Proper furnace care and smart purchases can help you reduce the high costs of heating your home. That’s good news considering that energy bills-which are already historically high-are expected to continue to climb. In fact, a recent article in USA Today reported that homeowners on average will see a 25.7 percent increase in heating costs compared to a year ago. To reduce heating costs, experts say that the energy efficiency of your furnace is extremely important. According to Jim Miller of Amana brand furnaces, “Homeowners don’t have much control over the price of natural gas, but they can take steps to minimize the impact of home heating costs.” He offers these tips: 1. Have Your Furnace Checked. “If you haven’t already done so this year, have a licensed HVAC contractor inspect your furnace now,” Miller emphasized. “He can perform a safety inspection and clean your furnace so that it runs as efficiently as possible.” 2. When Buying a New Furnace, Choose High-Efficiency. A furnace’s efficiency is indicated by its Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency percentage, or “AFUE,” a measurement developed by the U.S. Department of Energy. The higher a furnace’s AFUE, the more efficient it is. “Furnaces older than 15 years operate at efficiencies of approximately 60% AFUE. This means that for every dollar spent on heating costs, only 60 cents actually helps warm your home, while the remaining 40 cents is wasted. “If you were to replace that 60% AFUE furnace with a high-efficiency unit, such as the Amana brand AMV9 96% AFUE Variable-Speed Furnace, you would get 96 cents worth of warmth for every dollar you spend toward heating your home,” said Miller. He added that furnaces with a variable-speed blower are even more efficient because the blowers typically require up to 75 percent less electricity than a standard motor. In addition, a furnace’s blower also works with the home’s cooling system, meaning consumers experience increased efficiency year-round. 3. Investigate Tax Credits for High-Efficiency Furnace Purchases. Thanks to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT), homeowners who purchase furnaces with an AFUE of 95% or higher in 2006 and 2007 may qualify for a tax credit of $150. And if that furnace uses a variable-speed blower, they may qualify for an additional $50 tax credit.

Since air is a necessary resource for every human being, clean air is a great way to keep a body healthy and happy. Although all of the air that a person is exposed to may not be able to be cleaned, the air inside a home or building can be regulated to ensure it is of top quality with air filters. Contaminated indoor air can contain many toxins such as dust, dirt and pollen. These contaminants can easily go undetected in indoor air but can cause symptoms in people such as the outbreak of an allergic or asthmatic reaction. Even many people who dont feel that they suffer from a respiratory condition can feel the affects or symptoms from contaminated air such as sneezing, coughing or an irritated throat. Since chemicals, gases, odors and contaminants can easily become airborne and cause these symptoms, air filters are a great way to eliminate these toxins from the air before they can cause any harm. Indoor air is re-circulated throughout a home or building with the HVAC system. If this air is contaminated with bacteria or other toxins, these contaminants have no way to escape because the home or building is generally sealed off with windows and doors. If an air filter is used to remove these particles, however, the cycle and circulation of these impurities is stopped dead in its tracks. Since only clean and toxin-free air is released from the air filters, this is the only type of air that is now in the home or building. There are many places that need the efficiency of air filters in order to keep their employees or other people present safe and healthy. In some manufacturing plants or other production companies, chemicals are used in the process of producing a product or good. The constant exposure to these chemicals can cause instant symptoms such as sneezing or coughing and can sometimes lead to long term side effects such as respiratory problems. In order to keep their employees and workers healthy, many of these employers have turned to air filters to remove these dangerous chemicals from the air. The air released from the air filters is cleaned of these chemicals or gaseous materials and is completely safe for the workers to breathe in. Many offices and homeowners with children are also finding how important clean air can be to their health. With air filters removing and destroying many of the airborne bacteria and viruses that may circulate throughout an office building or a home, sickness and illness such as flues or colds are less present. Many office owners have found their employees no longer spread viruses from one person to another. Homeowners have also found that with the help of air filters, their children no longer pass colds and sicknesses to one another, causing the whole household to eventually catch the bug. With the use of air filters to remove these hazardous chemicals, bacteria, viruses, dust, dirt and pollen, the air that is left to breathe in is clean and free of particles. Clean air brings on good health and less sickness, which is worthwhile for homeowners, employers and office owners alike.

Stepping out for some air could be a better idea than you might think. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, scientific evidence indicates that air in homes can be more seriously polluted than outdoor air. Considering that most Americans spend up to 90 percent of each day indoors-more than half of that time at home-you may be experiencing indoor air pollution without even knowing it.

Fortunately, many heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) manufacturers recognize the health risks posed by mold, pollen, bacteria and other pollut-ants and offer a variety of products designed to minimize these risks and improve indoor air quality (IAQ.) Here’s a closer look:

New Innovations

Rx technology introduced by York, a Johnson Controls Company, represents one of the most innovative advances in IAQ products. Rx technology equips all York Affinity™ air handlers with a unique MicroBlue™ coating that helps the coils inside the units resist standing water and microbes. This coating also helps to prevent the gym locker smell or “Dirty Sock Syndrome” that seems to afflict some heat pumps that operate in hot, humid conditions.

Bring Fresh Air In

Consumers can find a full line of IAQ products through the York Total Comfort Systems. The line’s ventilation systems, for example, include a choice of air-to-air exchangers. Both the heat recovery ventilator and the energy recovery ventilator allow homeowners to manually or automatically adjust fresh airflow, as they replace a portion of stale indoor air with fresh outdoor air. The units also retain energy used to heat or cool the home, saving homeowners money on utility bills.

Let There Be Light

Ultraviolet (UV) air treatment systems cast UV energy on cooling system components to prevent the growth of mold spores and reduce allergic reactions. Additionally, electronic and media air cleaners remove up to 94 percent of the dust, pollen, pet dander, plant spores, fungi, bacteria, tobacco smoke and other small particles that also cause allergic reactions and affect IAQ.

Control Humidity

Finally, whole-house humidifiers let homeowners control indoor humidity levels. Restoring humidity in the home returns moisture to furniture and woodwork, makes it easier to breathe the air and helps ensure maximum comfort to occupants.

Is The Central Air Purifier System Better Than Individual Room Purifiers

If you are trying to be economic, you are best advised to not try to maintain a central HVAC equipment and a whole house air purifier simultaneously. Unless you have money to waste, you had better use those hard earned bucks to get other equipments for improving the quality of the air in your house.

A HVAC (or rather a Heating Ventilating, Air Conditioning) system shares your homes central blower and ductwork. So unless you keep it squeaky clean and dust free it will sprout these irritable elements into the very air you breathe. And, this wont change even if you add a swanky, pricey upstream filter system.
Most HVAC air purifiers are fixed before motors and fans in order to save them (the latter that is) from large granular stuff. There function therefore is not as an air cleanser. In fact they are not even equipped to purify your air; they have a meager 1000 cu. Foot/minute airflow, which is not a good enough speed to really cleanse your air. The air flow at each of its duct is only as high powered as a tiny fan!

The air from your whole house system does not blow quite the same everywhere. It chooses to flow through areas where it receives the least obstruction. Cool air has an affinity towards the lower part of the room, and therefore completely avoids the upper parts, especially the little corners. Wherever there is a little niche or cubbyhole it deposits dust and dirt. So entire house might be getting a number of air changes per hour, ultimately the lower part receives dirty air.

Imagine a flowing river with plunging bank cuts and tiny rapids. Consider what its speed will be if it is followed by lazy flats complete with sandbars. This is what your HVAC is like, full with rapid airflow and all, but ultimately not a very efficient air cleanser.

As a part of whole house purification system an HVAC blower has to function all the time. Most HVACs used at homes are not built to be strong enough to pull in the air through the well shut HEPA filter. Thus it must be ensured that they arent over run and in the process heated overtly. This is, however, unavoidable incase if your furnace filter is built of fiberglass and is kept unclean.

Another serious problem with HEPA is their habit of creating heavy static backpressure. Thus, they cannot be fixed directly into the regular residential system. To solve this problem therefore, vendors include an expensive bypass vent circuit and much stronger secondary purifiers. Most partial bypass systems are incapable of performing their required functions to the extent necessary. Therefore dirty air easily flows through the main duct.

Before buying and fixing a whole house air purifier make sure the air ducts in your system is cleansed out rigorously.

Given that we are not required to see or hear it regularly, we tend to bypass all thoughts of our air conditioning systems completely from our minds. Lets be objective, obviously a whole house air cleaner is preferable to a portable air cleaner. Consider, suppose your portable air cleaner suddenly starts malfunctioning then you take it to your vendor asap. This doesnt come in the way of your houses heating or cooling which continues despite the air being unclean. On the other hand a minor glitch which you probably look beyond in case of a whole house system becomes a reason for you to run to your vendor in case of a portable system.

If you want to improve the quality of the air in your house reasonably try and get rid of all toxic sources. Make sure your ventilation is channelized plausibly and circulation is truly possible. Regularly clean your HVAC system, and dont leave out any pan duct or coil. Keep replacing your furnace filters with the latest ones. Also, try and use premium chemical-capable portable room air-purifiers in your bedrooms.

If you still have money to spare spend it on getting a central vacuum system for your entire house. This will spit out all the dirty air in your house right outside. Else get yourself a quality sealed HEPA filter vacuum cleaner.
With additional money where available, consider installing a central vacuum system for the whole house, which exhausts 100% of all dirty air outside. Or choose a quality sealed HEPA filter vacuum cleaner.