Why an Energy-Efficient Residence Can Impact Air Quality and How to Make It Better
Houses today are designed with energy efficiency in mind. This entails extra insulation and tightly sealed doors and windows to keep heating and cooling costs down. While this is good for your energy costs, it’s not so great for your indoor air quality.
Since air has fewer chances to escape, contaminants can increase and reduce your residence’s indoor air quality. In actuality, your home’s air can actually be 2–5 times more polluted than the outdoors, according to the EPA. That’s not good for anyone, but it’s particularly detrimental for relatives with allergies, asthma, other respiratory disorders or heart disease.
Let’s review some of these everyday contaminants and how you can boost your residence’s indoor air quality.
6 Common Pollutants that Impact Indoor Air Quality
When you envision pollutants, you could think about smog or tobacco smoke. But a lot of substances that affect your air quality are everyday items. These things include chemicals called volatile organic compounds, or VOCs.
They involve:
- Cleaning products, including aerosol sprays, bleach and window cleaner.
- Personal care products, including hairspray, perfume and nail products.
- Candles and air fresheners.
- Formaldehyde, which is commonly used in plastic, foam and particleboard products.
- Furniture, window treatments and carpet, particularly when they’re brand new.
- Paints and stains.
Other typical pollutants include:
- Dust
- Pet dander
- Pollen
- Mold
Symptoms of VOC Exposure
Some people are more influenced by VOCs than others. The EPA says symptoms of VOC exposure involve:
- Irritated eyes, nose or throat
- Headaches
- Dizziness
- Fatigue
In severe cases, the EPA says VOCs can lead to respiratory and heart diseases.
4 Ways to Improve Your Residence’s Indoor Air Quality
It isn’t hard to improve your home’s air quality. Here are several suggestions from Harvard Medical School:
1. Clean Your House Frequently
Routinely cleaning and washing surfaces that attract allergens, including furniture, carpet and bedding, will help cut down on dust, dust mites and pet dander in your house.
2. Regularly Replace Your Air Filter
This critical filter keeps your residence comfortable and air fresh. How often you should change your air filter depends on the model of filter you have. Flat filters should be changed every month, while pleated filters should be replaced every three months. If you don’t know if your filter should be changed, take it out and tilt it to the light. Install a new one if you can’t see light through it.
If someone in your residence suffers from allergies or asthma, we advise using a filter with a greater MERV rating. The greater the number this is, the better your filter is at removing contaminants.
3. Improve Natural Ventilation
Keep fresh air in your home by opening windows whenever the temperature allows. We also advise running exhaust fans in your bathroom and kitchen as much as possible to get rid of pollutants and introduce more fresh air.
4. Chat Our Indoor Air Quality Pros
From whole-home air purifiers, Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning has a fix to help your household breathe more easily. We’ll help you find the ideal option during your free home comfort assessment. Contact us at 954-736-4314 to request yours today!
