Improving air quality | Air Quality NZ

Heat pumps are extremely popular across New Zealand. Primarily, they’re used to warm up a home through the chilly winter months, and are sometimes also used to cool down scorching days in summer. But did you know they can also improve the air quality in your home?Read on to learn more about how heat pumps can improve air quality.

What’s in the air?

When you clean your home, you might vacuum the floors, do the dishes, take out the rubbish, and wipe down surfaces. However, you might not think to clean the air. Unfortunately, New Zealand homes can have biological contaminants in the air. These are fungi, bacteria, and dust mites, and they are especially prevalent in damp homes where they thrive. For the 600,000 Kiwis affected by asthma, dust mites can be an allergen that makes their symptoms flare up. It’s also possible for homes to have volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are organic chemicals that exist as gases from adhesives, cleaning fluids, paints, and other common household items. They can cause irritation for the nose, eyes, and throat, and even cause headaches. Some homes may also have carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and particulates in the air. All of these can cause some form of irritation, but may be in low enough levels that you don’t realise your itchy eyes or headaches stem from particles or gases in the air.

Air quality within the home

Many Kiwis spend the warmer months with their windows open for fresh air. This is a simple and excellent way to keep the air quality in your home high, as it helps to flush out unwelcome contaminants, particulates, and gases. During the cooler months and rainy days, those windows are shut. The problem is that modern homes are extremely air tight – they are well designed and built to help keep the warmth indoors on these chilly days. Yet that also means the air quality can drop as there is no fresh air coming in, which leads to a greater concentration of contaminants. Rather than opening windows through winter for improved air quality despite the cold, you may be able to use mechanical ventilation to keep your home both warm and healthy through the cooler months.

Heat pump filtration

As well as heating and cooling, heat pumps help to clean the air. All heat pumps have air filters to remove unwanted matter from the air. There are different types of filters, including high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters, ionic filters, and plasma filters. When shopping for a heat pump, keep an eye out for the MERV (Minimum Efficiency Rating Value) rating. This figure represents how effective the air filter is, with higher ratings indicating effective filtration for finer particles. Keep in mind, heat pumps can also help to keep the air clean by keeping the humidity low. Bacteria and other biological contaminants thrive when humidity is above 60%, so a heat pump can help to reduce humidity and therefore make it harder for bugs to survive and spread.

Heat pump installation, servicing, replacement and more with Quality Air

Whether it’s time to replace an old heat pump or service your current one to keep it working as efficiently as possible, Quality Air is here to help. We can also recommend certain models that would be the best fit for your home and heating needs, and for your air filtration goals. Reach out today to let us know how we can help!