How Activated Carbon Filtration Improves Your Indoor Air Quality?

How Activated Carbon Filtration Improves Your Indoor Air Quality?

One of best ways to maintain excellent indoor air quality in your Pasadena-area home is regularly inspecting your HVAC system’s air filters and changing them when needed (generally every two to three months). Much attention has been paid to the MERV ratings for particulate filters used in heating and cooling systems and this is important information to know. But what about harmful substances that these particulate-removing filters don’t address, such as vapors, gases and odors? To remove these from your living space you should look into activated carbon filtration.

Activated carbon is a unique substance. Called the “universal adsorbent,” activated carbon filtration is routinely used in:

• Passenger vehicles (to treat the inside air)
• Submarines
• Space vehicles
• Gas masks
• Home air purifiers

Activated carbon is also what emergency health providers give patients who have swallowed poison. This is because activated carbon has the ability to adsorb all types of chemicals. For this same reason, it’s an ideal medium for adding to conventional furnace and air conditioning filters. Although highly rated particulate filters can be very effective at removing airborne solids — down to as small as 0.3 microns in the case of HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) filters — they have no effect on airborne gases or vapors. They also do little to remove unwanted odors.

Air pollution, which often is higher inside homes than it is outdoors, consists of a combination of airborne particulate and gases or vapors. If you have a garage attached to your home, many harmful chemicals are likely to infiltrate your living space. Some of these, such as carbon monoxide and benzene, pose serious health risks. Two easily applied solutions include the addition of an exhaust fan and installation of an HVAC filter with an appropriate MERV-rating and a layer of activated carbon.

With more than three decades of outstanding service to the entire Greater L.A. area, including Orange and San Bernardino countries, Air-Tro Inc. can assist you in all of your indoor air comfort and quality needs, including the installation of activated carbon filtration. Contact us for information or expert advice.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the greater Monrovia, California area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).

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