Alliance Comfort Services

Improving indoor air quality in Raleigh, NC

Improving indoor air quality in Raleigh, NC starts with humidity, not with a filter or a purifier. Here is what actually changes how a house feels, in the order worth spending money on.

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Humidity is the answer more often than anything else

The Triangle is a hot, humid, transition climate. For a large part of the year the number that decides whether a room feels pleasant is not the temperature, it is how much moisture is in the air, which is why a house at 74 degrees can feel either comfortable or like a basement depending on nothing you can see on the thermostat.

Air conditioning removes humidity as a side effect of running. That is the important part: as a side effect of running. A system that satisfies the thermostat in short bursts barely dehumidifies at all, which is why an oversized system produces a house that is cold and clammy at once, and why the fix is often sizing rather than a product.

Where the equipment is right and the house is still damp, whole-house dehumidification is a real answer and it is one of the few things in this category that reliably changes how a place feels. In winter the reverse shows up: heated air that has dried out, static, and woodwork that moves.

Tell us what the house does, in which rooms, and in which season. That is usually enough to know where the money should go.

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Filters, and the trade-off behind the rating

A filter rating tells you how small a particle it catches. It does not tell you what it costs your system to pull air through it, and that is the half of the decision that gets left out.

A denser filter catches more and resists more. Fit one that is denser than your equipment and ductwork can breathe through and airflow drops, the system works harder for less, and in cooling weather the evaporator coil can drop below freezing and ice over. That is the same iced coil the AC repair page describes, arrived at by buying a better filter.

The right filter is the densest one your system can actually move air through, and which one that is depends on the equipment and the duct system rather than on the number on the packet. It is worth thirty seconds of somebody looking at both.

The cheapest real improvement in most houses is a clean filter of the right grade, changed on time. It is unglamorous, nobody makes money telling you it, and it outperforms most of what is sold in this category.

Where the air is actually coming from

A duct system under negative pressure pulls air in through every gap it has. If the return side runs through a crawlspace, an attic or a garage and it leaks, some of what comes out of your vents started there. That is a more likely source of a persistent smell than anything living inside the ducts.

It is also fixable, and it is fixed at the ductwork rather than by adding equipment. The duct and return side of a system is worked through on AC installation and replacement.

On cleaning the ducts themselves: the EPA does not recommend doing it routinely, and there are three specific conditions that make it worthwhile. Which those are, and how to tell whether you are being sold one you do not need, is on duct cleaning in Raleigh.

What we will and will not tell you

Air purification, UV, and whole-house filtration are real service lines and they are available. What you will not get from us is a percentage, because the numbers in this category's marketing are not sourced in a way anybody should rely on, and you will not get a claim about your health, because that is not ours to make.

What you will get is an order of operations. Get the humidity right, get the airflow and the filter right, find out whether the return is drawing from somewhere it should not, and then consider equipment. Doing it in that order is usually cheaper and works better.

Alliance Comfort Services LLC is licensed in North Carolina, number L.34059, through the NC State Board of Examiners of Plumbing, Heating & Fire Sprinkler Contractors.

$59 System Tune-Up

New customers. Humidity, airflow and filtration all get checked as part of it, which is usually where the answer to "why does this house feel like this" turns out to be.

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Common questions

My house feels clammy even with the air conditioning running. Why?
Usually an oversized system. It cools the air to the thermostat setting quickly and shuts off before it has run long enough to pull much moisture out, so the house ends up cold and damp at the same time. That is a sizing problem rather than an air quality product problem, and no purifier fixes it.
Should I buy the highest rated filter I can fit?
No. A denser filter catches more and also resists more airflow, and a system starved of air runs worse and can freeze its coil. The right filter is the densest one your equipment can actually breathe through, which depends on the system and the ductwork rather than on the number printed on the packet.
Do UV lights and air purifiers work?
They do something, and how much depends heavily on the product and where it is installed. We will not quote you a percentage, because the figures in the marketing for this category are not sourced in any way we would stand behind. What we will do is tell you where you would get more for the same money, which in most Triangle houses is humidity control.
Does duct cleaning help with this?
Only in specific circumstances, and the EPA does not recommend doing it routinely. There are three real reasons to clean ducts and most houses do not have one. It is worth reading before you book anything.

What customers say

5.0 out of 5, from 25 reviews on Google

Read all 25 on Google

House feeling stuffy, damp, or dusty?

Say what the house does, in which rooms, and in which season. That is usually enough to know where the money should go. Everything we cover in Raleigh is on one page.

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