According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), UV lights have been used to inactivate dangerous biological pathogens for many years. In fact, their first major application was eliminating Mycobacterium tuberculosis in hospitals, hospice centers, and research facilities. Throughout the decades, UV light sanitization has evolved significantly. Now, you can install UV lights in your San Antonio, TX home. Read on to discover seven important benefits of having this air-cleaning technology in your HVAC air ducts.
1. Limit the Spread of Communicable Illnesses
The EPA describes in-duct UV lighting as operating on a “fly-through” basis. When moving air passes through or under these appliances, airborne pathogens are deactivated or eliminated. This way, the germs, viruses, and fungi that exist or are released in one area aren’t circulated from room to room. More importantly, having one person in your household fall ill doesn’t automatically mean that everyone else must follow suit.
While HVAC UV sanitizing lights don’t prevent the transmission of illness in all cases, they can certainly limit or slow it. Like in-duct air scrubbers, UV lights can inactivate the pathogens found in the micro-fine, bio-aerosols of a sneeze. For illness prevention, UV lights are even more effective when they’re paired with other sanitizing measures such as surface cleaning. They also create and maintain a cleaner, fresher, indoor environment which may promote faster or easier recovery.
2. Promote Efficient Heat Transfer
The foremost purpose of HVAC air filters is sieving out larger particulates that might impact heater and air conditioner performance. If you have high concentrations of dirt, dust, hair, pet fur, or carpet fibers floating around, these things will eventually find their way into your HVAC system.
Homes with poor air quality and lots of airborne contaminants often have heavy build-ups of debris throughout their heaters and air conditioners, including coatings on AC or heat pump evaporator coils. Furnaces suffer from problems like blocked intake valves and dirty flame sensors. These accumulations obstruct airflow and slow or inhibit heat transfer.
While your air filter will remove most of the offending particulates, in-duct UV lights will deactivate or eliminate nearly everything else. Sanitizing UV lights are among several integrated HVAC accessories that protect and improve indoor air quality (IAQ), and anything that boosts your IAQ supports efficient HVAC operation.
3. Extend the Lifespan of Your HVAC Equipment
Having a more efficient HVAC system will lower your home’s energy bills. Cleaner indoor air can also lead to longer furnace, heat pump, and AC lifespans. With optimum airflow, your heating and cooling equipment will experience less stress and sustain less wear overall. You’ll likely have fewer mid-season problems and lower repair bills.
4. Eliminate Unpleasant Indoor Odors
When foul-smelling chemical compounds come in contact with the photocatalytic surfaces in UV lights, they dissipate. Installing UV lights in your HVAC system is an excellent way to get rid of stale cooking odors, overwhelming, artificial fragrances, and mild smoke odors. Given that these lights additionally eliminate odor-causing bacteria and fungi, they’ll also get rid of musty, moldering smells and keep them from recurring.
For many households, there’s an important indirect benefit of UV light odor control. This is a lesser reliance on plug-in air freshers, room freshening sprays, and scented candles. All of these things add harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to the indoor air that may cause unpleasant symptoms like:
- Nausea
- Headaches
- Loss of coordination
- Eye and throat irritation
With UV lights, consumers can enjoy consistently fresh-smelling air without adding toxins to their living spaces to achieve it.
5. Effective Allergy Prevention
UV lights don’t eliminate pollen and dander, but they are great for minimizing allergy symptoms in homes with mold and mildew problems. Installing UV lights is often a key part of achieving success with other mold mitigation strategies when in-duct mold or mold spore circulations create recurring issues. If you’re battling mold in your home, consult with an HVAC contractor or mold mitigation company about proactively improving your IAQ with UV lighting. Unlike many other techniques, using UV lights as integrated HVAC accessories provides consistent, ongoing benefits.
Even if you don’t have problems with indoor mold infestation, mold that flourishes just outside your home could impact your IAQ. Outdoor mold is a year-round concern for San Antonio allergy sufferers. Having UV lights installed as an ongoing mitigation strategy could turn your home into the “clean-air sanctuary” you need.
6. Prevent Clogging in Your HVAC Condensate Drain
When your air conditioner or heat pump experiences prolonged periods of dormancy, it may develop blockages along its condensate drain line due to fast-growing algae or bacteria. During annual AC and heat pump maintenance, we clean drain lines, drain pans, and drains to eliminate these blockages. Having UV lights installed will minimize the impact that these fast-growing organisms have.
For San Antonio homeowners who use their heat pumps year-round, UV lights will also minimize mid-season obstructions. With a high-functioning condensate drain, you’ll have fewer humidity problems, a lesser likelihood of mold, and no dank, moldering smells.
7. Minimize Concentrations of Volatile Organic Compounds
UV lights minimize the introduction of VOCs by eliminating odors and the need for room freshening sprays and plug-in wall fresheners. However, UV lights also reduce the concentrations of existing VOCs by breaking them down. Even when you aren’t lighting scented candles, cooking foods, or actively creating VOCs in other ways, your home is busy off-gassing them. Unsealed particle board, new interior paint, flooring, and flooring adhesives release these toxins for many years. As your indoor air cycles through your HVAC system, your UV lights will reliably deactivate them.
Are UV Lights Right for Your Home?
UV lights are excellent tools for improving indoor air quality when the transmission of communicable illnesses is a major concern. These integrated HVAC accessories are also an excellent choice for homes with frequent mold, mildew, and other fungi problems. However, they aren’t guaranteed to be the right IAQ improvement for every household. For instance, if your mold and mildew problems are the result of fixable humidity concerns, you may simply need leak detection and repair services or whole-house dehumidification.
If your primary concern is indoor allergens like dander and mold, you might want better air filtration instead. Integrated IAQ accessories like whole-house air purifiers, media filters, or air scrubbers could be the better choice. You may even want to consider your options in upgraded HVAC air filters with higher maximum efficiency reporting value (MERV) ratings.
Why You Should Schedule an Indoor Air Quality Assessment
Scheduling an indoor air quality assessment is the best way to determine whether UV lights are the right IAQ improvement for your home. IAQ assessments list indoor humidity levels, identify all contaminants present, and report the concentrations of all VOCs, pathogens, particulate debris, and other IAQ concerns.
We help homeowners in San Antonio, TX create and maintain clean, healthy homes. We offer top-notch air conditioning, heating, and indoor air quality services. Our clients can also turn to us for VRF systems, sheet metal, and HVAC air duct repairs. To schedule an appointment, contact Beyer Air Conditioning & Heating now.
