Air Conditioning Filters

Air conditioning filters are made to filter pollutants out of indoor air while the air cooling system is being run. Thus, two things are accomplished: the cooling of the air, and the cleaning of it as well. Typically, air conditioning filters are made of a type of pleated foam. These foam filters are designed to trap particles typically floating in the air inside the home, which include dust, dander from pets, pollen, and even microscopic insect offal. Disgusting, right? That's the reason for foam filters, which are often called particulate filters.

However good particulate filters are at ridding the air of these small contaminants, they are useless against another kind of pollution: chemical contaminants. Usually, chemicals are present in the form of fumes, such as gas from the stove and formaldehyde from a new carpet. Believe it or not, formaldehyde is indeed a common chemical in carpeting and furniture these days. Basically, if you live in the modern world, it's very hard to escape the presence of chemicals in the air you breathe.

Choices in Air Conditioning Filters

For this problem of chemical contaminants in the air, there is a special air conditioning filter. This filter is made from carbon, which is the best substance known for absorbing harmful chemical contaminants from indoor air. Carbon filters rid the air of chemicals, many of which we may not even be able to smell. However, the filter knows they're there, and acts to remove everything from petroleum-related gases and other synthetic fumes, to perfumes, pet and cooking odors, and cigarette smoke.

If you own an air conditioning unit, I strongly urge you to provide it with carbon-containing air conditioning filters to rid the air of both particulate matter (dust, pollen, et cetera) and hazardous chemical gases. Diseases such as cancer and neurological disorders have been linked to chemical pollution, whose full impact on human health has yet to be understood. What we do know is that prolonged exposure to toxic chemicals, which these common household fumes are, has serious health consequences to all of us, especially the elderly and young children.