Jeffrey C. May, MA
Mold and bacteria are probably spreading throughout your house right now. If you have central air-conditioning or a forced-air heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system, inadequate air filtration could be allowing mold and bacteria inside your home. Fewer than 10% of residential forced-air systems have filters capable of preventing mold and bacteria growth.
Mold and bacteria contamination can trigger or exacerbate respiratory problems, including allergies and asthma. Certain molds even produce toxins that are linked to cancer.
Paying big money for high-end air-filtration devices does not necessarily solve this problem. Many expensive filtration products do little to improve air quality. Here’s what works and what doesn’t work...
USE A BETTER FILTER
The cheapest, easiest way to improve your home’s air quality is to improve the quality of the disposable filter you use in your forced-air system.
Most home owners use fiberglass panel filters that have a Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value (MERV) of just 3 or 4. To avoid mold and bacteria growth, instead use a "pleated" filter rated MERV 8 or higher.
Buying advice: MERV 8 filters are available at home-improvement stores, such as The Home Depot and Lowe’s, and many hardware stores for between $5 and $10 apiece. Don’t worry about the filter’s brand -- focus instead on its MERV rating, which usually is clearly marked on the package. Using the correct size is equally important -- even the best filter will not improve air quality if air can get around it in your system’s filter compartment or if the compartment does not close properly with the filter inside. Measure your system’s filter compartment before buying.
Do not pay extra for expensive "electrostatic" filters for central air-conditioning. Manufacturers claim that these are washable and reusable, but in my experience, there is no way to clean them adequately.
Downside: Switching from a one-inch-deep MERV 3 to a one-inch-deep MERV 8 filter is likely to reduce your system’s airflow by up to 10%, increasing your cooling and heating bills. (Deeper filters -- two-inch, four-inch, six-inch -- do not reduce the airflow as much but are too deep to fit most units.) Replacing filters every three months will minimize the energy consumption increase -- dirty filters force heating and cooling systems to work even harder.
KEEP THE SYSTEM CLEAN
If you have used filters rated lower than MERV 8 in the past, it is likely that mold and bacteria already are growing on your air conditioner’s blower and coil unless you live in an arid region. Installing a filter with a higher MERV rating will not kill existing mold and bacteria, nor will it prevent their spores from spreading throughout your home -- the air conditioner’s blower and coil are located after the filter. The only reliable way to remove existing contamination is to hire a duct-cleaning service.
Contact the National Air Duct Cleaners Association (NADCA) to find a pro in your area (202-737-2926, www.nadca.com). The duct-cleaning sector is rife with scammers, but NADCA members usually are legitimate. Expect to spend around $1,000 to clean the ducts of an average-sized home of about 2,350 square feet. Any company that promises to clean ducts for significantly less is likely to either do a slipshod job or find excuses to pad your bill during the job. Ducts should be cleaned once every five years or so.
Before signing a contract, confirm that the duct cleaner will clean your air conditioner’s blower and coil -- some duct cleaners ignore these components and clean only the ducts.
BEST AND WORST UPGRADES
If someone in your household has severe allergies or asthma, you might be tempted to invest in an air-filtration or purification system. While some high-end products truly deliver cleaner air, others are a waste of money...
MERV 10 or higher pleated filters do a wonderful job of trapping particulates and preventing mold and bacteria growth -- but there’s a catch. Filters with MERV ratings above 8 or so tend to be too deep to fit in the filter compartments of standard residential HVAC systems. Installing a larger filter holder is likely to cost $700 to $1,000.
MERV 10 replacement filters typically cost $40 to $60 each and last around six months.
Verdict: This is probably the most cost-effective high-end filtration option, even if you have to retrofit your system to accommodate the filter.
Whole-house air cleaners that accommodate high-MERV filters include: Aprilaire Models 2210/2310/2410/2250, which ship with a MERV 10 but have the option to upgrade to a MERV 13 (800-334-6011, www.Aprilaire.com)... Honeywell F100 Whole-House Media Air Cleaner (877-271-8620, http://YourHome.Honeywell.com/home).
High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) whole-house filters have impressive MERV ratings of 16 and up. Unfortunately, residential whole-house HEPA filters are "bypass filters," which means that they subject only a small percentage of the air that passes through the HVAC system to extreme filtration on each circulation. Bypass systems do a fine job of removing particulates from the air, but they do little to prevent the growth of mold and bacteria within the HVAC system, which is the greater threat to residential air quality.
Verdict: Not worth the cost (around $2,000 to $3,000) except, perhaps, for those with severe allergies to particulates, such as pollen and pet dander.
Electronic filters attach an electrical charge to particles that pass through, then collect the charged particles on an oppositely charged metal plate. In theory, that should be effective. In practice, these systems must be cleaned at least once a month to remain effective. Few home owners do this, so their electronic filters soon become useless.
Verdict: Don’t bother. I’ve yet to see a residential electronic filter that’s still functioning properly after a year.
Ultraviolet-light air purifiers supposedly kill germs by irradiating the air that passes through the HVAC system. The technology works well in hospitals and other large industrial applications, but residential UV purifiers are so much less powerful that they are essentially worthless.
Verdict: A total waste of money.
A hot water-circulating heating system reduces the odds of respiratory problems by perhaps 50%, compared with forced-air heating systems -- even if central air-conditioning is still used a few months of the year. Unfortunately, making this change in an existing home could cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Verdict: Switching to a water-circulating heating system is worth considering if you are remodeling or building a home and a family member suffers from serious respiratory problems.
PORTABLE AIR CLEANERS
These do an effective job of removing particulates, such as pollen, from the air, but they will not prevent mold and bacteria from growing inside your home’s central-air system.
Buying advice: Choose a model with a "Clean Air Delivery Rate" (CADR) of at least 100. Avoid those with electronic filters regardless of their CADRs, however. Not only do electronic filters become useless if not cleaned frequently, they often produce ozone, a lung irritant, so they can create respiratory problems. Also, check portable air cleaners’ decibel rating before buying -- you don’t want one much over 50 decibels. Noisy portable air filters are a common complaint.
WINDOW AIR CONDITIONERS
Window air-conditioner units tend to use filters rated MERV 3 or lower.
Buying advice: A company called WEB Products makes a MERV 7 "Washable Electrostatic Filter" specifically for window air conditioners. It’s the best filter on the market for window units -- though I recommend disposing of these filters each cooling season rather than washing and reusing them (800-875-3212, www.WebProducts.com, search for "WRAC," $6.99 each).
Mastication, or chewing, begins the digestive process and prepares food for swallowing. Front teeth cut and tear the food... back teeth crush and grind it, increasing its surface area so that digestion of carbohydrates can begin.
Be careful about chewing... Too little. Often the result of eating too fast, this can cause choking or pain upon swallowing. Additionally, heartburn or stomach pain can occur because saliva’s digestive enzymes don’t have time to work. And because gobbling food inhibits the release of hormones that tell you when you’re full, you may overeat. Solution: Start with smaller bites, and use your molars more -- you should barely feel food going down when you swallow. To slow down: Put your fork down between bites, and take a deep breath after each swallow.
Too long. Once a bite is ready to be swallowed, teeth should separate and not touch. Chewing past the point when the normal swallowing reflex occurs can overload jaw muscles, resulting in muscle pain and/or dysfunction. This is one reason why gum chewing -- in which teeth touch during chewing -- can lead to disorders of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), or jaw joint.
On just one side of your mouth. If you have a full set of teeth and a normal diet, having a favorite side on which to chew -- as many people do -- is not a problem. But: If you wear full dentures, food must be distributed during the chewing process from one side of the mouth to the other to maintain the dentures’ stability. Important: If you avoid chewing on one side because it is painful, see your dentist.
I never expected that there are actually plenty of companies in this area that offer this kind of service.
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