20: You found your dream rental... how do you get it? / HVAC Filtration and Ions

Hello again, everyone, and welcome to today's show. If you're one of the 130 million people that are dealing with Sirs Lyme disease, autoimmune disease, or other conditions that are impacted by mold on a daily basis, and you need to learn how to eliminate that exposure, then you're in the right place. My name is Brian Carr, and you're listening to Mold Finders Radio.

Hey, everyone. So for all of you who were following along over the last couple weeks or so, I had mentioned that my wife and I were looking for a new house to rent and even gave you some of the things we were looking for and how we go through the house and how she distracts the agent. I look at stuff and all that stuff. Anyways, the update, though, is that we just found out this weekend that we actually got the house, which is really cool. And it's even crazy, the story that they told us.

So there was a lot of interest in this house, apparently. And there were people that offered more money in rent. There were people that offered more money in security deposit. There were several members of the San Diego Chargers staff and football team that were interested in the house who were offering, like, signed sports memorabilia and things like that. And they still ended up coming back and picking us. And they. And they called us and they said, listen, we were offered all these things, and for some reason, we just kept coming back to you guys. Like, we just couldn't stop thinking about you guys. And then we talked some more. So there was really two reasons, I think this happened. So not this has to do with mold or anything, but, you know, all of us are looking for houses at some point, right? When we find that one house that we really think is a good fit for us, because we have to be so specific, we got to make sure that we get it right. So this is what we did that they said worked. So first we. I put together a. A letter to the landlord, which a lot of people do, but I did mine in a way where I almost kind of set it up like a marketing flyer. And I had pictures of our whole family, like, within the letter, like it was a PDF file, and said, hi, meet the cars. And had a quick little intro about us and had pictures of us. And then in the. In the document, I put, like, a little.

I don't know, I called it like a stats box. Like, but it said, you know, house, car, who's who we are. And then it said. It said Brian, and it said, he's, you know, dad, Lakers fan. And then it Said, you know, my wife's name, and it said she was mom and peloton enthusiast or whatever. Just to give them, like, a little introduction kind of to us from a very quick view. One thing I've learned is that a lot of people don't read big, long paragraphs. And so you have to make things really short for them to be able to go through that quickly. Because it's just like the culture of us scrolling through, you know, like, Instagram and Facebook now. Right. It's just we're not used to reading long things anymore, so. So I made that box to make, like, a little quick snapshot of who we were. We also had one for Kensington, who's my daughter, and then we had one for our dog, too. So we had that in the little box.

And then at the end of the letter, so I signed it, My wife signed it. And then one funny thing that my wife and I do for, like, Father's Day and Mother's Day and our birthdays and stuff, is that we get a card from. For each other from our daughter, and. And then we sign the card ourselves in, like, you know, like, children's handwriting, basically, so it looks like Kensington signed it. And we always think it's kind of funny. So we signed the end of the letter, like, in, you know, quote Kensington's handwriting. She can't write yet, obviously, but we did that, too. We thought that was really cute. Anyway, so that was one thing, because they definitely mentioned the letter. So I think that was a big thing that set us apart. The other thing that we did is. And this is, like, easy for everyone to do, so they send you a list of things to submit for the house, right? We need your credit report, and we need this from you. We need your financials, and we need all this stuff, and they send you that list, right? So here's what happened. We were the only people to respond within a day and to actually supply all the things that were on their checklist the first time. So they told us everybody else either took longer to respond or they weren't submitting everything. And it made the agent and the owners have to go back to them and ask for more stuff. Right? This is such an easy thing to do, but it's showing them, like, how on top of it you are and how much it means to you, you know? And they mentioned that, too. And they're like, listen, you guys were so on top. It was really clear that you wanted this house. You went through. You made sure you got us everything. You did all this Stuff. So I know I've talked about kind of what to look for in a new house and.

You know, the whole process of doing that. So now that you found the house that you want, you want to make sure that you get it right. And so these are the couple things that we did. And it competed with more money, it competed with professional athletes, it competed with signed memorabilia. We didn't offer any of that stuff. We just kind of offered ourselves. And that's how it worked. So I don't know, just a friendly update and a little tip that we picked up along the way.

All right, so for today, the rest of today's show, I wanted to go over a question I actually got on Instagram from LimeRecovery. And here was the question says morning, can you do a episode on what you think about installing UV lights plus air scrubber plus technology to ionize the entire air in the house? Quote for mold treatment when you see or you find active black mold on the air vents. Okay, so that's the first piece of the question. So basically, they saw mold growing on the vents of their house. And so they're asking about installing a UV light and an air filter and ionization technology in the H Vac system and if that will solve the problem. Right, so that's the first piece of the question. The second piece of the question says the company stands states that no duct cleaning is necessary. You only need to clean and replace the vents and add this technology attachment. Thanks in advance for sharing your information with us. Okay, so let's, let's split this up. Let's talk about the technology. So I actually like all of these technologies and I like them all together on a system. But let's talk about each one. So UV light is the first one. This is a super common thing that gets pushed by, by air conditioning companies. So take a quick step back. These air conditioner, the H Vac contractors, they're not air quality experts, okay? So what happens is that their company makes an arrangement with, you know, a technology, you know, whether it's a filter or an ionizer or whatever, as an add on that they can sell with their H Vac systems. And so they push that option. It's the only thing they know about. They don't even really know that much about it. They just know that their boss told them that it works, right? And that's all that they know. So you really do have to take these recommendations with a grain of salt because your H Vac contractor doesn't know anything about mold. They don't know anything about mycotoxins. They don't understand how the stuff moves through the house. They don't understand the personal cloud effect. They don't understand how to clean it. They understand any of that stuff. Right. So they're pitching you a product that they say is going to work, and you can. The second part of this question, the company says you don't have to clean your ducts. It's not necessary. Honestly, the company doesn't know what they're talking about because they don't know anything about air quality. So let's just keep that in the back of our head. Okay. However, these three different technology pieces I like. So let's talk through each one of these UV lights. So UV lights is like one of the most common things that. That H Vac contractors will recommend. Typically, what they want to do is they want to stick a UV light. Usually where they put it, I want to say usually maybe like half the time when I open an H VAC system and see one, they put it in the wrong place. So the way that UV lights work is it's all about contact time. So what that means is that the light has to shine on a particular area for an extended period of time for it to be effective. And if you do, then it can break down bacteria and mold and biological contaminants. The problem is, if you put the UV light in the wrong place in the H Vac system, it's not going to have contact time with the air that comes back by. Actually, it's never going to have contact time with the air that comes by. That's the thing, because the air is going by, so you need to put it in a point where it's going to leverage the strength of that technology. The place to put the UV light is actually in the coil area where the heating and cooling happenings or happens. The reason that you want to put it there is because when the air is cooled, it creates condensation and that water is going to drip into a pan. And then, you know, ideally, that water gets moved out of the system and it gets drained. Well, there's going to be, you know, a little bit of standing water. Quite. You know, many times in that particular area of the H VAC system, which, if there is, it's not a good thing, but you are getting dripping. It's kind of a constant thing. This is where the UV light is great, because that area, it's not about the air coming past that area. That's not what you're trying to clean With a UV light, what you're trying to do is prevent microbial growth in the coil, which is where the airflow comes by. So if there is mold or bacteria growth in the coil area and the air comes through that area, it can grab it and then move it throughout the system. Right. You don't want that. So if you put the UV light in that coil area, it basically helps to deter that from happening in that particular area. So when the air comes by, hopefully there's no mold or bacteria problem there for it to grab. So that's where the UV light should be. The place that I see them put it that it shouldn't be is in the. What we call the blower fan compartment. But so you have your return air coming in. So there's a duct line that comes in and it connects to your unit. And then the next compartment is usually what's called the blower fan. So that's like, if you open it up, it's the fan that spins, spins around really, really fast. And that's what brings in the suction to pull the air through. By putting the UV light in that section, it's going to be almost pointless. Not 100, but this will be almost pointless. You're not going to get really the big effect out of it because all that area is, is airflow coming through. There's not moisture in there that's creating a problem. It's just air moving very fast. And if you have air just going over UV light very fast, it's not really going to do anything. So that said, UV light does have benefit if it's in the right place. Right. It can help. So, so, so that's cool. The next piece they said is Air Scrubber plus Technology.

And then it says, quote, to ionize the entire air in the house. So I actually initially read this differently. It seems to me what they're adding here is an ionization product that they're attaching into the system, which, again, I like, but in the grand scheme of things, they. That is the lesser item that I would have from a technology perspective. In your H Vac system, the most important thing is filtration on the front end. What that means is when the duct comes into the air handler unit, there should be a filter there. And that filter is meant to grab all these particles that are moving through the system and limit the amount of that flow into your actual air conditioning system. And the thing is, I did, I believe, episode four, I did kind of a big bigger talk through on technology and the different kind of like specs on the size of particles you want them to filter out and all that stuff. So I'm not gonna get too deep into that now. But the filter is really important. A HEPA filter is not enough. Okay. A HEPA filter is going to miss all of these small particles that actually are able to bypass our. Our body's natural filtration system. So in our body, when we breathe through our nose, there's basically like filtration in our nose, filtration in our throats, all to protect our lungs. That's what it's all in place for. And the size of those particles that can get in there and work all the way down into our lungs and bypass and kind of maneuver through all of that internal filtration that we have. Those are very small particles. Those are the particles that we want this technology attached to your H vac system to help pull out of the air so we aren't breathing it. Right. And so there you basically want to find filters that filter down to either 007 or 0.003 micron. That's what you want to look for. I go way more in depth on the specs and everything in that other episode I mentioned. I think again, it was episode four. You could read in the titles if it's not episode four. So I apologize if it's not. Oh, wait, I found it. I found it. It is.

Episode four. It's a Q and A and it has best air filters. So that's where it is. So you can listen to that to get more specs on it. So the filtration piece is important. That said, the way that I read this question is that they're actually referring to ionization technology as a air scrubbing technology. So it's tough because when you think air scrubbing, you think filtration. But I think the language they hear they used here is actually kind of confusing to you. So there is another component of H VAC technology, and that is ionization. One thing to keep in mind, depending on the product, these ionizers can produce ozone. And so if we are sensitive to mold, a lot of times we'll be sensitive to chemicals, and also a lot of times we'll be sensitive to ozone. So just something to keep in mind and make sure any of these types of products that you attach.

Don'T produce that, if that's a concern for you. So here's how ionization works. There's one that I like in particular. Maybe I will. I will include a link in the show notes for the for the whole set of this that I like for you.

But there is. There's this ionization tech. There's two components to the one that I like. There's one that's called a bipolar unit. It attaches inside of the air handler unit where the blower fan is. So it's kind of at the front end of that unit. What it does is it releases out ions that. That are oppositely charged from biological contaminants. So, so it's changing the polarity of the ions, basically is what this bipolar unit is doing. And by making them an opposite charge, it creates a magnetic effect. So now as these ions move throughout your ductwork, they're going to have more of a magnetic pull to any sort of mold or bacteria that is within the duct, within the duct lining and can actually help break them down from a molecular level within the. Within the duct line. Because the reality is you can't get all the dirt and the dust out of the duct line no matter how hard you try. So while we want to continue to filter out of the front end and, you know, we, you know, clean the ducts and try to get the best that you can get done out of them, the reality is some is going to be left. And so using this is going to help try to counteract, you know, know the rest of that as much as you can through the process. The other component of this ion system is the actual ions themselves. So, like, the bipolar is kind of changing the polarity of them, and then the other unit is funneling out a huge load of ions throughout the system. So both of those together create almost this, like, invisible army of floating, little floating ions moving throughout your ductwork. And like I said, because they're oppositely charged, they're drawn to mold or bacteria. So it's almost like they're on a seek and destroy mission as they're floating around your ductwork and trying to break stuff down, which is cool. The other part of this question mentioned that it ionizes the air in the entire house because it's attached to the H Vac system. Technically, that's true, but only when the H Vac system is running. Right? So if you're not running your H Vac system, if it's hot or if it's not hot or cold or whatever, and you don't have it on, then none of this is going to be working. So you have to keep that in mind. So it means you would have to be basically running your fan all the time for this to be working. This is Why I like having secondary air filtration units in the rooms that I spend the most time, because my system doesn't run all the time and I don't necessarily want it to run all the time. So I. In addition, whenever the system runs, it has a technology attached that will help. And then in the different rooms that I'm in, so think your bedroom is where you spend the most time. And then second priority is maybe your main living space. So like maybe like a kitchen, you know, family combo area or something like that. Those are kind of the areas you'd focus on first. So bedrooms and then main living space. And you put these portable units in there and they basically help.

Supplement whatever the H VAC system is going to do. Between the filtration, the ion is. Right. The ionization. Excuse me, that it is doing. Right. So it's not just one thing. Right. If you've heard in some of the previous episodes, your house is. Is really split into three levels. The top levels, your heating and ventilation system. The middle level is all the structure of your house, right? The structural components. And the bottom level is the settlement that gets popped up and redistributed into your air zone and your breathing area. So with that in mind, air filtration technology is really only going to help address the top level, which is the H vac system, and the bottom level, which is just the settlement on your surfaces. So if you're only doing the H vac, then you're missing out on the bottom level. It's important to be addressing all three of these levels continuously. Right? So the top level, the H vac system, is the technology. The middle level is where remediation has to happen. Right? This is where typically most of the sources of your mold problem are coming from. And then the bottom level is a combination between portable air filter units and a consistent cleaning plan. And so if you do all three of those, you're really, really going to be helping your overall exposure in the house.

So I will put it in the show notes. But the unit that we like.

It'S on a website called moldairpurifiers.com it's actually a website that we created for our clients specifically. I've actually, I don't know if I've ever shared it publicly, but we, you know, we, we did a lot of research in all the air purification technology that's out there because we are air quality experts and we have to know this stuff. And so basically we went through and we found, you know, the, the two or three brands depending on what type of unit you're looking for that we think are the most effective. And we've categorized them into the areas of a house that they would be used in. It's to make it really easy for you. So, for example, for a single bedroom, there's a collection that's called a single bedroom. And then in that collection, there is, you know, the breakdown of the different unit option recommendations that we have. So moldairpurifiers.com there is a collection for H vac. In that collection, there is a filtration unit, our favorite filtration piece for H Vac systems, and as well as our favorite ionization piece for H Vac systems. So that is the first part of your question. So the next part is the company states that no duct cleaning is necessary. You only need to clean or replace the vents or the ducts that had mold growing on them and then just attach their technology. So I very much disagree with this. Again, the ductwork is full of dirt and dust. Dirt and dust is going to harbor the particles and contaminants that may have coming off. That may have come off of mold. Mold. If you're seeing mold growing on the front end of your unit, it's a concern. It doesn't always mean there's mold growing in the duct lining, but it, it sure as hell can mean that. Right. And so the truth is, if there's visible mold growing in your duck lines, there's no cleaning that's going to work. Right. If there's mold growing in there, the whole duct should be replaced. That's truthfully what needs to happen. You know, from what you have here, I don't know if that's happening. So I, you know, I can't tell you that. Right. But duct cleaning, all that, it really does is it just kind of disturbs the dirt and dust that's in the duct line and then it sucks it out. And so there's always going to be some that's left in there. But if you had mold growing in the ducts, there's no ion. There's no ionization process. There's no anything like that that's going to get rid of all the mold and the byproducts. Here is the thing about ions is that, yes, they may work against mold or bacteria, but they don't necessarily work against chemical toxins and byproducts. Right. These are, These are different components. These are different things. And something a lot of us, sometimes we confuse. The biological component of mold is not the same as the chemical byproduct. Of a mycotoxin. The mycotoxin is a chemical. It's a liquid that gets produced by the mold colony. Right. So it's not a living thing. The mold is a living thing. The mycotoxin is not. So these ions are going to do nothing against mycotoxins at all. So if they're still in the system, then they're going to continue to get pushed out even if the ions are going over them. Right. That's why we test the air conditioning systems for mycotoxins. It's so important to know that if you have mold growing on the vents and in the units, there's a possibility that you have a larger mold issue in the H VAC system. The truth is, is that we can't just rely on technology and cleaning and not actually understand what the data looks like in the H vac system. You have to test the H VAC system to understand what's going on this system. And I don't know, but this system may have mold growing in it. And if it does, then there's no amount of cleaning that. That is going to work. In our opinion. In this. In this opinion or in this case, if there's mold growing in the system, we would be telling you that you need to replace the system and the ductwork if you really want to make sure that you're getting rid of everything. So you, you know, it's tough. I can't really speak too much to that. But just to make a blanket statement like this, it says you don't have to do anything with your ducks and you just need to attach this technology. It's misleading. Right. And I've seen people that have done this, and then I've come in and tested their H vac systems afterwards, and there's still mold and toxins in their H vac systems. And they say, well, how's that possible? We paid all this money for this technology piece. It's because technology guys is not meant to solve the source of the problem ever. Right? Right. The same with a portable unit. If you had a portable unit, you know, like an IQ AIR or a one of the AIR Oasis units or an Intellipure unit, and you have that in your room. But your room has a hidden mold problem, like under a window behind a wall, that unit is not going to fix that problem over there. That problem is going to continue to persist because that's not the point of the unit. The point of the unit is to basically help maintain a clean living space. That's What a filtration unit is really, really meant for. Right. That's where they become most effective. When we start implementing them in spaces where there's a bunch of sources of mold going on. It's like it's working overdrive to try to continuously work and clean everything. And while they can have a bit of an impact, it's not really how they should be used. They should be used as a maintenance tool after remediation is done and the sources of the mold are gone. Right. Because ultimately we live in a toxic world. We go out, we go to the grocery, we go to the gas station, we go to wherever. I don't know if any of you guys listen to one of the previous episodes and I told you to look up at a ceiling in a grocery store next time you go in. But you know there's mold all around us, Right. We bring that into our houses with us. And so the air filtration units are awesome for helping with that cross contamination piece because it's not an internal source that it has to continuously fight. It's, you know, something that impacted that day. Right. And some of these units and the units I recommend, they're definitely more powerful and strong. Stronger. And they could help for a while if there is minimal number of sources. But you know, if you have a lot of sources going on or there's a heavy source somewhere and you're relying only on technology and like cleaning the house or you're relying only on technology and cleaning your H vac system and you think that's going to handle everything. It's honestly, it's not. And so I just want you to kind of keep that in mind. Having mold growing on the front end of an H vac system is very concerning. It really does require a full inspection of the H vac system and furthermore testing. Because a lot of times we can only see a small portion of an H vac system. We can see the mechanical unit and we can see maybe a couple feet in from each of the supply duct lines. We can't see all the ductwork in the middle. It's impossible to see all that stuff. So that's why testing is so important. By using different dust sampling methods, we can get a much more sensitive test throughout the system system and have a better idea what's circulating through there. So I hope that that was helpful for you and thanks so much for submitting that question and for everyone else. I mention in all my emails to send out every, every, almost every day. And then on these episodes of the shows you know, you guys can submit questions to me whether it's on Instagram or you could whether it's in stories or comments on, on posts that I put out. And I look at those, and if I think it's something that can help benefit a good chunk of people, then I'll use that as a topic like we did today. So thanks again for submitting that question. Hope you guys all have a good one.

So that's it for today's show, everyone. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you enjoyed the show, please take a moment and subscribe and give a rating wherever you get your podcasts. It'll help spread the word to those who really need it the most.