Winter is prime flu and cold season. There are ways you can help defend yourself from picking up a seasonal illness. But you may not have thought of making changes to your home’s HVAC system as one of them. Having professionals install UV germicidal lights—also known as UV air purifiers—inside your home’s ductwork is an effective method to put a stop to bacteria and viruses in your house. (You don’t need to take our word for it: hospitals use UV germicidal lights to keep germs from spreading through their ventilation systems.) UV air purifiers are also effective against another major health concern, mold spores.
How UV Germicidal Lights Work
The power of ultraviolet light is the secret behind a UV air purifier. Ultraviolet light is harmful to organic tissue; this is why people put on sunscreen and wear UV-shielded sunglasses. UV radiation disrupts certain cellular functions, which either kills cells or renders them inert and unable to reproduce.
This might sound a bit frightening—you don’t want something like that in your home, even if it’s hidden inside the ventilation system. But the amount of ultraviolet radiation that UV germicidal lights emit is small and not powerful enough to cause harm to people or pets. But these lights are fatal to microbes, mold spores, and other small organic pollutants.
Professionals install UV lights inside the HVAC system near to the coils of the air conditioner (or heat pump, if the house uses one). The lights are able to target all the air that moves through the ductwork this way, cleansing it of bacteria, viruses, spores, etc. It also helps keep mold off the evaporator coil, which is helpful during the summer. The lights will work without you even knowing they are there, and they can last for many years with minimal maintenance.
If you are curious about having UV germicidal lights installed in your house, call our indoor air quality specialists today!
Purl’s Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning serves Clovis, CA and all of the Central Valley. Quality is the cornerstone of our success since 1952.