Indoor Air Quality

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Indoor Air Quality

Indoor Air Quality Service, Sales, Installation, Maintenance in Glendale. Serving Pasadena & all Los Angeles. Air Filters, Air Cleaners, UV Lights and Humidifiers all help combat pollutants. The sniff test, that's one way to determine if the air in your home needs immediate improvement. A much better way to achieve that goal – and preserve your nose – is to seriously examine the potential health hazards concerning poor indoor air quality. This exercise is an investment in your health – and the safety of your family – so safeguarding against any threats is both financially wise and morally just. Translation: the air you breathe must be free of harmful contaminants.

Polluted air isn't just stale air, it can be a serious health hazard. In some cases prolonged exposure to microbes and other biological pollutants can cause severe illness and death. As the experts in indoor air comfort and quality, we provide an easy air quality analysis to determine if air problems exist in the air you are breathing every day. Then we work with you to make your home as clean as it can be, so you and your family breathe easier.

Do you know if your home's air is healthy?
Why should you have your home's air inspected by us?

• Air ducts, over time, can become contaminated with smoke residue, mold and large deposits of bacteria due to moisture.
• In some cases, prolonged exposure to microbes and other biological pollutants can cause severe illness and even death.
• As the experts in indoor air comfort and quality, we provide valuable air quality analysis.
• We work with you to make your home as clean as it can be, so you and your family can breathe easier. Such a benefit is the best result of all, a way to have the peace of mind every individual and household should possess.

What Are Indoor Air Pollutants?

Indoor pollutants can be anything such as gases or particulates that are released into the air. When your home doesn't have adequate ventilation, these pollutants linger, increasing the chances that you'll breathe them in. High temperature levels and well as high humidity are contributing factors to elevated pollutant levels. Your home's air quality could be affected by:

• Carpeting: Carpets often collect mold spores, pet dander, dust, and allergens. New carpets can also release formaldehyde into the air.
• Basements, bathrooms, and kitchens: These places collect moisture, which makes it easy for mold to grow. Signs of mold include a musty smell and discolored ceilings, walls, and floors.
• A damaged foundation: Leaks in your foundation can cause mold. Cracks in your foundation can lead to a buildup of radon gas, which can cause lung damage or cancer.
• Pressed wood furniture: Furniture made of particleboard, plywood, or hardwood often releases formaldehyde gas into the air.
• Gas-powered appliances: Furnaces, fireplaces, and gas-powered stoves/ranges can all be sources of carbon monoxide.
• Your garage: Idling your car in your garage could lead to a buildup of carbon monoxide gas. Using gas-powered machines like lawnmowers and blowers in your garage is also dangerous.
• Second-hand smoke: Second-hand smoke contains many toxic substances like carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, and benzene.
• Household cleaning products: There's a reason most of them state 'Use only in a well-ventilated area.'
• Personal care products: Such as hair sprays.
• Insulation: Insulation in attics, crawl spaces, and other locations that are exposed can filter into the air.

Many of these contributing factors are easy to repair or replace. Others require professional assistance to remedy.

The Impact of Poor Indoor Air Quality

Poor air quality in your home can cause numerous health problems, both short-term and long-term, including:

• Dizziness and nausea
• Eye, nose, throat, and skin irritation
• Headaches, fatigue, and shortness of breath
• Sinus congestion, coughs, and sneezing
• Worsening allergy/asthma symptoms

Children and people with suppressed immune systems, lung diseases, allergies, or asthma are at higher risk for these health ailments.

High Efficiency Air Cleaners

Relieve Indoor Allergies with Clean Air

According to recent studies, indoor air quality is actually worse than what you will find outdoors. Many allergens, pollutants and microorganisms thrive in the air in your home. These can cause allergic reactions, or even make you and your family sick. The EPA estimates that the quality of indoor air is actually up to five times worse than outdoor air. As you can see, there are some very important reasons that you need to invest in the right filtration method. However, finding the right solution can be difficult.

There are many, many different options for home air filtration to increase indoor air quality, ranging from plug-in filters to more exotic systems. However, not all of these are created equal. The best solution is to look for a whole-home filtration solution that does not require additional electricity or emit any ozone, which can irritate the lungs. In fact, the right filtration solution can actually work with your central heating and air system to provide pure, fresh air throughout your home.

Any such solution should offer you some important benefits, though. For instance, you need to make sure that it provides the same protection as required for inpatient and surgical facilities. This ensures that you have the purest air possible, and that the filter keeps out as many harmful elements as possible.

You should make sure that the filtration system can remove over 95% of particles in your air, and that those particles are as small as .3 microns. The filter should also remove other hazards, such as microorganisms and bio aerosols. Any such filtration system should remove these elements down to .01 microns.

Of course, any filtration system for your home also needs to be easy to use. For instance, if you have to clean the filter, you can encounter problems. One of the most significant problems is that cleanable filters can actually release the trapped allergens, pollen and pollutants back into your air during the cleaning process. It's better to have a removable, disposable filter than one that can threaten the health of your family.

Another important consideration is the length of life offered by the filter. You should choose one that can work for up to a full year. Of course, the actual lifespan that you see will be determined by the conditions in your home, but the longer the filter's OEM stated lifespan, the more use you will get out of it in the end.

Pac West installs a wide variety of high efficiency air cleaners such as the Aprilaire and Honeywell.

Humidifiers

The relative humidity of the Sahara Desert is 25%; Death Valley is 23%. In the winter months, the average heated home can have a relative humidity as low as 13% to 16%. Relative humidity is the percentage of moisture in the air compared to its maximum capability to hold moisture under the same conditions.

Doctors have mentioned dry air as one of the causes for nose, throat, and other physical aggravations. Heated air dries out and shrinks wood framing around doors and windows.

Gaps will then occur, permitting cold outside air to infiltrate into the house. Heated, parched air causes separation of wood in floors, trim and furniture, wall and ceiling cracks, plant damage and annoying static shock. These are all by-products of dry air.

Proper humidity cuts heating costs by stopping wood shrinkage, which reduces cold air infiltration around door and window frames. In turn, you'll feel warmer at a lower temperature. You can actually dial down your thermostat and still be comfortable.

Pac West installs a wide variety of humidifiers such as the Aprilaire and Honeywell. 

Bypass Humidifier Operation (flow-through)

The humidifier can be mounted on either the supply or return plenum. When the furnace operates, negative air pressure is created that draws air from the supply side of the furnace to the return side. This pressure draws the heated air past the moisture-treated water panel evaporator, providing comforting, humidified air throughout the home.

Power Humidifier Operation

The humidifier fan draws dry, heated air from the furnace duct through the water panel evaporator. The moisture-treated air then wraps around both sides of the water panel and returns through the side louvers into the furnace's airflow, providing comforting, humidified air to the entire home.

UV Lamp

KILLER TECHNOLOGY

At Pac West, we wouldn’t hurt a fly. Mold and bacteria are another story. And let’s face it: the indoor coil of your heating and cooling system is just the kind of places these baddies like to hang out. Our UV lamps protect the coil, ruthlessly killing off mold and bacteria before they can be pushed into the air of your home.

We put mold and bacteria under the harshest light possible.

Your air conditioning system’s indoor coil is part of what cools your home, but it could also unwittingly be a hotbed of microscopic misery that can affect your system’s efficiency, reduce airflow and maybe even become airborne.

Mold and bacteria like to grow in this kind of dark, moist environment. What they don’t like is ultraviolet light. To them, it’s a killer. Where our UV lamps really shine is at minimizing the microbial build-up on coils, improving system efficiency and, most importantly, keeping mold and bacteria out of your system.