Why you need to test Any Air Quality Systems

Best Air Quality Testing
Best Air Quality Testing

We have been in the indoor air quality testing field for almost 20 years now and have come across a multitude of indoor air quality products with even more claims and promises that we can count. That is why we test any air quality systems we recommend personally and actually use these systems in at least one of our homes, before we recommend these air quality products to our clients.

At Verify Air Quality Test we want to make sure we only recommend air quality products that have been tested an proven to provide the best indoor air quality.

Let’s start with some of the basics, furnace filtration. This is often overlooked. Many homes we see just have the cheapest furnace filter and most are not even sized right. This is the first step in ensuring your home has good air quality. The furnace filter keeps your HVAC systems and ducts from accumulating too much dust and debris which can cause poor indoor air quality. When we perform indoor air quality testing, this is usually the first culprit in high airborne dust levels, especially through dirty ducts.

Furnace filters should fit properly without letting air pass by the filter and should also be of high quality to make sure it traps and removes as much airborne debris as possible. Filters should also not have too much back pressure or restrict air flow through the ducts as this will cause relative humidity issues and temperature imbalances in the home.

Contact us for a comprehensive air quality assessment to ensure you are using the right furnace filter system for optimal air quality.

The next level of dust protection for your home is a central HEPA filtration system. This takes dust filtration to the next level and needs a proper furnace filter system to help provide the best indoor air quality.

There are portable HEPA air purifiers and central HEPA air filtration systems. For apartments or individual rooms, the portable system may suffice. For an entire home or building, central HEPA filtration systems are the way to go. Why just purify one room when you can clean the air in an entire building or the whole home?

Here there should be a lot of caution. There are a number of HEPA products on the market manufactured by well known brands, that simply fail to perform. In some cases, we have found through our air quality testing procedures that some of the air purifiers can actually pollute the air due to poor design or poor quality control. If the air seal is not perfect in an air filtration device, air will leak past the filter, thereby eliminating its HEPA efficiency. Lots of product on the market fail the 99.97% HEPA air filtration efficiency at 0.3 microns. 

We can air quality test your current HEPA system to see if you have good air quality or poor air quality.

I would say the next big concern indoors that can negatively affect your air quality is proper air ventilation or fresh air from outside. Too many homes have really bad air flow and a lack of fresh air. When we do air quality testing in homes in the Toronto area or GTA, we often find homes that are causing allergic reactions due to air flow. The more fresh air a building has, the less pollutants, dust, bacteria and even viruses will be affecting the air quality. Good ventilation equals good indoor air quality.

Even with ventilation systems there are a number of brands that fail to perform as advertised. Only indoor air quality instrumentation through our testing program can determine if you have proper air flow in your home.

These days there are lots of concern and questions for airborne viruses. There are also air quality systems that address pathogenic bacterial and viral build up in your HVAC system and your home. The go to for this has been UV disinfection. Even with UV systems, some work, some don’t and many are not installed properly to kill bacteria and viruses as advertised.  

We are currently testing a new approach to reducing viral spread indoors and will be updating this as soon as the testing data is complete. Stay tuned for our air quality testing results on these air quality systems as well.

Want to know if your indoor air quality is good or bad? Have an Indoor Air Quality Test done today!

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