Should You Be Concerned About Your Indoor Air Quality?

The quality of your home’s indoor air is affected many factors. Higher indoor air quality is associated with several benefits, including physical comfort, long-term health, and even greater HVAC efficiency and lower utility bills. If you aren’t sure whether your home might benefit from an improvement in air quality, there are several signs you can use to evaluate your need for better indoor air quality control.

Your Family Includes Asthma or Allergy Sufferers

Asthma and allergies are often caused by certain triggers. Many of these triggers are small particles that are inhaled when present in indoor air, such as smoke, pollen, animal dander, dust mites, and cleaning chemicals. If your family includes an asthma or allergy sufferer, poor indoor air quality can lead to chronic symptoms that seem worse while at home, causing general discomfort and often increasing medical costs associated with symptom control. One of the easiest ways to improve your living environment by reducing these airborne triggers is to install an air cleaner, air purifier, or UV lamp to remove or neutralize asthma and allergy triggers when they enter your home. Humidity control systems can also improve asthma and allergies by better maintaining a level of humidity that is comfortable for individuals with these conditions.

You Spend a Lot of Time Cleaning

Dusting may be a common and necessary cleaning task, but if you find yourself dusting frequently and feel like you’re fighting a losing battle against dust and dirt accumulation, your existing HVAC filter may not be sufficient to keep your home’s air clean. Particularly in dusty areas or busy homes, dirt and dust tracked in by family members and animals or particles that enter through open windows and doors can overwhelm your HVAC system quickly, choking your appliances and leading to layers of dust that rarely seem improved by regular cleaning. Investing in an indoor air quality solution such as an electrostatic air cleaner can help to target these particles and eliminate them from the air you breathe and the surfaces of your home.

Your Home Is Relatively New

New homes are built to better standards in terms of HVAC efficiency than ever before, improving air quality by ensuring that proper ventilation and efficient heating and cooling appliances are used. However, new homes can also be subject to a process called off-gassing, which occurs as materials such as fabrics, flooring, adhesives, paints, and varnishes release molecules called volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, into your air. VOCs are associated with respiratory irritation that can mimic asthma and allergies, as well as other chronic diseases following long-term exposure to these compounds. If your home is new and you aren’t sure whether low-VOC materials and paints were used in its construction, installing an indoor air quality product designed to neutralize VOCs can ensure that your home provides a comfortable and healthy environment from day one.

If you’d like to learn more about your home’s indoor air quality and how it affects your health, comfort, and daily costs, our expert HVAC technicians are here to help. We are pleased to offer comprehensive heating and AC service throughout the Columbus area, including indoor air quality products and solutions designed to create a healthier and more efficient home environment for your family. You can reach our AC company to request an appointment via our website, or continue reading about maintaining a comfortable and healthy home with the help of your HVAC system on our monthly blog.