Indoor Air Quality
Whole-home filtration, humidity control, and fresh-air ventilation for Northland houses that stay closed up seven months a year.
Filtration
The one-inch filter in the return grille is a compromise. It protects the blower and not much else, and the high-MERV version of it restricts airflow enough to cost you capacity on the coldest and hottest days. A four or five-inch media cabinet filters far better and breathes easier, because there is simply more filter area. Whether your system has room for one depends on the static pressure it is running now, so we measure before recommending anything.
- Media cabinets, four and five inch
- Static pressure measured first
- Filter selection that does not starve the blower
- Filters changed on membership visits
Humidity and fresh air
Winter air in this climate is dry enough to shrink trim and shock everyone who touches a doorknob, and a whole-home humidifier handles that at the furnace instead of with four tanks somebody has to refill. Newer tight houses have the opposite problem: nothing gets in or out, so cooking, showers, and people all stay in the air. An air exchanger brings fresh air in and tempers it against the stale air on its way out.
- Whole-home humidifiers
- HRV and ERV air exchangers
- Bath and range venting that actually vents
- Humidity set against the outdoor temperature
Window condensation is a reading, not a nuisance
If the windows sweat when it gets cold, the house is holding more moisture than the outdoor temperature will allow, and the water on the glass is the part you can see. The fix is dropping the humidifier setting as the temperature falls, not wiping the sills. We set the schedule and show you where the dial belongs at twenty below.
Air exchangers carry a rebate
Minnesota Energy Resources currently pays a rebate on HRV and ERV installations. The amount and the deadline sit on the financing page with the rest of the utility programs, and we handle the paperwork on jobs we install.
Rebates and financingQuestions
What MERV rating should my filter be?
Higher is not automatically better. A filter the blower cannot pull air through starves the system, which costs you heat in January and capacity in July, and in the worst cases freezes the coil. In a one-inch slot, MERV 8 to 11 is the practical range. If you want serious filtration, the answer is a thicker media cabinet rather than a denser one-inch filter.
Do I need a whole-home humidifier in Duluth?
Most houses here benefit from one over a Northland winter, especially older homes with wood floors and trim. The exception is a house that already has moisture trouble, where adding humidity makes the window condensation and the attic frost worse rather than better.
What does an air exchanger do?
An HRV or ERV pulls stale indoor air out and brings outdoor air in, passing them by each other so the outgoing air gives up most of its heat to the incoming air. It is how a tight house gets fresh air without simply opening a window at ten below.
Other services
Furnaces & Boilers
Repairs and replacements sized and installed properly.
Air Conditioning
Maintenance, repairs, and right-sized new systems.
Heat Pumps
Heat and cool from one system, with cold-climate models that hold up through sub-zero temperatures.
Ductless Mini-Splits
Room-by-room comfort with no ductwork. Great fit for additions or garages.
Maintenance
Seasonal maintenance that keeps your system efficient and catches small problems early.