Residences today are constructed with energy efficiency in mind. This includes added insulation and tightly sealed doors and windows to keep heating and cooling costs down. While this is good for your energy costs, it’s not so good for your indoor air quality.
Since air has reduced chances to escape, contaminants can increase and impact your house’s indoor air quality. In reality, your home’s air can actually be 2–5 times worse than the outdoors, according to the EPA. That’s not good for anyone, but it’s particularly detrimental for relatives with allergies, asthma, other respiratory conditions or heart disease.
Let’s go over some of these everyday contaminants and how you can enhance your house’s indoor air quality.
When you picture pollutants, you may think about smog or tobacco smoke. But many substances that impact your air quality are common substances. These things include chemicals called volatile organic compounds, or VOCs.
They include:
Other everyday pollutants include:
Some people are more sensitive to VOCs than others. The EPA says symptoms of VOC exposure entail:
In bad situations, the EPA says VOCs can lead to respiratory and heart diseases.
It isn’t hard to improve your house’s air quality. Here are several ideas from Harvard Medical School:
Frequently cleaning and washing surfaces that attract allergens, including furniture, carpet and bedding, will help reduce on dust, dust mites and pet dander in your home.
This essential filter keeps your home cozy and air fresh. How often you should change your air filter depends on the kind of filter you install. Flat filters should be swapped monthly, while pleated filters should be swapped every three months. If you don’t know if your filter should be swapped, take it out and tilt it to the light. Get a new one if you can’t see light through it.
If someone in your household deals with allergies or asthma, we suggest having a filter with a better MERV rating. The bigger the number this is, the better your filter is at eliminating contaminants.
Keep fresh air moving by opening windows whenever the temperature allows. We also suggest running exhaust fans in your bathroom and kitchen frequently to get rid of pollutants and introduce more fresh air.
From whole-home air purifiers, Comfortech Service Experts has a resolution to help your household breathe better. We’ll help you find the ideal option during your free home comfort assessment. Contact us at 601-852-3105 to book yours now!
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