Poor home air quality is associated with a variety of health-related problems such as headaches, allergies, asthma, and chronic fatigue. When you improve your indoor air quality at your home, you’ll reduce allergens and improve your overall health and well-being.
The quality of your home’s air is affected by dust mites, appliance combustion, household cleaning products, improper ventilation, humidity, mold, pet dander, smoke, and more. Let’s look at some ways that we can battle poor indoor air quality in the home.
These are a few methods to improve your indoor air quality:
1. Eliminate any causes of indoor contamination like smoke, cleaners that contain VOCs, and mold.
2. Make sure your home is ventilating properly.
3. Use a high-quality filter for your HVAC unit. You could also consider getting an air exchanger put into your home.
Dehumidifiers and Fans
Other common air quality issues are caused because of excess moisture levels in your home. Mold, mildew, and dust mites thrive in moist environments. To manage humidity, use a dehumidifier and an exhaust fan in areas that generate more moisture, like the bathroom and kitchen.
High-Quality Air Filters
Inexpensive HVAC filters are intended to protect your furnace’s mechanics, but a basic filter does little to improve your indoor air quality. Usually, the more expensive a filter costs, the better it will work. Electrostatic filters are rated highest because they eliminate even the tiniest of particles.
Heat-Recovery Ventilators and Air Exchangers
Air exchangers improve your indoor air quality and lower excess humidity by continuously replacing polluted and stale indoor air with revitalized and fresh outdoor air. They’ll also expel humidity and reduce your chances of condensation forming on the windows, which helps prevent mold.
Air exchangers do not have a heating recovery feature. If you’re living in a cooler climate where heating your home is required, look at how heat-recovery ventilators can work as an air exchanger. The heat recovery core heats up the fresh, incoming cooler air before it gets distributed throughout the home.
Changing Your Air Filter
• Turn off your HVAC’s power
• Take out the old filter and measure what the size of the required filter is
• Find the properly sized filter at your local hardware store
• Use the instructions from the manufacturer to install your new filter
Make sure you note the date when the filter was installed. As a general rule, replace the filter of your furnace at least once every few months. If you have a dusty environment or pets, check your filter more often. Switching the filter means the system isn’t going to need to work as hard, so you’ll likely save money on electricity costs.