How Air Quality Can Help Homeowners
Indoor air quality (or IAQ, for short) is frequently talked about and often misunderstood. The factors that cause either good or bad indoor air quality, as well as how it can be improved are all very important to understand, especially in homes with people who may be suffering from complications related to asthma or allergies.
What Exactly Is Indoor Air Quality?
Poor indoor air quality can mean bad smell, but it can also be potentially dangerous. In some cases, indoor air has been found to be up to five times more polluted than the air outside the home. Often, this is due to the way that air recirculates, moving the pollutants and contaminants throughout the home on a constant basis.
Indoor air quality can be affected by things like mold, mildew, pet hair, tobacco smoke, and dust. Signs that the home may be dealing with poor indoor air quality include lingering smells, frequently fogging windows, mold growth, and damp clothes, or even rooms.
How Can Indoor Air Quality Be Improved?
There are several ways to improve the air quality in a home.
It’s important to regularly change the air filter on the HVAC unit, which is generally recommended every few months even in homes without pets or smokers. In homes with these, the air filter will need to be changed more frequently. In either case, this should also be partnered with frequent vacuuming and dusting to remove excess hair, dust, and other contaminants.
Another less frequently known tip is one of the easiest to enact: simply using the bathroom vent fan! Running the fan for at least 10 minutes prior to a bath or shower, and keeping it running for at least 20 minutes afterward can reduce the likelihood of mold and mildew growth.
Adding plants to the home is also helpful, as plants naturally pull contaminants out of the air and replace them with freshly produced oxygen. And they look great too!
Air Purifiers Vs. UV Air Sanitizers
There are two common tools that allow homeowners to keep their air clean – air purifiers and UV air sanitizers.
Air purifiers clean the air by filtering out contaminants. They do this one of two ways – either using passive air purifying technology or active air purifying technology. In either case, they capture the contaminants by pulling the air into the device and forcing it through a filter. The particles are physically captured and held by the filter, recirculating clean, purified air throughout the home. This is extremely helpful for reducing the symptoms of asthma and allergies.
UV air sanitizers are essentially air purifiers that use UV light instead of filters to clean the air. The type of UV employed by these air sanitizers is UV-C, which can be safely used around humans but kills airborne germs like bacteria and viruses by destroying their DNA. A home that has people who may be immunocompromised in addition to suffering from asthma or allergies may benefit from this additional level of filtration. And the cleaner the air, the better the sleep!
About All Clear Plumbing
All Clear Plumbing has been located in Belleville, New Jersey since 1952. Their reliable team of trusted technicians is licensed and insured. They offer flat-rate pricing and 24/7 emergency service and can help with indoor air quality solutions too.
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