View Specials
Request Service
6 Tips for Increasing the Indoor Air Quality of Your Home
Although you may not be able to see them, it’s likely that a number of contaminants are floating around your home’s indoor air at any given time. While it’s virtually impossible to eliminate every pollutant in your home, it’s absolutely worth making an effort to achieve cleaner air. By reducing the number of airborne contaminants, you can improve your comfort, lower the likelihood of respiratory problems, and make life much easier for anyone in your household with allergies or asthma. And fortunately, there are quite a few simple ways to improve your home’s indoor air quality. Here, we’ll look at a few of the most effective ones to try out in your St. Peters, MO area household.
1. Replace Your HVAC Air Filters Regularly
Whenever you have the heat or AC turned on, your household HVAC system is circulating air. And to ensure that the number of pollutants being cycled into the airflow is kept to a minimum, your heating and cooling units are equipped with air filters. As these systems circulate air to keep your home comfortable, the air filters are constantly trapping the airborne contaminants that pass through. However, your HVAC filters can only continue to be effective if you regularly switch them out.
HVAC air filters only have so much room for pollutant particles, and if you neglect to replace them, they’ll eventually become dirty or clogged. Once that happens, you can no longer count on the air filters functioning well. They will be unable to continue catching contaminants, which means far more of those particles will end up in the air you’re breathing every day. Plus, the clogged air filters will worsen the performance, health, and energy efficiency of your HVAC system. Ideally, you should switch your HVAC air filters out for clean ones every month or two, and it’s always a good idea to monitor their cleanliness. If you ever find them to be dirty, you would be wise to change them as soon as possible.
2. Schedule Professional Duct Cleaning
Although you may not be aware of it, various contaminants are gradually accumulating inside your home’s air ducts over time. And if you haven’t had those ducts professionally cleaned in several years, there’s a good chance that they’ve become quite dirty. Since your heating and cooling units must blow air through your ductwork, the air tends to pick up many of those pollutants. Then, when that air flows from your household vents, the pollutants end up contaminating your indoor air.
In addition to worsening your indoor air quality, dirty air ducts can have numerous negative effects on your household. So, it’s crucial to schedule professional ductwork cleaning every couple of years. When you schedule this service, ductwork professionals will clear all of the dust, dirt, mold, dander, and debris out of all your home’s air ducts. As a result, your HVAC system will have clean, clear pathways to circulate air, which will ensure that the air you breathe is significantly healthier.
3. Purchase Indoor Plants
Did you know that indoor plants can do more than just improve the aesthetic of your living space? If you select the right types of plants and purchase a good number of them, it can greatly improve your home’s indoor air quality. By simply living in your house, many types of indoor plants can actively work as natural air filters. There are quite a few plants that will work, but a few great options are ferns, peace lilies, and spider plants. That said, it’s important to remember that you’ll need quite a few indoor plants to make a significant impact on the air quality, so don’t hesitate to buy lots of them!
4. Keep Your Home Clean
Typically, there’s a direct connection between the overall cleanliness of your home and the quality of your indoor air. The reason for this is pretty simple. When your dwelling is filled with particles of dust, dirt, and other contaminants, many of them will inevitably end up in the air you’re breathing. So, the better job you do of eliminating dust and dirt around your home, the cleaner your air is likely to be.
If you’re not a big fan of cleaning, there’s certainly no need to keep your household immaculate at all times. However, if you can at least make a habit of wiping down floors, dusting surfaces, and vacuuming carpets regularly, it can make a pretty big difference. Additionally, you should regularly take your rugs and mats outside and shake them out or bat them together. That will ensure that the dust and dirt are safely removed from your home’s interior.
5. Use a Dehumidifier
When most people think about air quality, they only tend to think about the actual pollutants floating around in the air. However, it’s also important to consider the amount of moisture in your indoor air. If your home’s air has a high humidity level, it can create a perfect environment for a nasty fungus-like mold to grow and flourish. Dampness in the air can also lead to a variety of unpleasant respiratory symptoms, such as coughing and wheezing.
Missouri can get pretty humid during certain times of the year, and if you think there’s excessive moisture in your indoor air, it’s worth investing in a dehumidifier. These systems are very effective at removing water particles from the air. With one in your household, you should be able to set the precise humidity level that you want to maintain, and the dehumidifier will take care of the rest.
6. Purchase an Air Purifier
One of the most straightforward ways to improve your indoor air quality is to buy one or more air purifiers. There are a wide variety of air purification systems available on the market, and many of them do an exceptional job of filtering pollutants out of oxygen. Typically, the best choice is to choose an air purifier that has a high-efficiency particulate absorbing (HEPA) filter. It has been shown that HEPA filters are capable of removing over 99% of harmful particles from the air. Additionally, many modern air purifiers are capable of detecting the amount of pollution in their general vicinity. They can then automatically adjust their fan speed as needed to be as effective as possible.
If you like, you can purchase multiple air purifiers and place them in several different sections of your home. Doing so will undoubtedly make a significant difference in the overall quality of your indoor air. However, it’s important to remember that air purifiers have limitations. While they are very effective at what they do, they typically can’t filter pollutants like smoke, mold spores, excess carbon dioxide, and certain allergens.
Since 2004, we at Agers Heating & Air Conditioning have been faithfully serving residents of the greater St. Peters area. Our team works diligently to keep all of our customers healthy, comfortable, and completely satisfied with our services. When you need professional indoor air quality, heating, or cooling services, we’re always available to assist you. Give us a call at Agers Heating & Air Conditioning today to schedule an appointment with our skilled team.
