How To Improve Your Indoor Air Quality
The air inside your home should be fairly clean given the fact that you probably spend quite a bit of time there. The quality of your air could affect your health, as you could end up with allergies, asthma or other health problems. Improving air quality can be done with some maintenance tasks around your home with your HVAC system. See below for some tips to improve your indoor air quality.
Change The Air Filter
Change your air filter every other month or sooner if you have a lot of pet dander in your home. The filter in your HVAC system traps allergens and dander, preventing it from getting blown back into the system and into your home. Check and change this filter with a new one of the same size. If you don't change this filter, not only will you be spreading dust, dander, and allergens around your home, you could end up causing a breakdown with your HVAC systems.
Vacuum Your Vents
Vacuum your vents to remove dander and allergens, as well as other debris that may have fallen into them. Clean these between seasons, or throughout the seasons as well if you have a lot of dander in your home. Having your duct work cleaned will also help improve your air quality, although this is something that should be left to a professional HVAC company.
Clean Your Systems
Your air conditioning system should be cleaned before and after the warm weather season, as well as your furnace. For air conditioners, clean up any landscaping surrounding the unit and growing too closely to the unit, which can block air flow. Clean the unit itself by spraying it down with a garden hose to remove debris. Open up the lid and spray it from the inside out as well. Your local air conditioning services technician can also help with maintenance.
Clean your furnace by vacuuming it with a hose and extension. Open up the main compartment and vacuum inside to remove debris.
Monitor Humidity
Humidity plays a big factor in air quality. If you have too much humidity in your home, you could cause mold or mildew to grow, which could cause all kinds of health issues. Running your air conditioner in the summer will help remove humidity in your home. Using a de-humidifier will help remove humidity as well.
In winter months, using a humidifier will help improve your air quality as well. If you don't have enough humidity, it can be harder to keep your home warm. Have a humidifier added to your furnace to help. This can be done by a professional HVAC tech.
Air quality within your home is very important, especially if anyone in your home has a poor immune system, such as small children or older adults. Talk to your HVAC technician about how else you can improve your air quality.