When it comes to keeping their home comfortable, a lot of homeowners tend to focus on climate control. This is to be expected, especially during the summer and winter seasons. However, it’s not the only thing you need to worry about.
Indoor air quality is typically very low in homes across the country, mainly due to lack of knowledge regarding the effects it can have on your health and comfort. Let’s take a look at why indoor air quality is such an important thing for you to maintain, and how you can do it.
Why It’s Important
The average home’s air contains tens of millions of microscopic airborne contaminants. Such particulates include dust, dander, dirt, pollen, viruses, bacteria, and mold spores, to name a few. Long-term exposure to these contaminants can cause a wide range of negative effects. You may find yourself having allergy attacks more often, or getting cold and flu infections. If you have asthma or some other chronic respiratory problem, you will find it harder to breathe in areas with poor indoor air quality.
Humidity levels can also dramatically affect the quality of your air. Chronic humidity makes it harder for your body to cool itself, and increases the rate at which mold grows throughout the home. Low humidity can weaken your defenses against disease, and make many parts of your home more prone to being damaged in various ways. These are all reasons why it’s important for you to have your indoor air quality as high as possible.
How to Maintain High Indoor Air Quality
If you want to keep your indoor air quality as high as you can, the best thing to do is to consult with a professional about what is keeping your quality low in the first place. If the cause of your low indoor air quality is airborne contaminants, then the best thing to do is to install an air filter or purifier to remove them. These purifiers come in many different varieties, with each suited to removing a different range of airborne contaminants. If you’re concerned about humidity levels, then you should install a humidifier or dehumidifier.
Just as with air purifiers and filters, dehumidifiers and humidifiers work in different ways to keep the humidity levels of your home within normal parameters. Humidifiers will often introduce water vapor into the ductwork, to be circulated around the home while the climate control systems are on. Dehumidifiers, on the other hand, will often use desiccants or refrigerant to siphon humidity out of the airflow. As always, you should make sure that you consult with a professional in-person before you make any decisions about what indoor air quality systems to install in your home.