Boehmer Heating & Cooling Blog: Posts Tagged ‘UV Germicidal Light’

How Do UV Germicidal Lights Work?

Friday, June 6th, 2014

Indoor air quality is a significant concern for any prudent homeowner, and if you have a recurring problem with dust or dirt in your home, you may want to add a filtration system to your air conditioning to help. UV lights, in particular, can be used to kill germs and bacteria, helping to keep members of your household comfortable and safe. They’re especially helpful if someone in your household suffers from allergies, if you have a new baby, or if there are elderly family members living in your home. Here in Baldwin, UV germicidal lights can be installed by a number of air conditioning services, but how do they work? We’ve provided a quick breakdown below.

UV stands for “ultraviolet,” a wavelength of light that lies outside of the range of human vision. We can’t see UV light, but it definitely puts the whammy on germs and bacteria. The UV wavelength deactivates their DNA, denying them the ability to replicate and spread. (More specifically, it damages the organism’s nucleic acid by forming new bonds in the DNA. Those bonds thus can’t be “unzipped” when the time comes for the organism to replicate, and it dies.)

The light is simply a lamp, containing mercury vapor tubes that produce the right wavelength of UV light. When you connect the light to your heating or air conditioning system, it’s able to cycle through most of the air in your house. As air passes through the system, it also passes through the light, which kills the germs before the air blows back into your house via a fan. As a result, your indoor air quality goes up and the preponderance of disease-causing germs goes down.

It’s an elegantly simple system and if you have concerns about germs or bacteria in your home, it could be a life saver. For more on how UV germicidal lights work or to schedule an installation, talk to the experts at Boehmer Heating & Cooling for help. Installing and servicing UV germicidal lights and other indoor air quality services in Baldwin are a regular part of our operations, and we can install an appropriate array in your HVAC system with little difficulty. Pick up the phone and give us a call today. You’ll be glad you did!

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