To Improve Indoor Air Quality, Take these Effective Steps

It might be hard to believe, but studies have shown that the air inside your home is likely dirtier than the air just outside the door, and that’s even if you live in an urban area.

With people spending as much as 90 percent of their time indoors, most of it in their own homes, dirty interior air can adversely affect both your family’s health and its quality of life.

Some homes are too air-tight

Unlike most aspects of home life that have improved with technology, the drive toward energy efficiency has resulted in residential construction that emphasizes tighter homes, with as little air exchange as possible between inside and outside.

This is a good thing for your household budget, but not so great when it comes to healthy indoor air. Indoor air with no easy way to exchange with fresh outdoor air gradually gets stale and uncomfortable to breathe. It gets increasingly contaminated with undesirable particulates.

You don’t have to live with dirty air

Fortunately, steps can be taken to ensure a regular exchange of air in your home, and some building contractors take this necessity into account when designing and building homes.

However, if your home is suffering from poor indoor air quality, for whatever reason, following are some effective tips for cleaning your interior air, allowing you and your family to breathe easier and healthier.

• Eliminate pollution sources inside your home. These can include

1. chemical-based air fresheners and cleaners,
2. pesticides,
3. paints and stains and
4. furniture or rugs/carpets that emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

If you can’t remove them from the home, make sure they’re tightly closed and/or placed in a room that’s closed off from the rest of the house. Where furniture is concerned, consider selecting floor models that have had a chance to “off-gas” their VOCs.

• Invest in a mid-efficiency or better air filter for your forced-air heating and cooling system. Make sure you check it once a month and switch it out when it looks clogged with dust and debris.
• Add or upgrade ventilation.

1. This can be as simple as opening windows and sliding doors during mild weather.
2. Consider an attic fan in order to create a draft in the home that hastens air exchange.
3. Always use the exhaust fans in bathrooms and the kitchen in order to remove odors, moisture and contaminated air.
4. Consider setting your forced-air HVAC system to “fan-only” or “on” (as opposed to “auto”) so the blower is operating even when the thermostat hasn’t called for heated or cooled air.

• Schedule a radon test for your home. Make sure carbon monoxide detectors are placed throughout the house, and equipped with fresh batteries.
• Employ effective humidity control. Without it, you can get unhealthy mold growth in a damp, clammy home that has no way to dry out the air or exchange moist air with dry air.
• Repair leaks immediately and clean up any wetness around pipes or appliances. Consider a whole-house dehumidifier, or at the very least, utilize portable models in areas that have particular issues with muggy air.
• Get in the habit of cleaning your home regularly, in order to eliminate potential contaminants, including

1. pet dander,
2. dust mites,
3. mold spores and even
4. viruses and bacteria.

• If you’re serious about ensuring clean indoor air, invest in a dedicated whole home air purifier for your Cincinnati residence. These can remove the vast majority of contaminants.

If you use Jansen Heating & Cooling for your HVAC maintenance anywhere in Greater Cincinnati, we can provide advice for improving air quality specific to your home.