Today's
TECHNOLOGY AND YOU

Q: I need a central air cleaner for my children's allergies. I want one that I can install myself. What designs of easy-to-install air cleaners are most effective? Will installing one reduce my heat pump efficiency? - D. G.

A: A central air cleaner (mounted in the blower unit of a furnace or heat pump) is the most effective method to improve indoor air quality and reduce allergies. Since all the air inside your house passes through the blower unit many times each day, most allergens and dirt particles are removed. Each air cleaner design is effective for removing specific allergen particles from the air, but the size of the various allergen particles varies considerably.

Heat pumps and gas or oil furnaces actually run more efficiently with a high-quality central air cleaner. By removing most of the dust particles, the heat exchanger surfaces or heat pump coils stay cleaner too. Just a fine layer of dust and dirt buildup on these surfaces acts as an insulator against efficient heat transfer. The improvement in efficiency and comfort also is noticeable during the summer air-conditioning season.

Although a typical 99-cent fiberglass filter helps some, many dust and allergen particles pass right through it. My house is all-electric with a heat pump and I have allergies to mold, cats and pollen. I have tested most of the various designs of central air cleaners and several of them really relieved my allergies and kept the house nearly dust-free. I have used each separately and two together.

There are several designs of effective central air cleaners that you can install yourself without being an expert sheet metal worker. One is a free-standing bypass design that hooks up with the existing heating duct system. The bypass design uses a hospital operating room quality high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter. It also includes a large charcoal filter element to reduce odors and remove some cancer-causing volatile chemicals from the air.

This HEPA air cleaner removes 99.96 percent of the particles that cause allergies and even very tiny smoke particles. It has its own small blower motor to force the return. duct air through the HEPA filter. It is connected to the existing main return duct by two short pieces of round duct. If you can cut a hole with tin snips, you should be able to install it yourself in about one hour. To save electricity, it is wired to operate only when the furnace blower runs.

Another effective type of air cleaner is a self-charging electrostatic design. These air cleaners create their own static charge as air moves through them, similar to rubbing your socks on a carpet. This small static electrical charge, along with the filter media, easily traps particles of typical allergy-causing size.

Most self-charging electrostatic fiters are one inch thick, so they slide into the existing filter slot. Some self-charging electrostatic models are treated with activated carbon to reduce odors. Models with antimicrobial coatings kill bacteria and viruses. Other options are a fire/smoke shut-off and a built-in whistle to signal cleaning time. To clean one, slide it out and squirt it off outdoors with a garden hose or rinse it in your bathtub. They last for many years.

Electronic and pleated media central air cleaners require more extensive sheet metal work for installation (they are thicker), but they clean well. Electronic models are very effective for small particles like cigarette, wood or cooking smoke particles. They use very little electricity to create the electrostatic charges and to operate the controls.

Write for Utility Bills Update No. 534 showing a buyer's guide of 15 whole-house air cleaner manufacturers, nitration methods, filter efficiency ratings, prices, and a chart showing which ones are most effective for various allergens. Please include $2 (with checks payable to ]im Dulley) and business-size SASE, and send to Jim Dulley, Illinois Country Living, P.O. Box 3787, Springfield, IL 62708.

James Dulley is a mechanical engineer who writes on a wide variety of energy and utility topics. His column appears in a large number of daily newspapers.

Copyright 1996 James Dulley

12 ILLINOIS COUNTRY LIVING • DECEMBER 1996

Illinoi's
FUNNYBONE

• It's election time and I'm always reminded of the joke when President Bush was running. Bush had died and was standing outside the pearly gates trying to get in. Many a well-known person kept turning him down and finally he said, "Hey! There's Moses back there. I know he'll let me in. Hey, Moses!"

Moses came to the entrance and looked at him and calmly said, "Sorry, the last time I had anything to do with a bush, I walked through a wilderness for 40 years."

Tammy Spees
Pittsburg

• A young boy asked his mother if she knew why a certain small bird is called a hummingbird. The answer was no.

His reply, "They are called hummingbirds because they cannot remember the words of the song."

Bill Kirkwood
Windsor

Boy telling his mother what he learned in Sunday School: "Moses had the engineers build a pontoon bridge across the Red Sea. Then when every one of the Israelites were safely across, he called on his two-way radio for the Air Force to destroy the bridge."

Mother said, "Is that what you learned in Sunday School?" He replied, "No, but if I told you what the teacher told us, you'd think I was lying!"

Julia Jordan
Rankin

Is there a funny story in your family (that's proper for a family magazine)? Illinois Country Living pays $5 for each joke chosen for Illinois Funnybone. Send your humorous story to Illinois Funnybone, P.O. Box 3787, Springfield, IL 62708-3787.

DECEMBER 1996 • ILLINOIS COUNTRY LIVING 13