What is that smell when I turned my AC on

Derek Cole explains why AC units smell musty when turned on: condensation drips into the drain pan, and if it doesn't drain properly, standing water breeds mold and bacteria. A UV-light coil scrubber can kill the growth before it spreads the smell.
This Star Spotlight features Derrick Cole of One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning. Today Derrick talks about that musty smell that you smell coming from your system sometimes. Derrick, what exactly causes that musty smell and is there anything that you can do about that?
In air conditioning, you have to remove moisture to get humidity out of the air. Air conditioning is all about removing heat, right? So you're taking heat out of the air, it's going over a cold coil which has refrigerant in it, and then it's coming back out cooler air than what came in. So The byproduct of that is water. So that's why you have drain lines, that's why you see water dripping outside. So what will happen is when you have that hot air going across that cold coil, you get condensation, and that's going to drip down to the drain pan. Well, if that drain pan is not draining or something is the matter, things will start growing in that drain pan because you have cold water sitting in a damp, dark spot. So the thing that happens is growth, right? If it's not in the air, or if it's a bug, or it's a virus, or whatever it is, it's going to die and it's going to sit at the bottom in that drain pan for a period of time. So you start getting— the first time you turn on your heat or your air conditioning, especially, you get that kind of damp, musty, moldy kind of smell. Way to prevent that from happening is to introduce UV into that system somehow. Now we do it here with the coal scrubber, which shines on the indoor coal, has the UV power, so nothing can grow in UV. If you want to prove that point, 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, musty Let the qualified staff at 1 Hour Heating and Air Conditioning help you heat and cool your home more efficiently.
Call today at 910-534-4462 or visit 1houraircarolinas.com. 1 Hour Heating and Air Conditioning, always on time or you don't pay a dime.
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