When wildfire smoke fills the LA air, your AC system becomes your first line of defense for keeping your indoor air clean and breathable.
September through November is wildfire season in Southern California. Recent years have shown us that smoke can travel hundreds of miles to mess with air quality throughout Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. The January 2025 fires alone destroyed over 12,300 homes and forced 200,000 people to evacuate.
You can’t control what’s happening outside, but you can definitely protect your indoor air quality. Your family’s health depends on it.
The Reality of Wildfire Impact
The Eaton and Palisades fires are now some of the worst wildfires in California history. During the worst days of the January 2025 fires, twelve air quality sensors near the fires showed PM2.5 levels in the “Hazardous” range.
That’s scary stuff. EPA stations detected bad PM2.5 levels reaching “Unhealthy” and “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” in downtown LA and Compton. And that’s not just an outdoor problem.
How Smoke Gets Into Your Home
Wildfire smoke doesn’t stay outside. Those tiny particles slip through windows, doors, and even small cracks in your house. Once they’re inside, smoke particles can stick around for days or even weeks.
The particles are super small – so small they get past your body’s defenses and go deep into your lungs.
Your AC system can either save you or make things worse during wildfire season. If it’s set up right, it’ll filter out harmful particles before they spread through your home. But if you have basic filtration, your system might actually push contaminated air into every room.
Your Filter is More Important Than You Think
Most homes have basic one-inch filters that are meant to protect your equipment, not your lungs. These standard filters only catch about 15% of bigger particles. They barely touch the fine particles that make wildfire smoke so dangerous.
During fire season, upgrading to a better filter can be the difference between breathing clean air and dealing with smoky rooms. But here’s the thing – you can’t just throw any high-efficiency filter into your system.
Filters that are too thick can mess with airflow. This makes your system work way harder and might even damage it. You need to find the right balance between good filtration and proper airflow for your specific air conditioning system.
Should You Run Your AC When There’s Smoke Outside?
This confuses a lot of homeowners: should you run your AC when there’s smoke outside or turn it off? It depends on what kind of filters you have.
If you have basic filtration, running your system might make your indoor air worse. It’ll pull in smoky outdoor air and spread it around.
But if you have good filtration, keep your system running during smoky conditions. It’ll help clean your indoor air. Set your thermostat fan to “on” instead of “auto” so it runs all the time, filtering air even when it’s not heating or cooling.
This creates pressure in your home that helps keep outdoor air from sneaking in through cracks.
Whole-Home Air Purifiers Are Game Changers
Better filters help, but whole-home air purifiers are built specifically for wildfire smoke. These systems work with your existing AC to catch and eliminate the tiniest particles that regular filters miss.
Some fancy systems even get rid of odors and kill bacteria and viruses. You get complete protection during fire season and all year long.
The Carrier Infinity Air Purifier has a three-step process – it charges particles, catches them like a magnet, and then kills 99% of captured viruses and bacteria. Unlike those portable air purifiers that only clean one room, whole-home systems give you fresh, clean air everywhere in your house.
During wildfire season, this tech is amazing for keeping your indoor air healthy when it’s nasty outside. MightyServ’s indoor air quality solutions use multiple filters including HEPA filters to catch fine smoke particles and cut down on harmful stuff in the air.
After the Smoke Goes Away
Once wildfire conditions get better, don’t think your indoor air automatically goes back to normal. Smoke particles can settle on stuff throughout your home and keep affecting air quality.
Change your filters right after heavy smoke, even if they’re pretty new. Think about getting your ducts professionally cleaned if smoke got in bad.
Some homeowners smell smoke weeks after a fire. This usually means particles settled deep into carpets, furniture, and ductwork.
It’s About Protecting Your Family
Wildfire season used to be just a few weeks of worry each fall. Now it’s months of reality that LA families have to plan for.
Weather experts say the number of high fire danger days will go up by 7 days in 2030 and 18 days in 2050. That means longer wildfire seasons with more frequent and worse fires.
Getting proper air filtration and purification isn’t just about comfort anymore. It’s about protecting your family’s health during air quality emergencies that happen more and more often.
Your AC system moves air through your whole home multiple times every day. During wildfire season, it’s either cleaning your air or making it worse. What happens depends on the equipment choices you make before you need them.
Ready to protect your family’s air quality this wildfire season? Don’t wait until you see smoke. Contact MightyServ at (818) 348-4768 or schedule on our website to talk about air purification solutions that keep your home safe when outdoor air quality gets dangerous.
