Whole-house Air Cleaners for the HVAC System.

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toggleswitch1

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My two cents.

My home has two furnaces, two central airs and two electronic air cleaners. I like them overall. They tend to make snapping noises frequently particularly when pet hair is passing through them. When cooking, I set both systems to constant-fan. This turns the air-cleaners on and the cooking odors seem to dissipate rather quickly. Can't say I give the air-cleaners much of a workout though. My ORECK keeps the floors rather clean so there isn't too much debris to begin with. But between the ORECK and the two air cleaners, the house keeps quite fresh even after winter months with little outside air running through the house.
 
I'd considered one in my last house but I didn't like the idea of the furnace fan on continuously and the albeit remote possibilty of a fire caused by some arcing or such with those electrostatic plates. Now we have hydronic heating so it's mute but I do have a Kenmore electrostatic console but I only turn in on when I'm home and that's not often because this house never seems as dusty as when we had forced air heating.
 
Eletronic

I have/had the electronic filter in your first post and loved it. Had it for years and the house was never so clean, rarely had to dust. I died a couple of years ago and had no luck in repairing it, something in the powersupply. I suppose I could rig something up to check how much voltage it was putting out, but got distracted with other things. Repair or replace is one of those things I'll get around to at some point.

Anyway, the bottom line if even after a year or two without it the house still stays relatively clean, I think it got rid of much of the garbage that floats around in the heating system over the years. I swear by CAC and coupling that with an electronic air cleaner is a system that's hard to beat.
 
We use 3m Filtrete Ultra air filters. Seems to do a decent job of removing dust and junk. Maybe not as much as a real whole house unit but it works.

Our house does have a whole house humidifier with a humidistat mounted close to the thermostat.
 
My sister & bro-in-law inherited an electronic cleaner with the house they had for some years. She washed the electrode plate in the dishwasher. No complaints or difficulties with it that I ever heard.

I had a 4" media filter in the Lennox system at my previous house. Only needed changing very couple years. Seems like after that was added, what dust there was around the house turned to a much "finer" quality.
 
Nothing like high-class dust.

I have heard that the electroic air cleaners are so effecitve that dust becomes white instead of black.

The larger particles (above 3 microns IIRC) are collected so the smaller ones that get past the filter are white for some reason.

Calcium from the humdifier perhaps?
 
Had the GE whole house air cleaner in the other house. It died after awhile but did a pretty good job at cleaning the air. Tore that house down and have built another one. Put in American Standard furnaces and a/c units. Went with the massive pleated filter panel. It's about 6 inches wide. Collects about 98 percent of particles. What has made the biggest difference is the outside air exchanger hooked into the system. It takes outside air and exhausts inside air but keeps the air temperature within 3 or 4 degrees. Heat exchange system. Does not remove humidity either. Always smells fresh and clean no matter how many people are smoking or what you are cooking. All gone within minutes. I am really impressed with the unit.
Jon
 
I have one of those Honeywell Media filters...it's the non-electronic air cleaner. It's a 4" filter that fits in the ductwork, and is quite easy to change. I can't say that our air is any "cleaner", but with three dogs (shedders, all) I wasn't expecting miracles. The husbear groans that he dusts as much as he ever did. The 4 "shedders" in my life are below.

Mind you, 90% of our dust is Sheltie fur, and the rest is caused by the fact that we live on a tremendously busy road with a shallow front yard. The Honeywell system was an extra $400 when we had the HVAC replaced about 5 years ago. I have to replace the 4" media filter twice a year at about $30.00 a pop (at Lowe's). If the HVAC company does it, they charge $45.00.

3-12-2008-16-26-3--drhardee.jpg
 

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