ARTICLES

by William D. Coakley

This air quality thing all began when I had tried to get my voice back in shape and found (since I had moved into my present building) that it was impossible. I began to think it was age related and just something I'd have to live with. I knew there was a lot of dust in the air and for years I wanted to do something about it but I wasn't sure it was really a problem until one day my eyes began to itch and became very irritated. This would continue until I got under water and washed them out in the pool. But the problem kept coming back. I thought I might have some infection or conjunctivitis. But then as luck would have it, I remembered buying some stuff to treat my lawn against invading bugs. It was packaged conveniently in a hose dispenser. I sniffed it and smelled only a slight odor and had decided to leave it in the studio as a reminder that the bugs were continuing to eat my lawn until I used it. It suddenly occurred to me that maybe it had something to do with my eye problem. Another event had linked me up with an Alpine air purifier dealer who offered a test unit for me to try. When all else failed, I put the chemical outside and fired up the Alpine machine and sure enough my eyes got better. This was how it all got started. I was interested in solving my own air quality problem. I'm not a professional air quality specialist but, I spent months researching. I even visited a the high tech filter testing lab in LaGrange Kentucky. It was there that I found most of the answers to my questions.

The bottom line:

After trying out about $2600 dollars worth of LIFEBREATH units, I got the same results using $60.00 dollars worth of precision air 4 inch pleated filters in the air handler and running the circulation fan on slow speed. Since nobody has it all wrapped up in a single technology, combining different technologies was the solution I chose: UV (ultraviolet light) to keep the air handler coil clean, filters for dust control, and an ozone generating unit for proactive mold and odor control. But, keep in mind, there is NO substitute for natural outside air (some pollen spores aside) which by the way, contains a small amount of ozone.

With modern construction methods, homes have become much like culture dishes. If you seal them up and wait, something will grow. And if left sealed long enough, some species of molds will dominate - until you open the culture dish and other hungry microbes rush in and a new war of survival begins. My theory is, as long as the home is exposed to a flow of outside air which contains a wider range of competitive microbe families, then a certain balance is restored and increases the possibility for a healthy, odor-free home. But buildings and homes are more energy efficient these days with tighter doors and windows and better insulation, so they have in the same manner become better culture dishes. The possibility increases that certain strains of microbes will have the opportunity to prevail over a more limited competitor group and with that comes the potential for toxic reaction from human occupants.

When choosing your own air purifier system(s):

• No single system does everything. Each approach has its drawbacks and strong points. Ozone generators can eliminate odors and is proactive but it can also be unpredictable. Some people just don't like the smell that ozone creates (especially in my studio where some ozone is produced by the computers and machinery I use). Hepa based filters are the best dust/particle removers but the stand alone units have limited effectiveness beyond one room and they make lots of noise.
  
• AIR PATTERNS ARE THE KEY to why stand alone units never seem to do the job as well as advertised. A room is defined as a space bounded by walls and any 2 to 3 foot doorway. So if your unit is say capable of doing 3,000 sq. feet and your room is 300 sq. feet then the effective filtering area is likely to be only 300 feet. On the other side of the small doorways the effectiveness may be as low as 10% of the rated effectiveness. So keep this in mind because one 3,000 foot capable unit is NOT going to be very effective in a home with lots of small rooms. Now if the unit can be installed through the central air system (as the Life Breath can) then the effectiveness in other rooms will increase.
  
• Don't forget the cost of cleaning an amount of air versus the amount of noise to do it. Consider how much filtering effectiveness per unit of noise you will get. For example, five Honeywell 13350s in a home will generate enough noise to knock out any chance of soft conversation. Life Breath units have a much higher efficiency per unit of noise generated but I found it necessary to use ozone with these units to keep them odor free. 

Here are the specifics of what I did for my home:

I have a 900 sq. foot building divided into three small rooms with 2.5 foot doors separating each of them. In the largest room I have my recording studio. I have a huge amount of digital electronics and computers that generate their own ozone and there's lots of stuff everywhere. This was the problem with the IONIC BREEZE units sold by Sharper Image ...too much stuff in my place reduced their effectiveness.

I began with a carefully placed Alpine XL15s in the front room to have ozone and ionization for odor control and to help drop the dust. In sufficient levels this machine will kill molds everywhere it can reach but ozone is a heavy gas and may not travel far especially between rooms separated by a two or three foot doorway.

I put an ultraviolet light in the air handler to keep it clean and kill most of the microbial junk that passes through. The argument for UV is that odors cease if you cut off the ability of spores to travel but remember the only spores it kills are the ones that pass through the air handler. UV's effectiveness depends on how the air circulates in a home. In many cases a large portion of the air never passes through the handler. The UV is supposed to contain the microbe colony and may be sufficient to eliminate some odors, but for maximum effectiveness, the air handler needs to be circulating air all the time, which in most cases means a noticeably higher electric bill.

When the UV lights were installed, I had some custom work done on my air handler so the unit would slowly circulate air all the time. In south Florida, not one single air-conditioning company (out of thirty or so called) was willing to do the work and none even had a clue as to how to do it. And at least half couldn't figure out why I wanted what I wanted. Finally a friend told me: "I gotta guy who could do that." Much to my amazement he was right and the guy did it in a few minutes!

Then I needed something for dust/small particle control. One inch pleated air filters didn't get the smaller (half micron and less) dust out of the air. This smaller stuff includes dust mite droppings, dust mite exoskeletons, other bug pieces parts. And its the smaller stuff that is usually more irritating to the lungs especially for asthma sufferers. So I decided on two Precision Air 4" pleated filters (24" X 24") and expanded the air intake to accommodate both of them. So my filtering area went from one measly 17" X 21" filter that was choking the unit to two 24" X 24" 4 inch thick pleated filters that are rated to be 65% efficient at trapping .3 micron junk. The .3 micron rating is significant since it is the size particle that seems to irritate the respiratory system the most. The argument is that smaller the .3 micron stuff is breathed in and just gets breathed back out. Larger than .3 lodges higher up in the bronchia and sinuses but .3 seems to lodge right in the alveoli sacs themselves causing the worst problems.

COMMENTARIES ON THE THE AIR PURIFIER UNITS/ METHODS I HAVE INVESTIGATED

The Honeywell 13350:

They've substituted one form of health hazard to clean up another. I'm surprised they haven't warned their customers about the noise this machine emits. And, using "Sons" to rate the level of noise output is odd ...even their staff is unable to explain these ratings very effectively. It may be they avoided using the standard decibel scale because it would prove embarrassing and possibly lead to some litigation.

Most hearing professionals will tell you that the more noise (even lower levels than rated to do damage) we expose ourselves to ...the quicker we lose our hearing. It's Kinda like a pair of tires ...the more you use them the quicker they wear out. And consider also the known negative effects of noisy environments on health.

When we tried to contact Honeywell on Nov 15th 1999 at 11:30 AM noting that the number for the Hepa filter was NOT listed on their web site under "contact;" we waited 6 minutes during which time we kept hearing: "Thank you for calling the next representative will be with you shortly" and then we got the good old disconnect. So we tried again. The second time we waited another 5 minutes then got someone to talk to. She said all the info was on line about the quieter units they made... IT WASN'T there at all. So we called back and the Honeywell "customer support" line was busy for 15 minutes so I decided not to waste any more time. We called Sears about this unit and after waiting for another 5 minutes and being transferred numerous times from "small appliances" to "plumbing" then ending up at "lawn and garden," we found that nobody knew anything about anything.

The Alpine XL-15 ozone machine:

This machine is small, costs about $600 dollars and is rated for areas up to 3,000 square feet. It has an ozone generator and an ionizer. Ionizers are used to charge little particles of dust that will attract other bits of dust (most dust particles have a tiny charge). When enough bits of dust are drawn together the weight increases and the little gob of dust drops out of the air. Alpine claims that the ionizer works in a radius of about 60 feet even through walls, but scientific proof of this claim is still debated.

The Alpine unit with an ozone sensor

The sensor regulates the amount of ozone released by the unit. It is supposed to hold the ozone level to exactly what it is in outside air. If you take the Alpine unit and turn the sensor on (auto mode) and hold the unit near a window, the ozone will cut off indicating that the level of ozone that the Alpine puts out in auto mode is the same or less than the ozone level in the air outside.

Ozone is a gas with a blue color if you could see it. It has 3 electrons in orbit around the nucleus instead of the normal oxygen atom that has two electrons. This O3 is unstable, heavy and quite willing to give up the third electron.

Ozone, like salt, can be a good thing but too much of it is bad for you. It is found in all outside air in natural form and is natures way of keeping a cleaner earth. For certain cleaning (deodorizing in particular) applications ozone is the best alternative but those concentrations are far too high for humans to be around.  

In my case with the Alpine:

Although the ionization seemed to work... a dust problem still remained. Using the beam test (my method of evaluating particle count in the air) we didn't really notice much of a difference in the amount of dust in the air. But a particle counter revealed a count that was less than normal for an indoor environment with the outdoor count as it was. The count was taken after the Alpine had been off for 7 hours from about 6 AM to 12:30 or so and the air conditioner had only run once or twice so it was a decent reading.

The Alpine is rated for areas up to 3,000 square feet. Actually, that pretty much means a "room" of up to 3,000 square feet. If you have it in a small room it may have little effect in adjoining rooms unless you use fans or your air handler to move the air. This is especially true if the doorway is about three feet or less. Most other stand alone devices are limited in the same way. The square foot rating does however, give you an indication of the largest single room it's capable of working with (if you use helping fans)... and is an indication of its relative ozone output level.

The Pitch:

They say the Alpine is like having your own thunderstorm in your house... that fresh scent after a storm. But ozone makes up only a small part of a thunder storm... the significant part is that the rain drives pollutants, dirt and other debris out of the air as it comes down... that's what makes the air clean. Ozone is a by-product of the lightning if there is any and does serve as an oxidizing agent which helps clean up the earth a little. Noise

You don't really notice the noise from the Alpine until you turn it off in a quiet room. If the Alpine is in your bedroom, your ears are exposed to this noise during sleep... and that's when your ears need a rest. In my recording studio, we couldn't have it in the same room where we were listening; it was too noisy for that. But its a whole lot quieter than even the least noisy Honeywell Hepa.

The (AC) fan motor design is at least 70 years old but a proven reliable workhorse. But, AC motors only run at one speed unless a rheostat is used. These not only generate line noise (line noise can interfere with audio equipment) but also an audible low level growling noise from the motor itself when the speed is lowered far enough. Since the fan is rigidly mounted to a thin plastic shroud and faceplate, this makes for a wonderful soundboard to propagate the motor growl out into the room.

In the unit I examined, the bars that mount the fan weren't stamped correctly. This is probably an alignment problem with the machine that makes them. This just added more efficiency to getting that AC motor noise onto the plastic shroud and faceplate and out in the room. But for a few pennies worth of rubber mounts the noise can be reduced (I did it to mine). The fan blade itself is cheesy and there are quieter alternatives. Further reductions in noise could be easily made... one suggestion is to use a DC fan. They are much quieter but would require a power supply which would probably add slightly to the cost of producing the unit.

Ozone levels critical:

Getting the right ozone level is guesswork especially in small rooms. I set mine for "auto" (I have the XL15s which has a ozone level sensor) which should have held it perfect during the night for sleeping. The unit was about 4 to 5 feet from my bed. But still in the morning I could feel that ozone in my lungs... too much of it hung around and I breathed it in. Its effects on people varies considerably.

Some who visited my studio hardly noticed the air... others commented saying, they didn't like the odor (which I couldn't smell because I had adapted to it). This was interesting to me... why wouldn't everyone love the smell of fresh air? The problem is that ozone in the right amount may hint of fresh air smell but its impossible to get a level that everyone thinks smells like fresh air. The situation was further complicated in my studio because the computer and audio gear produces some ozone too. The right ozone level for one person may be overkill for others. The idea of the sensor was to have automatic ozone levels maintained. But using the sensor control renders the unit practically useless. Its mold killing ability is nil (except within a few feet of the unit) when the sensor regulates the output.

The comments by visitors:

Those that commented about what I thought was the "fresh air" smell in my building said that it didn't smell fresh at all.. 'more like a chemical smell like a doctors office or hospital,' another said it smelled like chlorine and his eyes bothered him and still another said 'there was nothing wrong with the scent in my building previously, why did I want to change it by using the Alpine?' More than one commented saying that they preferred a scent to a home rather than something that had no scent or smelled artificial. I marveled at this variation in opinion.... no one ever remarked that the air was great in my place... so it seemed it was only me that liked it. Just the fact that it affects everyone differently is reason enough to be cautious about using it.

Ozone concentrations:

The Alpine concentrates most of the ozone within 12 feet of the unit. Again, air-conditioning systems will help distribute it throughout the house but in much lower levels relative to the concentration of ozone 12 feet around the unit. During the day when the air-conditioning system is running more often the ozone concentrations are less likely to occur. At night however, when air conditioner runs are fewer, ozone concentrations can and do occur.

The ozone in outside air is so evenly distributed you never notice it. But when ozone is produced artificially from a point source, a much different scenario occurs. How can you distribute the ozone produced in the box evenly throughout a room, as it would be outside? Alpine recently "improved" their units. They lowered the noise level slightly by using a shroud for the fan. They made it more efficient and hence cut down the amount of noise for a given amount of airflow. But now the air moves away from the unit in a narrower beam, which concentrates the ozone instead of diffusing it more evenly in a wider column of slower moving air as the older units did.

Concentrations of ozone seem to happen more often in small rooms or in houses with small rooms when air isn't being circulated by the air-conditioning system. In my building, we set the unit's (old version double plate) ozone control for a space of about 400 square feet (my building is about 900 sq. feet). This should have been about half of what the setting should have been. With the air-conditioning running about 20 minutes on/40 minutes off, the ozone could be smelled throughout and was a bit much... but when the air conditioner was off it exceeded normal levels (well over .04 in the room where the unit was).

These concentrations can occur in the early morning hours say from 3 Am to 6 AM when the air conditioner seldom runs at all. I discovered that the ozone setting that was comfortable earlier in the evening became excessive in the early AM because the ozone wasn't leaving the room where the unit was. The sensor (if unit is equipped with one) helps but concentrations are still possible since units with the sensor simply measure the ozone level of the air immediately behind the unit. This allows concentrations to form out in the room which the sensor doesn't detect. It would take 3 sensors out in the room (my best guess) to properly regulate the ozone level.

The SWAB test:

I found that a simple test could reveal something about the distribution of ozone in rooms adjacent to the Alpine. For years I've used a little mop to clean drinking glasses and cups... its kinda like a miniature string mop. As it dries it has always developed a somewhat unpleasant odor that could be detected by smelling the surface of it as it dries. If the Alpine was in the same room with the swab it might only have a tiny odor or none at all. But if it were placed five feet away around the wall in the next room... the odor would be much more intense. Hence my opinion that the effectiveness of the Alpine in adjacent rooms can be significantly reduced to the point that it seems to not work at all.

MOLD:

Just a note about this... Heavy concentrations of ozone did oxidize some black mold in my bathroom but IF the mold can acquire any moisture or water to grow in or near ...the ozone will not kill it. So, if you have mold in your home due to the presence of water or high humidity (leaking roof, under toilet rings, showers that drip awhile after being turned off)... the ozone will probably have little effect on it.

IONS moving through floors and walls?:

This is the claim of the Alpine sales staff. But scientific proof of this "radio wave ionization" is lacking at this time.

I found the ionization actually kinda works. It certainly made the LIFEBREATH units work much better. Keep in mind the Alpine does not remove dust from your home. It does drop most of the larger particles but, a simple test revealed large amounts still remained suspended in the air; mostly very small particles of dust. Alpine maintains that this is normal and that it too is being dropped but more enters the air and hence there will always be some there. This may be true to some extent, but the fact remains that a substantial amount of very small dust remained in the air that wasn't there after installing those 4" filters. The problem for me at the time was to figure out how much would it cost to get that stuff out of the air. Most filters wouldn't touch particles that small. I ended up finding Precision Air filters that would do the job.

UV (ultraviolet light) :

 A particular wavelength of ultraviolet light kills microbes near it. These lights are typically installed over the air handler cooling coil and kill just about every type of microbe that passes by and the ones that might breed in the water pan underneath the coil. The problem is it only kills what comes through the air handler and again that is subject to the airflow patterns in the home. Although they may sterilize the air passing through the air handler... it can't go out into the room as the ozone does and zap something in the rug and it doesn't do anything for the dust problem. Some of the lights are equipped with ozone generators but again... distributing that ozone requires your air handler to be running all the time... an potentially expensive solution.

IONIC BREEZE by Sharper Image:

Sharper Image sells this very innovative approach to air purification. These collectors/filters produce a little ozone and they are totally noise free but they didn't work that well in my studio where there's lot's of stuff everywhere and they did nothing to eliminate dust in the air although the fins did pick up a token amount. They also cost about six times as much per square foot of coverage as the Alpine. But this cost ratio depends on the number and configuration of rooms. In my case, using the Sharper Image units would have cost more than twice as much as the Alpine.

It too produces a small amount of ozone but there is something odd about its odor. When they are working in the room you probably won't ever smell any ozone. I was concerned because there's no reserve capacity if you need more output. I left one off at a video studio of about three rooms and a hallway. It was placed near a wall just to the side of a large fan. The next morning the air had noticeably improved and in about 24 hours time the odor level out in the hallway was significantly reduced... a surprising result. I think where noise considerations are important and the rooms are not cluttered these might be the ticket but they do not address the dust problem.

HEPA:

Try before you buy and make sure you can live with the noise level it generates. And also realize that the filter media itself may be 99% effective at a .3 micron size particle but what you want to know is the OVERALL efficiency of the unit. It may be considerably less if they are willing to be honest enough to publish what the figure is. Most manufacturers do not choose to have this test done so buyer beware. The same is true with vacuum cleaners ...the filter is HEPA (i.e. 99% effective at .3 micron size particles) but they seldom if ever list the OVERALL (in and out) efficiency of the unit.

The weakness of course is the amount of air cleaning ability vs. noise and the inability to remove gases and odors without some pre-filters, which no one agrees are very effective for very long. The stand alone versions are also limited (like ozone machines) to one room effectiveness.

FILTERS:

The problem is figuring out if the filter that the salesman suggests will actually do the job. I had suggestions that cost $250.00 each! The key is what is the percentage of removal at .3 micron size and what amount of air can you move through it. In my case a 65% efficiency at .3 with about 400 cfm (cubic feet per minute) moving through it is more efficient than the LIFEBREATH's 74% efficiency (at .3) but only 110 cfm moving through it. HEPA filters are the best but because of their design, the machinery used to make them work is usually noisier. Remember to check for the OVERALL efficiency of the unit if the filters are stand alone in a machine. That is the rating of how efficient the unit really is not just how efficient the filter media has been rated for.

LIFEBREATH made by NuTech

A very innovative Dr. Dullien from Canada designed these dust removers. They are very effective and at this time, probably the most efficient particle reduction mechanism for particles/dust over 1 micron in size. Like other units, in stand alone configuration their effectiveness in adjoining rooms is significantly reduced.

The downside, in addition to high cost, is the vulnerability of these units to becoming contaminated. I had two of them (demos) and both were contaminated breeding grounds for something so bad that I had to put them outside. An embarrassed dealer sent me new filters which had new odor. A petroleum smell that stank my place up until I whacked them with the ozone. The dealer said it was "a break-in odor" and would go away. He was right but didn't know if the odor was harmful or not. The original odor had come from the bacteria and molds that it had collected in someone elses home (or barn) and it began to breed when taken out of service and stored probably in a garage somewhere. It is possible that a brief vacation with the LIFEBREATH unit turned off and you could have a similar problem in your home.

I suggested a simple charcoal pre-filter might eliminate some of the odor holding problem but Dullien wouldn't consider it, the factory rep said. I don't recommend using these filters without ozone and ionization ...ozone to keep them from becoming contaminated and ionization to make them more efficient a getting the dust out of the air. But why spend thousands when a few simple modifications to your existing handler can achieve better results with less noise?

When they finally began to work properly, I found it took two of the stand alone units to keep the air clean in my 900 foot building. Each unit was rated for a 3,000 foot building. The two of them generated a fair amount of noise and so I attempted to run the console unit at half speed. But it reduced the effectiveness drastically. (NuTech doesn't publish specs on the slow speed). When I was about to consider installing the units into my air duct system I suddenly realized that I would spend thousands of dollars for two units with fans and some filters ...why couldn't my air handler fan and the good filters do the same job? Now I'm here to tell you that they can and can do it better! Instead of spending $2600.00 for two LIFEBREATH units I spent $60.00 for some filters and a hundred or so for modifications to the air handler.

THE INDUSTRY:

The air-conditioning industry has been less than innovative at producing systems that would circulate healthier air. It took them until the past few years to even consider designing a water collecting pan under the cooling coil that wasn't level so the water would actually drain out and not form a breeding ground for microbes and other fungi and molds.

Drain pan tilt:

Now here's a real issue with a question that only you can answer. If you were installing a gutter on your house, wouldn't you make sure it wasn't perfectly level so it would drain in the direction of the downspout? Of course, otherwise the gutter doesn't work. Well, until very recently, design engineers or air-conditioning manufacturers didn't think the pan under the cooling coil should be tilted and so they made all the metal (they should have been using plastic) drain pans under the evaporators in your air handlers ...perfectly level! Being level means water collects and stays in the metal pan ...it rusts and begins to fall apart... something that requires more frequent replacement. Maybe that's the clue.

Variable speed air handlers:

This is supposed to be the leading edge of technological advance in air conditioning... are they serious?! Yes, it sure is a great improvement over the Cro-Magnon technology they've thrown at us over the years but not what I'd call 'leading edge technology.' The components to make this unit have been around for over 30 years. A variable speed DC motor is nothing new. And a few sensors feeding back to some primitive circuitry and relays (they call it a computer) was common even in the 60s. If the industry was more attentive to using leading edge technology for improving health we would be breathing healthier inside air today and might not have so many sick buildings and homes to deal with.

Duct cleaning:

Unless you know you got lots of mold in your ducts, this is a complete waste of money. When my mom had it done the guy brought into the house a vacuum unit with mold in it from every house he'd cleaned that day. (We didn't know it at the time). Since these vacuum systems are not using Hepa filters on the output ...a fair amount of everyone elses house molds and yours are blown back into your home. This increases the potential for your home to become a new breeding ground for foreign molds, fungi, bacteria and viruses. It would be nearly impossible to prevent this from happening without a carefully sealed system which most vendors don't have. Otherwise, if you think cleaning is necessary, insist on an outdoor vacuum unit.

THE LAST WORD

Everything I needed for dust removal was already in place...so why couldn't I use it instead of buying someone's box that does the same thing ... using a fan to move air through a filter? And at that, what I would buy wouldn't even move air through the whole house like my air handler can!

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