Residences today are designed with energy efficiency in mind. This involves more insulation and tightly sealed doors and windows to keep energy costs affordable. While this is good for your heating and cooling costs, it’s not so good for your indoor air quality.
As air has fewer chances to escape, contaminants can increase and impact your house’s indoor air quality. In reality, your house’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 specifically detrimental for relatives with allergies, asthma, other respiratory concerns or heart disease.
Let’s go over some of these routine contaminants and how you can enhance your house’s indoor air quality.
When you envision 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 affected by VOCs than others. The EPA says symptoms of VOC exposure entail:
In bad cases, 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:
Regularly cleaning and washing surfaces that attract allergens, like furniture, carpet and bedding, will help cut down on dust, dust mites and pet dander in your house.
This essential filter keeps your house cozy and air clean. How often you should change your air filter depends on the kind of filter you have. Flat filters should be replaced each month, while pleated filters should be replaced every three months. If you’re unsure if your filter should be replaced, remove it and hold it up to the light. Get a new one if you can’t see light through it.
If someone in your home 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 circulating 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, Atmostemp Service Experts has a solution to help your household breathe better. We’ll help you select the right option during your free home comfort assessment. Contact us at 856-310-4824 to schedule yours now!
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