How Your Air Conditioner Makes Allergy Symptoms Worse

If you suffer from allergies, you know being outside amongst the dust, pollen, mold, etc., can make your symptoms much worse. When you come home, you think your air conditioned home should be allergen free, right? Not so much. Simply using your air conditioner to move air around your home may be aggravating your allergies as well. Here’s why:

Regular Air FIlters Are Created for the HVAC, Not Allergens
Most homeowners know that the air conditioning system has a filter in it that you should change on a regular basis – every 1-3 months to be exact (it varies depending on the type of system and filter). You might think a filter would filter out allergens in the air, but you’d have another think coming. Actually, a clean air filter helps your cooling system operate by keeping large particles out of the air, but it does not filter out all the allergens and contaminants that can cause you to have allergy flare-ups. Every time your air conditioner kicks on, it blows any allergens in your home through the air.  

A Vicious Air Cycle 
Allergens make it into your home when you leave the windows open on a nice day, or when they follow you in on your shoes or clothes. Because our homes are sealed up so tightly these days for energy efficiency, not much air escapes once it gets in. So what happens to those allergens? They simply keep recirculating every time the air conditioner or furnace kicks on. You keep breathing the same old stale, allergen-laden air.

Improve Your Indoor Air Quality
If you want to improve the air quality in your home, we have some products that will help. Allergy sufferers will benefit greatly from adding:

UV Germicidal Lamps
UV germicidal lamps can kill these biological contaminants. Mold, mildew, bacteria, and viruses can settle on surfaces inside your HVAC system and circulate through your home’s air. UV germicidal lamps emit rays of ultraviolet light that penetrate the cell walls of these contaminants and kill them. They work continuously even when your heating or cooling system isn’t on. 

Air Cleaners
Our Air Scrubber Plus air cleaner uses positive and negative charges (ions). The charges cause particles to be attracted to one another and clump together. Once the particles are large enough, they are caught by your heating and cooling system filter. It works on all three classes of indoor air contaminants – particles, mold/mildew/bacteria, and odors/chemical vapors. 

Keep your family healthier with one of these indoor air quality upgrades. Just give us a call and we can help you decide which one is best for your home and family.

Getzschman has become one of Nebraska’s premier heating and air conditioning service companies providing repairs and installations of furnaces and air conditioners in the Omaha area. Call us if you need help with your furnace, air conditioner, or indoor air qualitysolutions.