How to Improve Indoor Air Quality and Remove Allergens from Your Home
If you have allergies, the onset of new seasons isn’t always a walk in the park. Pollen in the air can leave you sneezing and congested.
Your home should be your respite from airborne allergens. But if your central air filters and purifiers aren’t doing the job right, the air quality in your home will suffer — meaning you and your family will suffer, too.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), indoor air pollution can have harmful immediate and long-term effects, including irritated eyes, nose and throat and more serious respiratory diseases.
If you or a family member suffers from asthma, pollutants and allergens in your home can directly affect your or your family’s asthmatic symptoms.
Central air filters and purifiers can improve your home’s indoor air quality and offer much-needed relief.
What Is Indoor Air Quality and Why Is It Important?
Indoor air quality, or IAQ, describes the air purity in your home. Airborne pollutants, contaminants and pathogens can lower the IAQ of your home.
If your home’s IAQ is low, it can trigger allergic or asthmatic symptoms. And this discomfort can become unbearable during high-allergy seasons.
How to Improve Your Home’s Indoor Air Quality
Maintaining your home’s central furnace or air handler air filter, in tandem with installing a central air purifier, is a winning combination to keep your home’s IAQ pure. Plus, certain lifestyle changes can also help you cut down on allergens and pollutants that decrease your home’s IAQ.
Here are three ways you can improve the IAQ of your home:
1. Replace your air filter regularly
The air filter in your home captures airborne dust, dirt and debris that would otherwise circulate through your furnace and air conditioning system. Without a clean air filter, this debris can end up in your respiratory system.
A good rule of thumb is to check your air filter monthly, comparing it to a new filter of the same thickness. If you notice a lot of dirt-build up on your filter, it’s probably time to replace it.
2. Install a central air purifier
A central air purifier helps strip even more contaminants from your home’s heating and air conditioning system. It works with your HVAC equipment to trap smaller dust particles, allergens and pathogens that your air filter may have missed.
A well-maintained central air purifier that has been installed correctly can improve the IAQ in your home, especially if you or a family member suffers from asthma or airborne allergies.
Annual maintenance appointments ensure that your air purifier and HVAC system effectively keep your home’s indoor air quality pure and allergen-free.
Before installing your central air purifier, consult with your contractor to understand product options and pricing. Your contractor can visit your home before installation to address any concerns about the installation process, and to make sure there’s enough room in your ducting for the purifier.
Portable air purifiers are typically made to condition just one modest-sized room, so they’re not an efficient or cost-effective solution for an entire home.
3. Lifestyle changes that can help
Simple lifestyle changes can help improve your home’s indoor air quality and reduce allergens, so you and your family can breathe easier.
Smoke outside: If you or anyone in your home smokes, make sure they keep it outside. Cigarette smoke can get trapped in curtains, carpet and paint, and second-hand smoke can lead to wheezing, uncontrolled asthma, lung infections and even lung cancer.
Clean often: Frequent dusting, vacuuming the carpets of your home, and mopping hard floors helps cut down on airborne pathogens and allergens in your home like dust, dander and hair. This is especially helpful for your home’s indoor air quality if you have pets.
Use your A/C: If you leave your windows open, outdoor air can welcome gas emissions from cars, pollution, allergens and dust into your home. Running your air conditioning system can alleviate those intruders.
Make your home an oasis for you and your family to escape the dusty, allergy-inducing air of the season. Find an air filter and purifier to make your home’s indoor air quality pure and sneeze-free>
