After 47 years as a heating and air conditioning contractor, I’ve seen my share of air cleaning products. Some were excellent, while others were just plain snake oil.
What’s the difference between excellent and snake oil? The excellent ones are field-tested and can demonstrably show that they clean the air. The snake oil ones make all kinds of unverifiable claims, and don’t make much difference to the air in your home.
About 14 years ago, I came across laser particle counters and started using them to test the products I was selling. That’s when I found out which products actually cleaned the air, and which didn’t. Around the same time, I discovered an incredible product with MERV 16 efficiency—the highest MERV rating available—and it offered great airflow too. We began recommending it to customers who really needed clean air to improve their quality of life.
But there were two major issues. First, the unit was huge, and installing it often required costly renovations to make it fit into a furnace room. Second, even with those renovations, it sometimes still wouldn’t fit into the space available. This was frustrating because I knew how effective it was at cleaning the air, and I wanted to provide a solution that actually worked for people who needed it.
That frustration led me to start building and testing my own unit. My goal was to create something that:
Filtered the air as well as, or better than, the product we were using;
Had airflow that was just as good, if not better; and
Could fit into most furnace rooms without all the renovations.
After finalizing the design, testing it extensively, and finding that it outperformed any filter I’d ever tested, I filed for and received a U.S. Patent for the NovusAer.
Because I’d personally seen the results with my own laser particle testing, I knew it was a fantastic filter. But I also realized that customers would need proof. So, I had the NovusAer filter tested by Blue Heaven Technologies, one of the most respected independent air filter testing labs. The results came back even better than I had hoped for, confirming that I had created a top-tier product.
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