Whether someone in your home has allergies, you work in a medical office or other building with a high risk of airborne bacteria, or you simply want to enjoy fresh air, you may be interested in learning more about the ability of UV lights to clean your air. These lights, in fact, can be installed in any HVAC system, and they help sterilize air before it moves through and into your space. If you are interested in , then get to know a little more about their cost, varieties and the installation process before committing to having cleaner air in your HVAC system. Types of UV Lights for HVAC Systems HVAC UV lights come in two types: Coil Sterilization – This is the most common type of HVAC UV light, in part because it runs 24 hours a day and 7 days a week to ensure sterilization. A “stick-type” light is installed inside the return air duct and it sterilizes the air handler coil. In this type of sterilization, you are treating the origin of the problem as opposed to its symptom.

The coil and drain pan tend to be the source of contaminants. The TopTech UV stick light bulb is estimated to last 9,000 hours, which equates to over 1 year. If you replace the $70 bulb during the annual HVAC service, you won’t have to worry about any additional maintenance. Air Sterilization – For this method, a UV light unit is installed in the return air duct and cycles on with the air handler blower. A complete UV light unit sterilizes moving air itself as it is pushed through the HVAC system. This treats the air that is contaminated by any number of sources. For approximately $100 per year ($24 electricity bill and $70 replacement bulb), you can breathe a little more easily in your home or workplace. To calculate specific annual energy costs, use these calculators: Convert Amps to Watts – This information should be listed on the UV bulb you use. Convert Watts to Electricity Cost – Determine the cost per year for running a UV sterilization system in your home.

While any home or business owner may feel they can save money and install their own after having read a few articles on the subject, it’s best to leave it to the professionals. split ac outdoor unit componentsLincoln Tech trains technicians, giving them both practice and theory so they can successfully install any treatment system without rendering your UV lights completely useless, which can happen due to poor placement. air handling unit noiseIf this kind of work interests you and you want to work on UV installations, you can become an HVAC specialist through Lincoln Tech’s HVAC program.air handling unit design guidelines 12,214 posts, read 13,180,715 times 1,416 posts, read 4,245,939 times 15,973 posts, read 30,190,849 times

I agree that an ultraviolet light would probably do little to help allergy/sinus problems. Those are typically the result of pollen, pet dander or mold in the air, which ultraviolet light would do little to eliminate. Ultraviolet light is effective in killing bacteria, but would be completely ineffective on pollen and dander, and probably do very little to mold, and even then your allergies would probably respond to the dead pollen and mold. An electrostatic air filter installed in the HVAC system can help a lot to remove those things from the air, but its expensive and the high quality filters available these days are almost as good. I have used one of these portable Friedrich air cleaners in my house for years, it was recommended by my allergy Doctor and it does help. Friedrich C-90B Air Cleaner - Free Shipping 28,459 posts, read 44,439,670 times 1 posts, read 34,192 times Germicidal UV for air Quality breathability 1 posts, read 32,568 times

11,246 posts, read 15,699,404 times Originally Posted by TexasHousewife We did as well. When we bought our current house we had a mold issue that was contained to a small area of drywall. We had the drywall replaced and installed the ultraviolet light in our AC system. Since then we have had no issues with mold in the house (we had the air retested). The guy who cleans my AC (not the guy who installed the UV lights) says that the UV lights are very effective. 1 posts, read 31,906 times in your air conditioner system. The UVC purification lights must be mounted next to the evaporator (cooling) coil, AND on the downstream (cold air side) of the coil. must shine both on the air conditioner cooling coil and on the water drain pan underneath the coil (if installed), because this is the main area where mold spores grow. The Air Probe Sanitizer in the photo above isindeed mounted in a duct, but it is illuminatingthe cold side of the A-coil and water drain panunderneath it.

(Click the photo for a different view). If the UV-C lamps are mounted elsewhere, then slime, algae, bacteria, and mold WILL grow on the cooling coil, drain pan, and even the blower and ductwork. As a consequence, these organisms will contaminate the air that you're breathing, throughout your living Furthermore, this slime, algae, mold, and bacterial growth can eventually plug up your air conditioning coil so air can't flow through it freely. increases cooling costs and can even shorten the life of your central air conditioner. AC coil will NEVER plug up with a properly installed and maintained Air Probe Sanitizer equippedThe cooling coil will always look as shiny and new as it did when it came out of the factory. The UV-C rays shining on the water droplets (the water condensing on the A-coil) increases the output of helpful hydroxyl ions (OH-, a naturally-occurring air purifying compound that scrubs pollution from the earth's atmosphere) and other compounds that destroy organic material such as mold, dust, germs,

An ordinary "in-duct" system can do neither. The Ultraviolet Lamp UV-C output power rays from the uv lamps must be powerful enough to eliminate odors and freshen the air, as well as kill germs, viruses, bacteria, mold, and mildew. Probe Sanitizer™ to others. The UV-C wavelength specification All ultraviolet-C "light" is"UV-C" takes in a very broad spectrum ofAnd most wavelengths in the ultraviolet-c spectrum do nothing to either purify the air or kill germs. Only an extremely narrow band in the UV-C spectrum is actually useful to purify the air and killThe Air Probe Sanitizer's lamps are unequalled. Click here to see for yourself that all UV-C lamps are not created equal. It should not produce ANY ozone While ozone in some air purification applications is not always a bad thing, you do not want ozone-producing UV in your ducts because: Ozone from a UV light cannot be adjusted or turned on and off. pollution and odors are destroyed, you will smell ozone.

Ozone in the presence of germicidal UV-C rays would corrode your air conditioner's cooling system, and even separate the aluminum fins from the copper lines in the air conditioner cooling coil. Much of the ozone is destroyed by the UV-C rays anyway. Besides, you don't need ozone to purify the air! UV-C, the purifying hydroxyls and negative ions can do the job. Hydroxyls and negative ions...Must be produced by the UV-C air purification system and must come out vents and registers. This is very important to purify the air and help keep dust, allergens, and pathogens (disease-causing organisms) out of the air. ions are the key to actually destroying dust, pollen, mold spores, VOC's, drug- and antibiotic-resistant pathogens, and other organic compounds in It must keep the air ducts and AC cooling coil clean.The Air Probe Sanitizer does just that. (Please see #1 above.). The duct-cleaning people hate these Ease and cost of installation

of the UV-C air purifier is difficult, then installation will be expensive (or just not done correctly). Probe Sanitizer's different designs accommodate any air handler design you might run into. There are a number of clear advantages in this regards of the Air Probe Sanitizer. For one thing, there are many, many different makes, models, sizes, and designs of air handlers (HVAC systems), and as a consequence, we often we have to make a custom-length Air Probe Sanitizer (or a special lamp spacing) to fit a particular air handler. And not only is there usually no extra charge should a custom length, lamp spacing, or mounting configuration is required, but many custom Air Probe Sanitizer lengths and different designs are stocked.Inferior, similar-looking "in-duct" UV-C air purifying products have another major drawback: fixed sizes and designs with little flexibility. The main problem is that other dual-lamp model (which are required on almost

all residences without exception) have a fixed lamp spacing. They just plain won't properly fit some air handlers, no matter what. And so they just don't do the job of purifying the air and killing mold. And the only way you can make their unit work on some air handlers is to chop some holes in the sheet metal. Some homeowners don't like that, because it voids the warranty on their Furthermore, on top of the fixed-lamp-spacing limitation, there's also only one mounting design, either for single-lamp or dual-lamp models. You just don't stick one in a duct somewhere, or blindly mount it "on top" ofIf the lamps aren't mounted on the COLD AIR SIDE of the evaporator coil, and close to the coil so as to fully illuminate it, then the job is not done right. the different Air Probe Sanitizer designs and lamp spacings ensures a job done right, and a happy The bottom line here is this: Flexible installation translates to quick installation, which in turn means the lowest possible installation costs.

Lamps supported at one end only This not only makes for easy installation and replacement, but doubles the effective length (and UV output) of the air purifying UV lamps. Long lamp life - Up to three yearsMany ultraviolet germicidal/air purification lamps quickly drop in output power, loosing their effectiveness at purifying the air. These lamps' all-important UV-C output decreases less than 15% after a year (8760 hours) of continuous operation. On the average, these ultraviolet lamps can still emit 85% after 1 year, 73% after two years, and over 60% after three years. Number of UV lamps (two lamps in one) UV air purifier system effectively give you four lamps, since each lamp is really two lamps in one, side by side (supported atYou have to have enough lamps to provide enough UV-C light energy to purify the air and kill mold, etc. Easy UV Lamp Replacement No UV lamp lasts forever. When it wears out, it needs to be easy to change.