If you or a member of your household suffers from allergies throughout the spring and summer seasons, you’re likely concerned with the air quality inside your home. Poor-quality air can contribute to excessive allergens and cause flare-ups while you’re trying to relax at home with your family. Fortunately, there are many different things that you can do to help improve the quality of air inside of your home to reduce the amount of allergens and minimize your flare-ups.
HVAC Air Filter
By far, one of the easiest and most cost-effective things you can do is choose an HVAC air filter with a high MERV rating. The higher the MERV rating, the better the air filter’s filtering capability. While MERV ratings run up to 20, residential air conditioning systems can only handle a filter with a rating up to 13.
If you use anything higher, it could cause excessive strain on your air conditioning system and can prematurely deteriorate its internal components. Be sure to check the air filter in your HVAC system at least once a month and replace it whenever necessary.
Duct Cleaning and Sealing
Another great strategy to help set up your home for great indoor air quality is to get duct cleaning service. This is where one of our professionals will come out and thoroughly clean the inside of all your air ducts to remove any debris buildup that could be decreasing the air quality in your home. One popular service to pair with duct cleaning is getting ductwork sealing.
Over time, joints in your ductwork can open up due to the natural expansion and contraction caused by different temperatures. When these air leaks develop, they can allow your precious air conditioning to escape and cause unwanted airborne debris from inside your wall and floor cavities to pass into your ductwork. By investing in duct sealing service when you get duct cleaning service, you can ensure that your ductwork is free of any gaps and is squeaky clean.
Extended Media Filters
An extended media filter can also be a great option for improving your home’s indoor air quality This is a filtration device that has multiple filters, each responsible for filtering out different particles from your air. An extended media filter gets installed inside your return ducting to treat all the air coming into your HVAC system. An extended media filter is a great mid-range option for enhancing indoor air quality without spending an arm and a leg.
UV Sanitizing Lights
UV sanitizing lights are among the absolute best filtration devices you can get for your home. There are two different styles of lights that you can purchase: air sanitizing lights and coil sanitizing lights. As the name suggests, air sanitizing lights sit within your return ducting and treat the air as it flows through the ductwork. The coil sanitizing light sits over the evaporator coil inside your indoor air handler unit and treats the coil as well as the air.
Unlike the traditional air filter, UV sanitizing lights do not remove unwanted airborne particles. Instead, UV sanitizing lights have germicidal properties that disrupt the DNA of airborne contaminants, rendering them unable to reproduce and eventually causing them to die off. We typically recommend professionally replacing the light at least once a year to maintain optimal indoor air quality.
Whole-Home Dehumidifier
Humidity can affect how frequently you experience allergy flare-ups. When humidity levels are too high inside your home, they can encourage mold and mildew growth. High humidity levels can even cause dust mites and other airborne contaminants to thrive. These mold spores and other airborne contaminants can cause allergy flare-ups and respiratory irritation for many.
Investing in a whole-home dehumidification system is another great way to control the humidity levels inside your home during the hot summer months. This system includes a device that fits inside your return ducting to treat air as it passes through to your HVAC system. A whole-home dehumidification system will connect to your thermostat so that you can set the ideal indoor humidity level and dehumidify the air as needed. Ideally, you’ll want your indoor air quality to be below 50%. Most HVAC experts recommend setting it between 30 and 50% for optimal health and safety.
Use Exhaust Fans
One thing that you always want to ensure you regularly do throughout the year is using your exhaust fans. You should have an exhaust fan in your bathrooms that you can turn on whenever you shower so that the excess moisture and airborne pollutants can escape outdoors. You should also have an exhaust fan over your stove to help divert steam and other allergens When cooking with oil at high temperatures, the resulting steam can include airborne toxins that can irritate your allergies.
Minimize Indoor Polluting Activities
Many homeowners engage in activities that can create toxic airborne particles and reduce the air quality inside their homes. When you use harsh cleaning products, they release unnecessary VOCs into your air. You’re better off using organic or green products that don’t have these VOCs.
Lighting candles or incense inside your home is another source of VOCs and unwanted airborne particulate matter. Try to minimize open flames in your home as much as possible. When painting, opt for low-VOC paints. Additionally, avoid smoking inside your home, as tobacco smoke contains harmful chemicals that can irritate your allergies. The smoke can also penetrate soft surfaces, leaving toxins behind that can continue to irritate respiratory passages for years.
Keep Up With Regular Household Cleaning
While investing in the solutions above is a great way to boost your indoor air quality, regular household cleaning is necessary to keep it that way. Use a HEPA filter vacuum daily to remove airborne contaminants from your carpeting and flooring. Regularly dust surfaces and mop your floors to remove allergens that have accumulated. Pet beds, bedding, and curtains can all contain allergens and other contaminants, so launder and clean them periodically as well to reduce the risk of particles becoming airborne and circulating through your ductwork and home.
Indoor Air Quality Assessments
When it comes to indoor air quality, you need to start with a professional indoor air quality assessment. One of our technicians will come to your home and test the air in various areas to determine the concentration of known airborne contaminants. This will give you some insight into some of the biggest problems in your home so that you can focus on prioritizing them. Plan to schedule another indoor air quality assessment a month or two after implementing new air filtration and treatment devices so that you can determine how effective they are at improving the quality of air inside your home.
Expert Indoor Air Quality Service
Central Heating & Air Conditioning offers expert indoor air quality service to the great people of the Billings, MT community. We can also help with all your HVAC repair, installation, and AC maintenance needs. Call our friendly staff today to book your next service consultation.
