dan wrote:

We just bought a house that has a RUUD 10 SEER (we live in florida)
that is about 11 years old. The air handler in the attic has heavy
mold inside it all over. a technician came out and said it should be
replaced because cleaning it would cost almost as much as getting a
new one. He did mention that we were losing some Freon through it
also. These are our two concerns: 1.)we have a 2 year old child and a
new one coming in a month and it scares us to think that the air
conditioning can be a health danger to the infant and child; 2.)we
really dont have the money to drop on a new air hanling unit and
condenser. We are in a bit of situation here and was wondering if a
suggestion or two could be offered? Thanks in advance. Dan.


While it is unlikely that this mold is the dreaded "black mold",
it can be hard to differentiate; besides, any mold can have serious
effects on infants.

One reference he
http://www.aehf.com/articles/APMmold.htm

Do a GOOGLE for: mold infant pulmonary
or something similar. You'll get a lot "scare hits"
from companies selling something but there is good medical
advice as well. For kids, this situation has serious and
possibly long-lasting effects.

In the end, you may have to have an expert come in and remediate the
whole system since the mold may extend beyond the air handler.

A UV biocidal lamp *might* offer some relief but I don't think
it's the cure in this case.

I know you're in hot Florida, but is there any chance you
could rearrange living conditions so that a couple of
window A/C's would suffice till the problem can be addressed?

Jim