When you’re struggling with allergies or your home feels uncomfortable, it’s hard to relax. Your home should be the place where you can let loose and enjoy yourself. In the HVAC industry, we try to not only keep your home the right temperature, but we also can work with you to boost your indoor air quality. Follow these tips and your home will be more comfortable and healthier as well.
What is Indoor Air Quality and Why Should You Care?
Indoor air quality can cause a myriad of problems in your home. A lot of times, homeowners get used to living in poor indoor air quality conditions and don’t realize how much it was impacting them until they make a change. We’ll explain some of the problems caused by poor indoor air quality and maybe some of them will ring true for you!
Poor IAQ Leads to Health Problems
Poor, unhealthy indoor air quality can cause a number of breathing problems, particularly for young children. A child that sleeps in a room with poor indoor air quality is more likely to develop asthma issues for example. At that developmental stage, it’s important to set your child up for success by giving them healthy air to breathe with limited allergens and contaminants.
However, adults can also be impacted. An overloaded air filter cannot capture allergens like pollen and dust mites effectively. Particularly during allergy season, your symptoms may be much worse if you don’t take the steps to ensure quality indoor air.
Lastly, serious problems can result from poor humidity management. A dry home will exacerbate allergy symptoms, while a humid home can cause mold growth. Mold spores are known to cause diseases especially in the immunocompromised. If any members of your household have immune system issues, you need to ensure healthy indoor air.
Poor IAQ Can Make Your Home Uncomfortable
Beyond the health risks, a home with poor IAQ doesn’t feel like home. When you come back from a long day at work, your home should feel like a breath of fresh air. You need a space to relax and unwind. It can be difficult to do that in a space that feels stuffy and humid.
Lastly, a huge part of comfort and health is getting quality sleep. A home with poor IAQ is not conducive to quality sleep. Keeping your air filters clean and clear can benefit you even while you sleep!
How Can I Boost the IAQ of My Home?
Indoor air quality is essentially three factors. The first factor is humidity. The second factor is pollutant presence. The last factor is ventilation. We’ll explain how you can improve in these three areas to keep your home comfortable and healthy.
Ventilation
Ventilation is so key to healthy IAQ. The COVID crisis demonstrated this perfectly. Outdoor spaces are well-ventilated and can keep contaminants and airborne particles from spreading. Indoor spaces aren’t as well ventilated and are more of a risk because of that. Keeping windows open and using fans can ensure the air in your home doesn’t get stagnate. This provides the additional benefit of keeping contaminants moving so that your air filter can snag them.
Humidity
Keep your home’s humidity between 35% and 45% and you’ll be good to go. To add moisture to the air, cook at home or crack the bathroom door slightly when you shower. You can also add some houseplants! If you need to remove humidity, avoid these activities and run your HVAC unit more often as it will naturally dry out your home.
Pollutants
This one is perhaps the most straightforward. Switch out your air filters regularly. We recommend at least once every three months, if not sooner. Vacuum as often as you can and that will eliminate any pollutants that have sunken into your carpets. Lastly, avoid smoking indoors as this is one of the worst pollutants out there!
The pros at family-owned All-Temp Heating & Cooling, LLC are eager to assist you with your indoor air quality. If you’d like to know how to improve your home’s IAQ, give us a call at (540) 999-1656 or fill out a simple online contact form!
