Adding a pet to your household can be a very rewarding experience, both for your family and the pet itself. If one of your family members has pet allergies, however, dander from the pet may cause symptoms such as sneezing, runny nose, itchy eyes or other problems. In many cases, pet allergy symptoms can be significantly reduced by doing a few simple things around your home.

Maintain the HVAC System

Making sure that your HVAC system is clean and well-maintained can help reduce the amount of pet dander in the air dramatically. Have an HVAC professional perform routine maintenance on the system at least twice a year, including replacing the air filter and cleaning the blower fan, air handler and the evaporator coil thoroughly. Between visits, check the air filter yourself every month and replace it as necessary. Consider upgrading your air filter to one with a higher MERV rating to remove more particulates from the air, or consider installing a HEPA filter for the best protection.

Dust and Vacuum Often

Reduce the amount of pet dander and hair collecting in your home by dusting often with either electrostatic cloths or damp rags to catch all the small particles. Vacuum the entire home on a weekly basis at least using a machine with a HEPA filter, and eliminate clutter to reduce the amount of surfaces that collect dust and dander. Avoid installing carpeting, if possible, and take throw rugs outdoors once a month to clean them thoroughly.

Keep Bedding and Furniture Clean

If possible, try to keep pets out of the bedrooms of family members with pet allergies, and use hypoallergenic mattress covers, sheets and pillowcases in each room. Wash all bedding at least once a week. Vacuum upholstered furniture weekly, and consider installing furniture covers or throws that can easily be removed and washed to reduce pet dander accumulation.

For more ideas to help alleviate pet allergies in your home, talk to our HVAC experts at Conditioned Air today. Since 1962, we have been providing quality HVAC services to the Southwest Florida region, including Ft. Myers and Sarasota.

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When choosing an air filter for your home heating or cooling system, you must be aware of the air cleaning and filtering capacity of the filter you choose. Filters have efficiency ratings that can help you determine which filter is best for your particular needs. These ratings, called MERV numbers, can tell you whether or not the filter will be able to remove particulates such as dust and pollen to clean your air to a suitable level. Here is a brief introduction to MERV ratings and what they mean.

The Meaning of MERV

MERV stands for Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value, which is a standard measure of air filter efficiency and performance. A filter’s MERV rating indicates how effective it is at capturing small airborne particulates as air circulates through your HVAC system. MERV ratings indicate a filter’s capacity to remove particulates between 0.3 and 10 microns in size.

Uses of MERV Filters

MERV ratings for filters used in most residential settings range from 1 to 16. There are filters available with MERV ratings of 17 to 20, but these are usually extremely high-quality filters that require specialized mountings. Higher-MERV filters are also thicker and more dense than lower-MERV models. Before using a high-MERV filter, you must be certain that your HVAC system has the airflow capacity to support it.

MERV Specifics

Lower-MERV filters are often very inexpensive, but their ability to filter your indoor air is limited.

• MERV 1-4 filters are usually only good at collecting larger particles of 10 microns and above.
• MERV 2-8 filters are medium-quality, and can remove particles of 3 microns and larger.
• MERV 9-12 filters are considered high quality and can easily capture particulates of 1 micron and larger.
• MERV 13-16 filters are the highest quality typically used in residential systems and work best at filtering out smaller particulates.

Conditioned Air provides professional, courteous HVAC sales, installation, and repair services for customers in Sarasota, Bradenton, Ft. Myers, and other communities in southwest Florida. Contact us today for more information on MERV ratings and choosing the proper filter for your home heating or cooling system.

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Ultraviolet light has been used in hospitals for years to kill pathogens like bacteria and viruses as part of the sterilization process. By using a similar technique, a UV light air purifier can help to keep the air in your home healthier, which is especially useful in humid areas like Southwest Florida. There are three different types of UV light air purifiers, but they all function in a similar fashion.

UV Light Air Purifier Types

The most common UV-based air purifiers are:

• Air handler-mounted purifiers: One or more UV lights is mounted inside the air handler cabinet, illuminating the filter, the evaporator coil and the interior surface of the air handler.
• Duct-mounted purifiers: A special system including UV lights is mounted in the duct system, typically on the return side.
• Standalone systems: These are self-contained air purifiers that can be used in any room, up to the rated capacity of the system.

How They Work

The UV light inside the air purifier shines on any microorganisms located on nearby surfaces or in the air stream, within a certain distance from the UV source. Any viruses, bacteria or other microorganisms that are exposed to the light for more than about half a second will have their RNA or DNA degraded by the UV light, killing them.

Certain types of UV-based air purifiers work better than others, because they allow the microorganisms to be exposed to the UV light for a longer period. Generally, air handler-based systems or well-designed standalone systems produce better air quality than a duct-mounted system, which sometimes has air moving too quickly to treat effectively. A properly-designed system, however, can overcome this.

UV light can also break down odors and volatile organic compounds, leaving the air fresh. Moreover, it can reduce A/C maintenance by keeping the evaporator coil cleaner and preventing algae growth that clogs the condensate drain.

To learn more about the benefits of a UV light air purifier, talk to our team at Conditioned Air. We serve Southwest Florida, including the communities between Bradenton and Marco Island.

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In Southwest Florida, the high humidity can make a warm day feel brutally hot, and lead to moisture-related problems inside your home. By installing a whole-house dehumidification system, you can keep the humidity under control and help your air conditioner do its job more effectively. A whole-house dehumidification system offers several distinct benefits.

Improved Comfort

When the humidity is high, the air seems to stick to the skin, and the moisture in the air prevents sweat from evaporating quickly. This stops your body’s natural cooling process from working effectively, and it is why a humid day feels so much worse than any other day at the same temperature. With a whole-home dehumidification system installed, you can keep your humidity levels much lower, which will allow you to feel more comfortable at the same temperature.

Healthier Air

Dry air is healthy air. A relative humidity of between 30 to 50 percent helps to slow the reproduction and transmission of microorganisms such as viruses or bacteria. It also helps to deter pests such as dust mites, which prefer high humidity. With whole-house dehumidification, you can keep your air at a reasonable humidity level and help to protect your family’s health. For family members with asthma or allergies, dry air can also reduce the severity of some symptoms such as congestion.

Energy Savings

With a whole-house dehumidifier installed, the reduced humidity levels can allow you to keep your thermostat at a higher setting while still feeling comfortable. Not only does this reduce your energy usage and help the environment, but it also allows you to save money on your electricity bill every month. And because much of the dehumidification is performed by the dehumidifier instead of your air conditioner, the air conditioner no longer needs to work as hard. This will help to extend its lifespan and allow it to operate more efficiently.

To learn more about the benefits of using a whole-house dehumidification system, talk to our cooling experts at Conditioned Air today. We serve Southwest Florida, including the Naples, Fort Meyers and Sarasota areas.

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The quality of your Southwest Florida home’s indoor air is just as important as the air quality outdoors. Considering how 90 percent of an average person’s time is spent indoors, it pays to have an effective way of keeping your home’s indoor air healthy. Fortunately, a whole-house air filtration system offers the perfect solution to your indoor air quality concerns.

Whole-house air filtration systems are designed to tackle airborne pollutants that come from inside and outside of your home through a wide variety of methods. For example, many air filtration systems use HEPA filters and ultraviolet (UV) lamps to capture and neutralize an array of pollutants, including microorganisms and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from common household sprays.

To understand how whole-house air filters can benefit your home, consider these three pieces of information:

1. As the name implies, a whole-house air filtration system takes care of the entire home. Most portable air filters can only handle one or two rooms, at most. This makes buying a whole-house system a more cost-effective investment than buying multiple portable units.
2. Whole-house air filters can also extend the life of your heating and cooling system by reducing the prevalence of dust and other airborne particles throughout the system. A cleaner HVAC system offers better performance and greater longevity.
3. Whole-house air filters have the added benefit of being able to purify your home’s air without being seen or heard. By integrating filtration systems neatly into the existing HVAC, they’re able to operate with little to no noise.

With a whole-house air filtration system, you’ll be able to enjoy cleaner, healthier indoor air, with the peace of mind that comes in knowing that your whole-house air filters are more effective at capturing airborne pollutants than most ordinary air filters.

To learn more about how whole house air filters can benefit your home, or if you need air conditioning repair in Southwest Florida, contact the professionals at Conditioned Air today.

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