Hey Guys…I have a 9 year old TRANE heat pump in my 2 story colonial home. I have bad allergies..see and allergist, get shots etc. Recently I bought a HEPA type Honeywell air purifier for my bedroom. It seems to help. I spend time in my finished basement. It is L shaped and the tv area is in the smaller section. There are no returns and one small vent down here. A humidifier does run (near the tv area) and keeps the humidity at 50%. The tv area gets a little warm and stuffy…likely from the dehumidifier. The lone vent is at the other end of the basement. I was thinking of adding another room air purifier down here. Today my daughter was to the doc, he told her if she continues to crack her window now and then we should consider getting an….air purifier! You see where this is going…..

I had the HVAC guy out…great guy. He suggested a Healthy Climate filter system with a 5 inch thick MERV11 changeable filter coupled with an ultra violet light thing installed in the system. It would be a simple install since the return and feed are along side each other and the filter could go right between them. Rough estimates are $550 for the filter thing and $800 for the light. Pretty expensive. He said to also have them install a return in the 12 X 20 tv area and drop a vent in there, that’s about another $400 (if I buy the filter and light) more if I just add the return and vent.

I next asked if this filter system would tax my heat pump in any way, decrease it’s life expectancy, cost more to run or rob my bedroom (above the garage, which is the warmest room in the house by a few degrees) of cool air. He said no. He did say installing the vent down there might rob some air so they would install a damper in case I needed to shut it down to force more air upstairs..ie my bedroom.

So, I did some research which seems to indicate the filter thing could indeed lower the units over efficiency and mess with the current comfort of my bedroom. I do like the idea of purified air throughout the house though…but it dawned on me though that unlike the portable I unit I run all day…the Healthy Climate sucker would only be purifying when the unit was running. Then again the portables are a little noisy.

As far as the return and vent, perhaps the return would be enough to move some air through he system and allow the dehumidifier to run less? I could likely install that myself however if I likely need a vent to I might as well have them do both.

Any general thoughts or experiences on the filter thing, the light and the worthwhileness of adding a return and vent re appreciated.