Summer brings numerous indoor air quality issues, such as high humidity and allergy triggers. While you may be preoccupied with beating the heat during this season, pay attention to summer pollutants and ask your HVAC expert about promoting healthy indoor air. Explore some tips to enhance indoor air quality today.
1. Reduce Indoor Pollutants
The more contaminants you introduce into your home, the worse your air quality becomes. Most people associate pollution with outdoor contaminants like traffic emissions and pollen, but simple household activities like cleaning release chemicals into the indoor environment.
These chemicals, called volatile organic compounds (VOCs), are present in many household products, like air fresheners, cosmetics, and paints. New carpets and furnishings also release VOCs, as does cooking, smoking, and dry cleaning.
Although you cannot eliminate indoor air pollutants, you can reduce their quantities in simple ways. For example, summer is the best time to do hobbies like painting and spraying outdoors. Another tip is to groom your pets regularly and wash their bedding to reduce dander. Keep the pets out of bedrooms, and don’t let them sleep on carpets and furniture.
When you ban smoking in the home, you significantly reduce the indoor contaminants in your home. Secondhand smoke is dangerous because it impacts the respiratory system and causes health issues like lung cancer. Lastly, run exhaust fans in the kitchen, vacuum regularly, and swap carpeting for tile flooring.
2. Change Your AC Filter
Your AC unit filter plays a vital role in your cooling system’s efficiency and affects the indoor air quality. Over time, pet dander, mold spores, dirt, dust, and other contaminants clog the air filter and reduce its ability to filter indoor air. So, swap the AC unit filter regularly to promote healthy air circulation.
The frequency of filter changes varies between households. For instance, a home with many pets needs frequent changes to ensure the filters don’t get bogged down by pet dander. Change the filter often if several of your home’s residents have allergies and respiratory issues.
3. Install Air Purification Systems
Air purification systems are excellent investments for healthier indoor air. Your options are plenty, including whole-home air purification systems that an HVAC expert incorporates into your HVAC system. Some powerful air cleaning solutions can filter your air more often to remove bacteria, mold spores, dust mites, and other contaminants from indoor air.
If you are worried about pathogens like bacteria, mold, and viruses, ask your HVAC technician about UV light air purifiers. While UV light systems are mainly to disinfect hospitals, they also reduce biological contaminants in the home. Your HVAC expert installs the UV light air cleaning at the optimal point in your heating and cooling system to eliminate the most pathogens.
Plasma purifiers suit homeowners who want a natural way to eliminate indoor pollutants. These cleaning systems deploy negative and positive ions in the ductwork, which kill viruses, mold, and bacteria as they circulate across your home.
4. Control Humidity Levels
High and low humidity levels impact indoor air quality and your family’s health. High humidity is a common summer concern for homeowners, bringing intense allergy symptoms, foggy windows and mirrors, and clammy air. Spaces that are too humid encourage mold and mildew growth and dust mite allergies.
If you detect high humidity levels, run the exhaust fans in your bathrooms and over your stove, ask family members to take shorter showers, and improve ventilation. Most homeowners have more success controlling humidity levels with humidifiers and dehumidifiers. The former adds moisture while the latter sucks moisture to keep your home comfortable.
Our AC experts at Steele Brothers Heating, Inc., have various indoor air quality solutions to boost your family’s health and comfort. Call us today for a better indoor environment.
