Derek ColeGM, Simmons One Hour Heating & Air · AI HVAC Answers

Eliminate Musty Smells: The Power of UV Light #shorts

17 Mar 2026 · 1 min

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0:58

In this short video, Derek Cole explains that musty, damp odors in indoor air systems are caused by microbial growth on HVAC coils that lack UV exposure. He describes the solution of installing a UV‑powered coil scrubber that shines UV light onto the indoor coil, preventing any growth. To illustrate UV’s effectiveness, he compares it to placing a mildew‑prone doormat in direct sunlight, which dries and cleans it because UV inhibits growth. By bringing the same UV energy found in sunlight into the air handler, the system can eliminate the damp, dusty, musty smell.

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The way to prevent that from happening is to introduce UV into that system somehow. Now we do it here with the coil scrubber, which shines on the indoor coil, has the UV power, so nothing can grow in UV. If you want to prove that point, uh, everybody at home has that mat at the front or back of the house that has the mildew and it's kind of wet and it's kind of damp. Take that mat, stick it out in the middle of the yard in the sunshine for a period of time and that will be clean and dry because nothing can grow when UV is present, right? So in the indoor air environment in the air handler, that is not present. So we have to make it present with UV light. UV light will solve that problem. So the same power of the sun, the same energy that holds, we can bring into your system and that'll stop that damp, dusty, musty smell.