Residences today are designed with energy efficiency in mind. This involves added insulation and tightly sealed doors and windows to keep utility costs reasonable. While this is great for your energy costs, it’s not so great for your indoor air quality.
Because air has reduced chances to escape, contaminants can build up and impact your house’s indoor air quality. In fact, 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 particularly detrimental for family members with allergies, asthma, other respiratory concerns 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 visualize pollutants, you may think about smog or tobacco smoke. But a lot of substances that impact your air quality are normal substances. These things have chemicals called volatile organic compounds, or VOCs.
They entail:
Other everyday pollutants include:
Some people are more affected by VOCs than others. The EPA says symptoms of VOC exposure entail:
In bad instances, 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, such as furniture, carpet and bedding, will help decrease on dust, dust mites and pet dander in your house.
This essential filter keeps your house cozy and air healthy. How often you should change your air filter depends on the kind of filter you use. Flat filters should be replaced every month, while pleated filters should be replaced every three months. If you don’t know 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 household deals with allergies or asthma, we suggest having a filter with a better MERV rating. The higher the number this is, the better your filter is at eliminating contaminants.
Keep fresh air in your home 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, Stevenson 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 937-503-7896 to schedule yours now!
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