UV Lights Are Tough on Some Harmful Microorganisms

Imagine paying good money for lights you’ll turn on but never see. If the lights are UV lights inside your HVAC system, you and your family will be happy to be “kept in the dark.”

UVGI

Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation may sound unsettling at first. Let’s take it one word at a time:

• Ultraviolet light is beyond (ultra) visible light. In the electromagnetic spectrum, wavelengths get shorter as their energy increases.
• Ultraviolet light has more energy than visible light. That energy destroys organisms by disrupting their cell DNA faster than cells can repair the damage. That is the “germicidal” part.
• “Irradiation” is not the same thing as radioactivity; it simply means exposure to light.

So UVGI means killing tiny organisms in your home’s air by exposing them to ultraviolet light inside your HVAC system, out of your family’s sight.

Many people think they know ultraviolet lights from recreational “blacklights,” but UV light is beyond our ability to see. Any glow you see from UV lights is spectral spillover – visible violet. When you stare at a UV light, the UV wavelength is radiating invisibly from the light and can damage your eyes. Never look directly at UV lights. Get them installed inside your HVAC system (either shining on coils or the airstream in the ducts), where you cannot see them and they can destroy harmful bioaerosols.

What They Kill

UV lights kill many microscopic fungi, bacteria, smuts, spores, mycotoxins, molds and viruses that typically float through air. Maladies from these can include the following:

• acute toxicosis
• allergic rhinitis
• asthma
• cancer
• hypersensitivity pneumonitis

Your household ductwork circulates moist air during certain seasons. That is good for your family’s lungs, but moisture breeds germs. In addition, your HVAC system’s air filter provides excellent lodging for these germs.

The solution is exposure to UVGI lights inside the HVAC system. Thirty seconds under UV lights is all that’s needed to clean the air and prevent buildup of filter-clogging molds and mildew. That means your home’s air will be cleaner and your family will be healthier.

For more information on the many benefits of using ultraviolet light to kill airborne germs in your Orlando area home, please contact us at Rinaldi’s Energy Solutions.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Orlando, Florida and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about UV Lights and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

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