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Effectiveness of whole-house electronic air cleaners?
QUESTION:A HVAC repairman recently recommended that we install an electronic
air filter in place of our several HEPA air cleaners. He told us that
this filter could replace both our furnace air filter and would more
than take the place of the 2 HEPA filters in our rooms (living room
and bedroom). According to him, the unit is a powered unit that goes
in place of the filter and gets rid of just about anything that passes
through it.
That sounds nice, but I'm skeptical. I haven't been able to find much
about this in my web searching, and any thoughts, opinions, or
pointers to research (especially this) will be greatly appreciated.
ANSWER: That would be an electrostatic filter which passes air between charged
plates that attract the dust particles. I've lived in 2 houses with
it and several without. I recommend getting it. Much less load on
the fan and very efficient. The work is the filters have to be
pulled and cleaned about every 400 hrs of operation. Since this one
was put in with the heating & AC, the wall temp controller puts up a
reminder when they need cleaned. Put them in a bathtub with
dishwashing liquid and let them soak 30 minutes, rinse well outside
with a garden hose, dry and replace. I also recommend getting the
ducts cleaned just before installing. There is often a lot of junk in
heating ducts because during construction, the crews use them to
dispose of floor sweepings, left over lunch, construction waste, etc.
1st house we had cleaned the crew pulled out 5 gallons of construction
debris.
Keep in mind that with any filter, there is a capacity limit. They
are a final stage of dust removal and not a substitute for reasonable
dust control measures. Keep the room HEPA filters where you have
window mounted AC units it pollen/mold allergies are a problems.
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