Sorry to break it to you, but your home likely has poor indoor air quality. We don’t know this for 100% certain, but poor IAQ is a major problem across the country in homes and commercial buildings. Because the design of modern homes emphasizes energy efficiency, they often have such “tight” construction that they don’t allow for fresh air circulation. Airborne pollutants from inside sources—and there are many—will start to build up indoors without any way to escape.
You don’t have to just live with bad IAQ. You can help improve the quality of the air you and your family breathe with both simple steps and help from our IAQ professionals. Let’s get into what you can do for healthier indoor air.
Dust more often
A simple one to start with: with less dust in the home, there’s less dust for the HVAC system to circulate. And whenever you empty out the filter or bag from your vacuum cleaner, do it outside so all that dust doesn’t get reintroduced into the house.
Open up windows when you can
Nature has some of the best tools for cleaning your indoor air—the power in many air purifiers is designed after nature’s methods of dispersing and neutralizing contaminants. Bringing in fresh air also helps to clean out many airborne contaminants. You can’t have the windows open all the time because of weather conditions, but give your house the chance to breathe whenever it’s feasible.
Install an energy/heat recovery ventilator
Here’s a way to bring in fresh air to the house without bringing in extreme heat or cold from outside. These devices, ERVs and HRVs, draw fresh air into the HVAC system but use the air inside the house to pre-heat or pre-cool it. You’ll have the fresh air you want without seeing your heating and cooling bills explode.
Install air filters
Standard air filters are one of the best and most cost-effective ways to have cleaner air. These filters aren’t the same as the current filter on the HVAC cabinet that you change every few months. That filter doesn’t help with IAQ, it just protects the interior of the HVAC system. IAQ professionals can integrate specialized air filters into the ductwork that will remove dust, dander, pollen, dust mites, and other particles from circulating through the house.
Install an air purifier
Air purifiers work well at eliminating the contaminants that slip through filters. They don’t use mesh to trap pollutants but instead clean the air with processes like ionization and UV lights. One of our favorites to install for our customers is the Air Scrubber with Aerus’s ActivePure technology. This air purifier is effective on many microbes, viruses, germs, and mold spores. This isn’t your only option for an air purifier in Green, OH. Our team will examine your home and help determine the type of air purification system to help your house.
Change the standard air filter regularly
We mentioned this filter above and said it doesn’t help improve IAQ. This is true. But it can hurt IAQ if it’s left in place for months! Change the filter every 1 to 3 months so it doesn’t get that chance.