The quality of your indoor air is sometimes overlooked. Good indoor air quality can help mitigate a whole host of health issues such as colds or flues, allergies, respiratory problems and more. It can also help prevent damages to your property like cracked hard wood or mold caused by too much moisture. We have products that can reduce or eradicate, pet odors, tobacco odors, airborne particulates, odors from parking garages and more. At Imperial Energy, we offer a full line up of air quality products to make sure the air in your home is fresh, clean and conditioned to perfection.
Air Purification is the process by which we remove, destroy or render harmless bio-aerosols and volatile organic compounds in the air we breathe. Filters as noted, are used mostly to remove inert particulate from the air stream. Unfortunately, this accounts for on average only 35% of our indoor air quality problem. Microscopic gases and bio-aerosols are the real danger, and can only be addressed by other means. Air purification is the single most important defense in reducing harmful contaminants within our homes and places of work, especially in the absence of any outside air exchange.
Both types of appliances exchange stale indoor air with fresh outdoor air. While doing so, they also exchange heat energy in the two parallel airstreams to minimize the amount of conditioned air that gets exhausted from the home. It should be noted that due to the tight construction of modern homes, additional ventilation from one of these units have become a standard requirement. HRVs and ERVs have slight differences. So what are they?
During the heating season, the HRV captures heat from the stale air leaving your house and uses it to preheat the fresh air coming into your house. Not only does an HRV bring in fresh air, but it will also help get rid of many of the pollutants in your home such as excess moisture and molds, household chemicals and bacteria. In some cases be they can even be incorporated with HEPA filters.
Energy recovery ventilators (ERVs) are a type of HRV that can exchange both heat and moisture. An ERV can give you more control over moisture levels in your home during warm and humid weather by keeping excess moisture out of your home. Because less energy is required to lower the temperature of dry air compared to moist air, an ERV can reduce the work your air conditioner needs to do and save you money. When our winter climate is extremely dry, ERVs recover some of the moisture that would leave your house through a regular HRV. This helps you maintain a comfortable humidity level within your home, avoiding static electricity, sore throats and other discomforts caused by dry air. These are ideal for systems with low heat sources like hydronic fan coils & heat pumps. This is because these units dry out the air less and the ERV will help control humidity levels when introducing outside fresh air.
To understand why monitoring humidity is important, you need to understand what humidity is. Humidity is the amount of water vapor present in the air referred to as absolute humidity. Water vapor is the gaseous state of water and is invisible to the human eye. Relative humidity is how saturated a space or a gas is with water vapor. It is the most commonly used measure of humidity and is generally expressed as a percentage with the symbol “%rh.”
Lets look at how to control humidity in your home or business.
These units are ideal for smaller to medium size homes with high heat heating appliances like a gas furnace. Bypass flow-through humidifiers connect to a bypass in the return air flow to create pressure that drives the air through the humidifying pad. Which then distributes moist air into your home on your furnaces supply side.
These humidifiers are preferred for large homes and for low heat sources such as hydronic fan coils and heat pumps. A steam humidifier senses the humidity in the home using a humidistat. Water in a reservoir is converted to steam. The humidifier works in tandem with your central air system. The blower will turn when the humidistat requests additional moisture to be introduced. Steam humidifiers do not require heat from any additional source to evaporate the water into the air. They can produce enough moisture for very large homes. The humidistat will maintain very accurate moisture levels for the entire home.
During our cold winters, relative humidity levels tend to remain low meaning the air is drier. Ideally the inside humidity levels should be maintained between 35-50%. Humidity levels higher than 50% can cause moisture to accumulate on your windows. When indoor air is too dry asthma and allergy symptoms can worsen, cold and flu viruses may spread more rapidly, and you may be more prone to sinus infections. You may suffer from dry skin, chapped lips and dry air passageways. Dry air is also damaging to your home. Wood and other building materials as well as furniture are robbed of moisture when the air is dry. Cracks and damage can occur to flooring, trim, and even framing around windows and doors. Moist air also retains heat better helping your heating system function more efficiently and increase overall home comfort.
Dehumidification is a very important part of our home comfort. When humidity levels are too high we find the air thick or sticky and generally uncomfortable. This is where air conditioning comes into play. Most homes in Toronto and the GTA enjoy the luxury of some kind of air conditioning. One of the biggest functions an air conditioner will do is remove excess moisture from the air. Simply removing the moisture before cooling the air will automatically create a more comfortable environment.
Most of the time the air conditioner is enough to maintain comfortable relative humidity levels. However in some cases where additional control over humidity levels is required, central dehumidification systems can be installed that will accurately remove the moisture levels from the air to maintain the desired comfort level. Some benefits of additional dehumidification are reduced growth of mold, mildew and allergens. It helps combat the dreaded “dirty sock syndrome” that is caused by a cooling systems inability to control the moisture levels on it’s cooling coil, ultimately producing a musty smell.
During your systems cooling operations, if less moisture enters the cooling coil the coil can work with increased efficiency. The result is less energy usage. When excess humidity is removed from the indoor air, you’ll feel cooler at a higher temperature. That means you can set your air conditioner temperature a few degrees higher.
Duct mount model | SF-2124C Aggressively battles odors and provides Germicidal purification throughout your home. Better performance than “maintenance-free” (aka throw-away) pin-ionizers and it only Requires maintenance every two years. The zephyr’s unique design combines photo-catalytic Oxidation with singlet oxygen in a 24 volt application. This is an effective product against airborne viruses.
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