Indoor air quality sometimes falls on our list of concerns when we’re focused on the condition of air outside. With smog, pollution, and ozone hanging over many cities in America, as well as around the world, that’s fair. What a lot of people don’t realize is the air inside our homes, offices, and other indoor spaces can be more polluted than the air outside. Make the indoor air quality of your home a priority to keep your family happy and healthy.
Dehumidify
Mold and dust mites thrive in damp environments and are huge contributors to poor indoor air quality. Certain molds produce harmful allergens and toxins that can negatively affect your health. To avoid the growth of mold and presence of dust mites and other allergens, keep the humidity between 30 percent and 50 percent. An easy way to do that is to install a whole house dehumidifier. That way you can have control of your entire home. You can even localize dehumidification to certain rooms that are more susceptible to moisture.
Air conditioning systems and dehumidifiers work well together in homes, especially in spring and summer months when allergies are prevalent. Another great way to remove mold, bacteria, and other pollutants and allergens is to install UV lights that work with your HVAC system. We install UV Lights from BreatheClean, Second Wind, and other great brands to make your home’s indoor air quality as clean as possible.
Use Natural Products
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are other culprits that bring down the quality of air inside your home. VOCs are a variety of organic chemicals released as gasses into the air from household products such as soaps, detergents, paints, varnishes, and other cleaning and disinfecting products. They can even be found in furniture materials, adhesives, and cosmetics. You can reduce the number of VOCs emitted in your home by steering clear of synthetic air fresheners. Use natural cleaning and personal care products. Make sure you’re reading labels of products before you buy them. Ensure they are eco-friendly, natural, non-toxic, and safe to use indoors.
Update and Mitigate
We offer a variety of indoor air quality products that can gauge temperature, humidity levels, carbon dioxide and monoxide levels, and other pollutants. However, the most important factor of your indoor air quality is the blower motor of your furnace or air handler. Updating your current system will not only be energy efficient, but also significantly improve your home’s air quality.
Odor Mitigation is another service we provide that will not only improve your indoor air quality, but also rid your home of unpleasant smells such as cigarette smoke, pet odors, and garbage odors.
Out with the Bad, In with the Good
In addition to a dehumidifier and odor mitigation, installing an air exchanger can help improve your home’s indoor air quality. It will manage humidity levels, remove pollutants, and bring in fresh, clean air from outside.
If you’re not keen on opening your windows every day, or you simply can’t in the winter because you live in Minnesota, a heat recovery ventilator air exchange system is the answer. An HRV will bring fresh air into your home with the absence of pollutants, allergens, and moisture. An HRV system will capture heat before transferring the air to outside. It will also move stale air out and prevent moisture buildup.
We can also install energy recovery ventilators (ERVs). ERVs minimize energy loss by controlling the ventilation of your home to the outside.
Clean and Replace Often
Simply mopping, dusting, and vacuuming weekly will drastically reduce the amount of pollutants in your home. Also using an air purification system and replacing the filter often will improve your home’s indoor air quality by leaps and bounds. Some air purifiers even contain carbon components that can absorb odor as well as pollen, mold, pet dander, and other allergens.
Contact Stafford Home Service Inc. with any questions about how we can help improve the indoor air quality of your home.
