If you live in a newer house in Rapid City, it was likely constructed with energy efficiency at the top of the list. This means greater amounts of insulation and windows and doors with enhanced seals. While these enhancements are fantastic for keeping your heating and cooling bills affordable, they’re not so excellent for your indoor air quality.

Your home comfort system needs to operate with a filter. But if you have a flat filter, you won’t be getting ample filtration. This model only delivers the bare minimum of protection by keeping dust out of your HVAC system.

While you can upgrade to a pleated filter or one with a increased MERV rating, it still might not be ample filtration, particularly if someone in your residence has allergies or other respiratory issues.

That’s where a whole-house air purifier comes in. These systems are placed within ductwork to provide effective filtration around your house. Depending on the model you select, you’ll be able to filter allergens, odors and even some viruses under certain airflow conditions.

Here are our favorite solutions from Lennox, an industry leader in air purification.

Best Air Purifiers from Lennox

1. HEPA Air Purifiers

A HEPA air purifier, like the Healthy Climate® High-Efficiency Particulate Air Filtration System, provides top-of-the-line filtration. These filters were first made to protect scientists as they worked on the atomic bomb. Today, they’re essential in hospitals and other medical operations.

The Healthy Climate HEPA Filtration System includes a three-step filtration procedure. A prefilter catches larger particles before the HEPA filter catches remaining smaller particles. Then, a charcoal filter eradicates odors and chemical vapors.

The PureAir™ S Air Purification System works with all HVAC brands and easily works with your smart home. It reduces the three major types of indoor air pollutants:

  • Airborne particles
  • Chemical odors and vapors
  • Germs and bacteria, under certain airflow conditions

This air purifier can get rid of 99.9%* of pollutants, such as mold spores, pollen, dust and pet dander. It’s also potent at decreasing or destroying 90%1 of flu and cold viruses under certain airflow conditions. And, based on laboratory and field studies, it reduces and eliminates approximately 50% of household odors and chemical vapors within 24 hours.

The PureAir S includes sensing features that make it simple to service. When used with an iComfort® S30 smart thermostat, you’ll be notified when to replace the filter and UVA light.2 This home air purifier must be used with communicating Lennox systems and the iComfort S30.

2. Media Air Cleaners

Lennox Healthy Climate® Media Air Cleaners are available in a variety of MERV ratings to work with your needs. This rating measures how effective filters are at capturing contaminants. The higher the number, the greater the filtration.

The Healthy Climate Carbon Clean 16® Media Air Cleaner is ideal for families with allergy suffers and pets. This is a HEPA filter air purifier, because it has a MERV 16 rating for hospital-grade filtration. And it eliminates more than 95%3 of unhealthy particles from your residence’s air.

The Healthy Climate 13 Media Air Cleaner is great for households who want stronger protection from viruses and bacteria. This filter traps 99% of larger particles including dust, pollen and lint. And up to 54% of finer particles down to 0.3 microns.4

The Healthy Climate 11 Media Air Cleaner is a a fantastic air purifier for allergies and in residences with pets. It traps more than 87% of bigger particles down to 3 microns and more than 28% of finer ones down to 0.3 microns.4 It’s able to deliver this effective filtration without driving up the bill for turning on your home comfort system.

These three media air cleaners work with any brand of HVAC system. But despite that, it’s critical to be aware that some of the denser ones, including MERV 16 and 13, may limit your system’s airflow. This can increase your utility bills.

3. UV Air Purifiers

The sun’s UV rays are the reason why you get a blistering sunburn. But this wavelength of light has a helpful application when installed within your ductwork. It’s also strong enough to decrease germs, mold and fungi under certain airflow conditions.

In reality, the Healthy Climate UV Germicidal Light can reduce the concentration of airborne microorganisms by 50% in as fast as 45 minutes.5 This light wrecks cell structure, which halts these microorganisms from multiplying and infiltrating across your residence.

And this UV air purifier can also help keep your heating and cooling system clean and running like it should. It takes care of germs, mold and fungi that are hidden within ductwork and your system itself. This UV light air purifier achieves all these things without producing lung-aggravating ozone.6

Breathe Easier with the Assistance of Our Air Purification Pros

Your household’s comfort and health is important to us at Precision Mechanical. We realize there are many solutions out there. That’s why we make it easy to partner with our indoor air quality specialists. We specialize in developing solutions that fit your needs and budget, and we’d love to learn more about your house and your air quality challenges. Give us a call at 605-206-3766 now to get started.


1Based on laboratory and field studies.

2
PureAir™ S requires the iComfort® S30 and a communicating indoor unit.


3
Leading consumer magazine, January 2012. Based on the published CADR, which is the standardized measurement system to determine the cubic feet of clean air produced per minute. Particles captured range in size down to 0.3 micron. One micron = 1/25,000 of an inch in diameter.


4
Based on lab tests conducted on filters with conditions included in ASHRAE standard 52.2 for E1 and E3 size ranges.


5
Based on constant circulation of air in the home, 3,000-square-foot home with a 5-ton air handler.


6
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Ozone Generators that are Sold as Air Cleaners: An Assessment of Effective and Health Consequences,” August 2006.