Mold - Probably Old News

[ScrewedByNCGC]

My wife was complaining about severe headaches for the last few weeks. She was told it was allergies and instructed to take antibiotics but it didn't seem to help. She got another opinion and was asked if she had been exposed to mold lately. After I heard that, I went down to our crawl space and took these pics. I'm interested in constructive comments based on experience with HVAC especially in humid states (i.e. midwest to southeast US). Note: A/C is ten years old - has had strong musty smell starting with second year of use.

 

[ScrewedByNCGC]

More pics. Powdering material was actually foam. It became brittle for some reason. Most of the silvery insulation material inside was "crispy" and tore easily; behind it was dried out, mouldy foam. This is a Trane heater/air handler in the crawl space, TW036F14 I think.

 

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[Jadnashua]

You might want to check the leveling of the thing...the drain won't work properly if it isn't level, leaving excess moisture in there. How often do you change the filter? What type do you use? A filter that allows much past it, either because of the fit or type can add to the problems.

This works better with the variable speed air handlers (or furnaces), but I leave mine with the fan on all of the time. Because it is a variable speed controller (it has something like 16 speeds), it is quite slow, doesn't take a huge amount of electricity, is pretty much inaudible, and helps to clean the air and dry out the interior better. It only ramps up to a higher speed when it calls for heating or cooling, then ramps back down to that slow speed.

Mold take three things: moisture, food (filter bypass crud), and the spores (but they're essentially everywhere). Cut off any one thing, and mold can't grow.