster than it would otherwise.
Benefits of Air Purifiers
Air purifiers are useful in removing toxins from the air. These include carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide from outside your home, but they can also be phthalates, chlorine, and ammonia from cleaning products you use inside your home. Limited exposure to these might not hurt you, but regular exposure over time can lead to serious health issues.
You can also make your home smell better with air purification technology. Certain chemicals break down when they’re at room temperature, resulting in unpleasant odors. Volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, can be things such as formaldehyde, benzene, or gasoline, found in anything from sprays to paint.
Reduce your odds of airborne diseases with air purification. The right technology can capture a lot of viruses and bacteria that prevent or at least minimize the occurrence of illness among the members of your household. Everyone is likely to sleep better at night, too, since fungi and bacteria will be reduced in the air of your home.
If your home is at risk of radon, an air purifier can remove a lot of it from the ait inside. Radon happens as naturally occurring radioactive elements start breaking down. This happens in a lot of building materials made of rocks, granite, or soil. Radon is a gas that has no color or odor, but it can result in lung cancer. If your home was built long enough ago to potentially have asbestos, then the associated dust might spread into your home’s ambient air.
Why You Should Use Both Simultaneously
Not every air purifier provides that same level of indoor air quality, and different technologies prevent, capture, or eliminate different things. Using an air filter and an air purifier at the same time is a combination that gives your home the best odds of effective indoor air quality. Your home’s air will be purified and sterilized at the same time.
Similar, Yet Different
Air filters and air purifiers both improve the air in your home, and there is some overlap in what they do. However, they also do things differently. It’s the sum of their benefits together that gives your home the most benefit. Air filters do clean the air by catching a lot of things in it and removing them from circulation. However, air purifiers take things a step further by actually sanitizing the air, too.
Get the Best of Both Worlds
Either an air filter or an air purifier can improve the atmosphere of your home, but using both at the same time can be beneficial. If you live in Baltimore, MD, or Central PA, then contact us at HB Home Service Team for your heating, cooling, plumbing, and oil and propane needs. Count on us to make your home a comfortable and healthy place to breathe easily.
