The products and services you need to stay healthy indoors
Indoor air quality is crucial for health and well-being as we spend a significant portion of our lives indoors. Poor air quality can lead to respiratory issues, allergies, and even chronic health conditions. Contaminants like mold, dust, and pollutants can thrive, posing risks to occupants.
Proper ventilation and air filtration are essential to remove harmful particles and ensure a clean breathing environment. Improved indoor air quality promotes better concentration, sleep, and overall cognitive function. It's an investment in long-term health, contributing to a comfortable and safe living space for individuals and families.
Genesis offers air scrubbers, high-quality filters, and other Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) solutions that play a pivotal role in creating a healthier living environment. Air scrubbers utilize advanced technology to eliminate airborne contaminants, including bacteria, viruses, and mold (perfect for flu or allergy season!).
High-quality filters, such as HEPA filters, trap microscopic particles, preventing them from circulating and causing respiratory issues. These innovations collectively enhance respiratory health, reduce allergens, and provide peace of mind. Investing in such IAQ solutions ensures a home or workspace with purified air, promoting overall well-being and comfort.
A standard one-inch filter every one to three months; a four- or five-inch media cabinet filter every six to twelve. Shorten that if you have pets, allergies, or construction going on nearby. One thing worth knowing: a very high MERV filter in a system not designed for it restricts airflow and can cause the exact overheating and short cycling it was meant to prevent, so higher is not automatically better. If you cannot see light through it, it is overdue.
In this order: control the source, then ventilate, then filter — buying an air purifier while a crawlspace is venting into the house is solving the wrong problem. Practically that means sealing duct and floor leaks, running bath and kitchen fans that actually vent outside, then better filtration at the air handler, and a whole-house air cleaner, HEPA-grade filtration, air scrubber or UV light where there is a specific reason for one. Modern tight houses often need mechanical fresh air on top of all that, which is what an ERV or HRV is for.
An energy recovery ventilator brings measured fresh air into a house and exhausts stale air, passing the two streams through a core so the outgoing air gives most of its heat to the incoming air. An HRV — heat recovery ventilator — does the same for heat only, without transferring moisture. You need one if your house is tight enough that it does not breathe on its own: new construction, a deep energy retrofit, or an older house after new windows and air sealing. Symptoms of needing one are condensation on windows, lingering cooking smells and stuffiness that opening a window fixes.
Usually not for the living space, and often yes for what is under it. Our climate is wet but cool, so indoor relative humidity in a heated house tends to sit in a reasonable range — the moisture problems we actually find here are in crawlspaces and basements, where a vapor barrier, drainage and a dedicated dehumidifier solve more than a whole-house unit ever would. If you are getting condensation on windows and mold in corners in an occupied house, that is more often a ventilation problem than a dehumidification one, and an ERV or better exhaust fans is the cheaper fix. Worth diagnosing rather than buying equipment for.
Repairs, maintenance, or a new-system walkthrough — schedule in a few taps or give us a call.