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AIR CLEANERS
Air cleaners remove unwanted air-borne materials from the air
supply in your home. Depending on the type of device, cleaners
can trap particles as small as smoke, pollen and fungal spores
and as large as dust, dirt and pet hair. Not only will the air
be healthier for you to breathe, but fewer particles circulating
in your ductwork will lower the maintenance requirements of your
furnace and air conditioning equipment. Less dirt accumulating
on exchanger surfaces, fan blades and cooling coils ensures your
HVAC system will operate at peak efficiencies for longer
periods of time.
HUMIDIFIERS
Proper humidity is another health-related property of the air
circulating through your home and is especially important for
the very young and elderly. An adequate moisture level will also
prevent damaging furniture and woodwork shrinkage. In the latter
case, heating costs may be lowered as reduced shrinkage of window
and door frames will ensure reduced cold air infiltration. Finally,
to most people, moist air feels warmer than dry air so you will
be comfortable even at lower, energy-saving temperatures. For
best results, a whole-house humidifier is recommended.
THERMOSTATS
and ZONE CONTROLS
Modern thermostats do more than just automatically operate the
furnace or air conditioner until a preset temperature is reached.
With a programmable thermostat, you can control the temperature with
different set-points for different times of the day and for different
days of the week. Your home is comfortably warm (or cool) only
when occupied and, therefore, less costly to condition. Energy-saving
settings can always be overidden if necessary.
Taking precise climate control one step further, you can add
zone controls to your programmable thermostat. By controlling
the amount of air flow reaching different parts of your home,
you can ensure only frequently occupied areas receive maximum
comfort conditioning. By keeping that unoccupied bedroom or basement
workshop cooler in the winter, you save on heating costs.
VENTILATORS
Unless they have been retrofitted to control air infiltration,
older homes are usually rather drafty. A drafty house is expensive
to heat and cool, but does have a higher rate of air turnover.
As a result, stale or polluted indoor air is constantly, if slowly,
exchanged for fresh, outdoor air.
Considerable care is taken when building modern homes to seal
them so very little uncontrolled outdoor air gets inside. This
greatly improves the energy efficiency of these homes but adds
problems of its own as oxygen is used up, yet not replenished,
and odours accumulate. In uncommon but worst cases, radon gas
can also accumulate. To remedy this situation, a ventilator is
recommended.
A powered ventilator forces stale indoor air across the surface of
a heat exchanger before it is expelled
to the outdoors. An amount of fresh air equal to the air forced
out is brought inside and, in the winter, as it passes across
the opposite side of the same heat exchanger, it picks up heat
from the outgoing air. In the summer, heat is removed from the
incoming, outdoor air so energy, used to improve the comfort
of your home, is conserved. A ventilator is therefore, an energy-conserving,
controlled "draft" device that greatly improves the
air quality in a well-sealed home. |
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