Ah, spring. This beautiful season brings warmer weather, but it also brings allergens. It’s not so easy to enjoy the beginning of shorts and t-shirt weather if you’re sneezing all the time, is it? Fortunately, one potential way you can relieve allergies and breathe easier in your home is to invest in an air purification system.
You may be familiar with (or already own) portable air purifiers, which help filter the air in specific rooms or locations of your home, but you may not know that there’s actually a way you can filter the air in every room all at once—by installing a whole-home air purifier. These systems connect to your pre-existing HVAC and its network of ducts to give you air filtration throughout your whole house. But how do you know if a whole-home air purifier is right for you?
The Pros of a Whole-Home Air Purifier:
Cleaner Air
The main reason to get a whole-home air purifier is to improve your indoor air quality. According to the American Lung Association, the air inside our homes can actually be 2–5 times (even up to 100 times) more polluted than the air outside. In our day-to-day lives, particles like allergens, pollen, dust, dust mites, pet dander, mold spores, bacteria, and even volatile organic compounds (VOCs) tend to linger in the air. Whole-home air purifiers use powerful filters—like HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filters—to trap those particles and remove them from the air, so you’re no longer breathing them in while you go about your day.
By trapping and removing these particles in the air, these filtration systems can help alleviate allergy symptoms like congestion, sneezing, runny noses, and sore throats, reduce the severity and frequency of asthma attacks, help you sleep more comfortably, and even help you improve your focus by giving you more oxygen-rich air to breathe. The list of benefits go on!
Extends the Life of Your HVAC System
In addition to helping improve your health, whole-home air purifiers also help the lifespan of your HVAC system. When dust builds up in your home, it can also build up in your HVAC. Over time, this can cause your system to clog and run less efficiently, but by installing a whole-home air purifier, the dust in the air gets filtered out. This means that less dust gets the chance to build up in your HVAC system over time, helping it work more efficiently for longer.
Easier Maintenance than Portable Purifiers
Another great benefit of installing a whole-home air purifier is that they tend to be lower maintenance than portable air purifiers. In addition to using HEPA filters like whole-home air purifier systems, which should be replaced every 6–12 months, many portable air purifiers also use charcoal filters or inserts to help reduce odors in the air. These filters typically need to be replaced every 3 months and can cost anywhere from $10 to $100, depending on the type of air purifier. Whole-home air purifiers don’t rely on these additional charcoal filters, so you’ll save yourself a bit of time and money in the long-run by opting for a whole-home system instead.
Neither Seen Nor Heard
In addition, portable air purifiers can be noisy, depending on the brand and their setting. Typically, the more powerful setting they’re on, the louder they are, which can be inconvenient if you want that extra filtration support. These portable purifiers also take up extra floorspace in your home and might not be the most aesthetically pleasing to look at. Because whole-home air purifiers integrate with your current HVAC system, they don’t tend to create any extra noise and also won’t be visible in your home, helping them more seamlessly integrate into your everyday life.
The Cons of a Whole-Home Air Purifier:
Cost
The biggest downside to getting a whole-home purifier is the upfront cost. While you’ll save yourself some money in the long-term by not having to purchase additional filters like with portable air purifiers, these whole-home systems can cost anywhere from $750–$2,000 to buy and install, or potentially more if you opt for a fancier or more advanced system. The good news is that you can talk to our team of experts about what all options are available and what feels like the right fit for your home and budget.
Harder to Filter Specific Problem Spots
While whole-home air purifiers are great for keeping the air throughout your entire house clean, they tend to be less effective if you have a specific spot in your home where you need extra filtration support. For example, if you want to cozy up next to the fireplace, your whole-home air purifier will make sure that none of the smoke or gas particles from your fire will be circulated in the air in the rest of your home, but won’t be able to prevent you from breathing in some of those particles if you’re sitting right next to the fire. Having a portable air filter will give you that extra support, since it can be positioned right next to or in the middle of an area with poorer air quality.
There’s no need to suffer through dander, dust, and pollen this spring. Give us a call to ask us any additional questions you have about whole-home air purifiers or to learn more about the process of installing a whole-home air purifier in your home today!