Indoor Air Quality

With most Americans spending 90 percent of their time indoors and almost 1,500 operating hours a year on our heating systems, how can Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) not be considered as important?

Our heating systems process every cubic foot of the air in our homes 4-6 times per hour. Filtration and humidification are very important aspects of the HVAC system that all too often are forgotten.

Some of the commonly heard complaints about heating and cooling systems are not that hard to rectify. Many people believe that warm air heating systems have a tendency to “dry out” indoor air. This is, in fact, a fallacy; you see a gas or oil furnace actually has no means to remove moisture from the air it forces. Statements like “the air is too dry” or “it feels sticky in here”, can be off-shoots of mis-engineered or oversized systems. Another cause can be the lack of filtration and/or humidification systems.

While designing your new heating and cooling system, Archibald Heating and Air Conditioning can generally install add-on accessories to end your misery with particulates or just plain “dry” air. Please feel free to ask us about these items that can be added to your new or existing HVAC system. 

Some of today’s well-insulated homes can suffer from “sick building syndrome”. The building codes require that today’s houses be constructed much tighter than the houses of yesteryear. The problem that occurs is a lack of fresh air infiltrating into the house to replace “stale” air that used to be exchanged through leaks in the structure. The addition of an energy recovery ventilator will bring in fresh air and exhaust “stale” air outside while recovering 84 percent of heat commonly lost to the outside.