Benefits of HVAC System Cleaning

Hello visitor! Thank you for taking the time to read this article.


How fresh and clean is the air you breathe? Think about it, cooking, cleaning chemicals and even your personal care products send millions of tiny particles into the air. Your building's occupants (and even you) shed billions of microscopic skin cells every day. Certain things within your building, that make up your building, such as carpets, flooring, wall treatments, fabrics, and countertops give off their own pollutants, too. If you stop and really think about it, all the air inside your building came from outside the building originally. All the pollens, dust, mold spores, chemicals, even insects - in short, all the air pollution - from outdoors is now indoors. Did your duct work sit outside while construction was underway, waiting to be installed? Then dust, construction dust and dirt, pollen in the air, rain water and even mold could have found its way inside your building from the very first time you used your HVAC system. So, would you like to answer that question again? Just how clean is the air you breathe inside?

Homeowners have known for some time that indoor air quality is important to the occupants' health and productivity. Commercial facility managers can learn a thing or two from these homeowners by knowing the ins and outs of proper HVAC system cleaning and inspection.

Cleaning your HVAC system has several benefits, and not all of them are strictly for your health, either. Cleaning your system can and does remove harmful pollutants from your indoor air, making it better for your health, overall. Cleaning your HVAC also allows it to run more efficiently, saving you money by reducing heating and cooling bills. Lastly, cleaner duct work can result in an overall cleaner building.

While no national standards exist as to when to clean your HVAC system, the National Air Duct Cleaning Association recommends inspecting the handling unit at least once a year, and the ductwork at least every two years. Only regular, routine inspections and cleanings can prevent hazardous conditions from developing.

Your building's HVAC system is everything that heats, cools, humidifies, dehumidifies, filters and distributes the air within the building. The visible portions of this often include the return air grilles, exhaust systems like restroom and kitchen fans, and supply registers. The hidden (or mostly hidden) portions include the return and supply ductwork, handling units and all their parts - mixing boxes, drain pans, fans, filters and humidifiers and/or dehumidifiers - and reheating coils. That's a lot of growing room for microbes, and only thorough cleaning of all the components can ensure the maximum benefits.

A dirty HVAC is a veritable vacationland for microbial contamination. All you need is a food source (the dirt,) moisture (humidity,) and time. Under the ideal (or not so ideal, depending on whether you're a microbe or not) conditions, this growth can spread throughout the entire system, and throughout your entire building. A dirty HVAC system can cause respiratory illness in the building's occupants, aggravate respiratory conditions such as asthma, and worsen occupants' existing allergies. A dirty HVAC can lead to higher absenteeism, and even possible litigation. A really dirty HVAC system can cause your building to suffer from the so-called Sick Building Syndrome.

Cleaning your building's HVAC system can remove the food source for the microbial contamination, eradicating or reducing the microbial colonies. Without the dirt and gunk on which to feed, the microbes cannot live. Without the microbes in the air, the instances of respiratory illness and its accompanying loss of production and absenteeism should drop. Cleaning your building's HVAC system can also serve as a way of establishing a baseline for Indoor Air Quality, so that future monitoring or inspecting can be conducted to ensure your building's (and your building's occupants') health for a long time to come.

Your HVAC system accounts for about 60 to 70% of your building's energy use. According to the Department of Energy a dirty HVAC, especially dirty coils and filters, can increase that energy use by 30%. Can you afford higher energy costs for the sake of some dirt and gunk? Regular cleaning of the coils and filters can save you that 30% increase and provide a way for your HVAC (and your building) to be more energy efficient overall. While the costs of a professional HVAC cleaning contractor can be high, the long-term savings should more than pay for his services.

Perhaps the least noticed, but certainly no less important, benefit of cleaning your building's HVAC system is the impact it will have on your cleaning staff. Cleaner air supply duct work means less dust and dirt in the air to settle on furniture and carpets. More efficiently running exhaust and filtering systems can mean less use of air "fresheners" that distribute chemical pollutants into the air. Cleaner indoor air means less time spent on cleaning the return air grilles and supply registers. In short, cleaner air makes for a cleaner building.

Keeping your HVAC system clean and healthy can benefit everyone, from your building's occupants to your bank account. Isn't it time you looked into just how clean is the indoor air you breathe?



Healthy Lifestyle Products:

* A breakthrough program that melts away flab and reshapes your body in as little as one hour a week. More Details >>

* Lose Weight, De-Stress & Transform Your Body & Life with Yoga. More Details >>

Categories: allergies