Cold winter weather forces people to spend most of the day indoors, making an air scrubber an important addition to every home.
Unlike during the summer, opening windows and doors allows cool breezes to blow toxic air out and let fresh air into the home.
However, during harsh winter months, windows and doors usually remain closed. Consequently, it isn’t easy to maintain healthy indoor air quality with reduced ventilation and supplemental heating sources like a fireplace or wood stove.
According to data published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), indoor air quality is typically two to five times more polluted than outdoor air. Indoor air can sometimes be as much as 100 times more polluted!
Furthermore, the EPA ranks poor indoor air quality as one of the leading health dangers affecting the quality of life. Thankfully, an air scrubber can help make dry winter air healthier when opening a window is not a practical option.
What Is an Air Scrubber?
Air scrubbers for home use are devices that attach directly to your HVAC ductwork to improve indoor air quality using moisture or by filtering the air as it enters the scrubber. They remove harmful particles from the air you breathe, including dust, pollen, pet dander, toxic fumes, mold spores, and odors.
Air scrubbers clean the air drawn from inside your home by killing harmful pathogens instead of just trapping them like air filters. Air scrubbers also release negatively ionized oxidizers throughout your home that attract positive ions like odors, smoke, and more, effectively “scrubbing” unhealthy pollutants from your indoor air.
Air scrubbers are used in residential homes, businesses, warehouses, and other public spaces to help alleviate breathing difficulties caused by indoor air pollution from various sources.
Dangers of Poor Indoor Air Quality
During the winter, cold temperatures and low humidity levels can lead to dry air and static electricity; the cold weather in winter often causes dry, chapped skin from the outside air to find its way into your home.
Since a well-insulated house is not completely sealed, the air can dry when the outside temperature drops below freezing. When cold, dry air seeps into your home, indoor air can become very dry. Dry air dries out your nose and throat, which increases your chances of getting sick.
Many homeowners use additional heat sources, such as wood stoves and fireplaces, to keep warm in the winter. But burning wood creates indoor air pollutants that can cause health problems. Wood stoves produce carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless gas that interferes with the body’s ability to process oxygen. Excessive levels of carbon monoxide that are present in your home can cause headaches, dizziness, difficulty thinking, and ultimately death.
In the winter, pollutants from tobacco, bad smells, dust mites, and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are often trapped indoors as windows and doors are closed, reducing the air circulation. One of the easiest ways for improving indoor air quality is to open windows. But keeping windows open in winter is difficult.
Another way to reduce indoor pollutants is to clean more frequently. Many contaminants can be removed by wiping surfaces, mopping floors, and vacuuming. Your furnace is also running during the winter months, and it can release dangerous carbon monoxide into your home. That’s why you must change your furnace filters regularly to reduce the problem.
Your cooking stove, water heater, and chimney produce carbon monoxide, and wood stoves and fireplaces also contain other burning particles, including gaseous and particulate pollutants.
These are all harmful substances; therefore, proper ventilation is vital even during the winter months. Also, you should have your wood stove or fireplace inspected by a professional every season and install a carbon monoxide detector as protection to alert the household if unsafe levels of carbon monoxide build up in your home. Such conditions threaten your health and the health of your family.
Advantages of Using an Air Scrubber
Your ability to reduce indoor air pollutants is limited without attacking the problem at its source: the air circulated throughout your home by your HVAC system, by installing an indoor air scrubber like the AlorAir PureAiro HEPA Pro 770. Its compact design comes with an automatic filter change indicator, and a maintenance-free bearing motor and weighs only 37.4 lbs. for easy mobility.
How do air scrubbers work? Air scrubbers help reduce pollutants in the home and remove allergens that can trigger asthma and allergy attacks that interfere with your quality of life.
While air scrubbers are not a cure-all for poor indoor air quality, they can make a significant difference when used in conjunction with the methods discussed above to improve the air quality in your home, making it noticeably more comfortable to breathe during the winter months. Here are some of the reasons why:
- They work by trapping pollutants and allergens in the air and removing them from your home or workplace.
- Cleaner air helps to reduce symptoms of asthma, allergies, and other respiratory problems.
- Air scrubbers help keep your home or workplace heating system running more efficiently, thus extending its life and saving you money.
It’s not necessary to risk the health and safety of your family by tolerating poor indoor air quality. Air scrubbers benefit everyone in your home. They are so effective that they are used in residences, medical facilities, child daycare centers, businesses, and countless other places indoors.
A quality in-home air scrubber removes harmful particles from the air you breathe and protects you and your family from many health risks posed by airborne respiratory irritants, including allergens, irritated skin, breathing complications, and immune-system-related diseases.
Alorair Has What You Need
Many homeowners wonder, are air scrubbers worth it? Yes, if your goal is to achieve better indoor air quality. However, it’s imperative that you work with a trustworthy company that’s properly trained in sizing, installing, and maintaining air scrubbing systems.
So, when considering the purchase of an air scrubber, be sure to research Alorair’s many quality air scrubbing products that can help you achieve healthier, more comfortable indoor air quality. Our advisors can evaluate your needs and make an expert recommendation for an air scrubber that perfectly meets your needs and budget.
For more information about how Alorair can help you and your family live a more comfortable and healthy life or to schedule an installation, click the link today for fast, professional assistance.