Improve Indoor Air Quality to Make Your Home a Haven From the Cincinnati Heat
The air in your greater Cincinnati home may be dirtier than you think.
In addition to particles such as mold spores, pollen and bacteria, gaseous contaminants resulting from operating combustion appliances and using household cleaners can aggravate allergies and asthma and cause health problems later on. You can improve indoor air quality using a three-pronged approach: source control, ventilation and air cleaners.
Source Control
Preventing contaminants from entering your home to begin with is your best defense against poor indoor air quality.
- Remove your shoes when you enter your home to avoid tracking pollutants through your rooms.
- Use nontoxic cleaning solutions to reduce chemical contaminants.
- Avoid air fresheners, which contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Use natural deodorizers such as baking soda or diffused essential oils.
- Maintain your combustion appliances to reduce emissions in your home.
Ventilation
Bringing fresh air inside and sending stale air outdoors is essential for good indoor air quality, especially if you live in a newer, tightly-sealed home. Improve indoor air quality with the following tips:
- Open your windows on nice days.
- Use your kitchen and bathroom vents when cooking or showering.
- Consider a mechanical ventilation system. Heat recovery ventilators, or HRVs, recover the heat from the outgoing air to warm the incoming air. Energy recovery ventilators, or ERVs, remove the humidity from outdoor air coming in.
Air Cleaning Technologies
The air filter in your HVAC system traps particles in your home’s air. It’s important to inspect your filter monthly and change it when it’s dirty. Additionally, you can use one or more of these air cleaners to remove more particles or gaseous pollutants from your air:
- Mechanical air filters trap particles on filter material.
- Electronic air cleaners use electrostatic attraction to charge particles and collect them on oppositely-charged plates or cause them to attach to nearby surfaces to be picked up by hand.
- Gas phase air filters use a sorbent like activated charcoal to absorb certain gaseous contaminants.
Apollo Home Heating, Cooling and Plumbing proudly serves the greater Cincinnati area with a high level of customer satisfaction. For more expert advice about how to improve indoor air quality, please feel free to contact us.
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