In this article…
- What is Indoor Air Quality?
- What Are The Benefits Of Regulating Your Home’s IAQ?
- How to Improve Your Home’s Indoor Air Quality
- Improving Your Home’s IAQ And Maintaining Comfort Levels
The quality of the air we breathe is crucial to our comfort and for a healthy, functioning body. When the pollen count rises and smog levels increase around our cities, it impacts our day-to-day lives and makes breathing just a little bit harder.
We can’t control the weather or the earth’s air, but we can control the air quality of our homes, known as indoor air quality (IAQ).
IAQ defines the overall health of the air inside your home, taking into account humidity, temperature, pollutants, allergens, and more.
While you may not think about IAQ much when your home’s air quality is good, you’ll notice it when it dips below the norm. This is why monitoring and knowing ways to improve IAQ is essential to your health and comfort.
As a trusted air quality and comfort specialist since 1979, Wright Home Services has been helping San Antonio homeowners stay cool and breathe well throughout the changing seasons with high-quality repair and replacement services as well as IAQ upgrades.
Because we live in a climate with harsh temperatures, unpredictable weather, and intense pollen and allergies all year long, staying up-to-date on the latest IAQ upgrades and providing education to maintain your home’s IAQ is our mission.
While we do offer several IAQ additions for your home and HVAC system, including Aeroseal, Solaris Air Purification System, and UV stick lights, we aren’t here to talk about those amazing innovations. We’re here to educate you on IAQ so you can remain comfortable and keep your home’s air clean.
This article will define what indoor air quality is, why it’s important, how to regulate and improve your home’s IAQ, and more.
Then, you’ll not only have a thorough understanding of what IAQ exactly is and what it does but can take what you’ve learned and easily apply it to your home to improve your home’s IAQ and truly feel a difference in comfort.
What is Indoor Air Quality?
Indoor air quality (IAQ) is the condition of the air inside your home, particularly that concerns the health and comfort of occupants. It’s determined by several factors including the concentration of pollutants, humidity levels, ventilation, and temperature.
Common indoor air pollutants that lower IAQ in the home are…
- Dust
- Pet dander
- Pollen
- Microbial growth
- Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
- Gases like carbon monoxide
These contaminants come from various sources—your HVAC system, cleaning products, furnishings, and even from the outside environment.
Poor IAQ can lead to a range of health issues, from minor irritations like dry eyes and headaches to more serious conditions such as asthma, allergies, and even long-term respiratory diseases.
Learning the importance of indoor air quality and how it affects your home, family, and pets helps you to better see the benefits of regulating IAQ and know when to seek professional help.
Why Should I Monitor And Regulate My Home’s IAQ?
Regulating indoor air quality serves a critical purpose. It’s not just about comfort; it’s about protecting your well-being. It ensures the air you and your family breathe is clean and healthy.
When you regulate IAQ, you’re controlling the balance between pollutants and fresh air, which reduces the risk of illness and promotes a more comfortable living environment.
Poor IAQ can worsen pre-existing health conditions, particularly respiratory problems, while good IAQ can improve health outcomes and prevent potential problems from arising.
If you have allergies, asthma, or frequent respiratory infections, regulating your home’s indoor air quality is almost necessary to improve your health and make it easier to breathe.
Regulating your home’s IAQ also affects energy efficiency and comfort. If your HVAC system is optimized to clean and circulate air properly, your home will feel more comfortable, and your heating and cooling systems will run more efficiently.
For example, your air filters in receiving vents help maintain IAQ and keep your system running efficiently. If you don’t change your filters regularly, they become caked with dust and debris circulating throughout your home.
This debris can then make its way around the filter and into your system, decreasing its efficiency and lowering your home’s IAQ.
Ultimately, having good IAQ is not just about your health. It’s an essential aspect of maintaining a safe and functional AC.
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What Are The Benefits Of Regulating Your Home’s IAQ?
Maintaining healthy indoor air quality comes with a variety of advantages, spanning from health improvements to energy savings and improved HVAC efficiency.
Let’s expand on some of the top benefits of maintaining and improving your home’s indoor air quality.
1. Health Benefits
Reduced respiratory issues are one of the major benefits of regulating your home’s indoor air quality. Clean air helps prevent respiratory problems, including asthma attacks, sinus issues, and chronic coughing or wheezing.
Pollutants from microbial growth or dust mites can exacerbate these issues, so minimizing their presence is key.
If you or someone in your household suffers from seasonal allergies, improving your home’s IAQ can significantly reduce symptoms as well. Filtering out pollen, dander, and other airborne allergens leads to a more breathable environment.
On top of reduced respiratory problems and fewer allergies, a cleaner, fresher environment can also improve sleep quality. Allergens and irritants in the air can cause breathing difficulties at night, leading to restless sleep or even exacerbating conditions like sleep apnea.
2. Energy Efficiency
When air filters are clean, and your ventilation system is free of obstructions, your heating and cooling units don’t have to overwork to maintain your home’s temperature.
If your HVAC system isn’t working harder than it needs to, it runs more efficiently, saving you money on energy bills.
Regulating IAQ by maintaining your HVAC system, using proper insulation, and ensuring adequate ventilation can help lower your energy bills, too. Systems that filter and distribute air efficiently consume less energy and last longer.
3. Improved Overall Comfort
Good IAQ is about more than just clean air; it also involves maintaining the right levels of humidity and temperature. Dry air can be uncomfortable on your respiratory, while excessive humidity can allow for excess condensation to spark microbial growth.
Using a humidifier, dehumidifier, or air purifier will help remove excess moisture or dryness and even lingering odors.
When your air is clean, odors from cooking, pets, and household products dissipate more quickly. Regulating IAQ helps keep your home smelling fresh.
4. Long-Term Benefits
Routine IAQ maintenance, such as changing filters and cleaning ducts, extends the lifespan of your HVAC system. A well-maintained system won’t wear out as quickly, leading to fewer costly repairs.
If you plan to sell your home within the next few years, homes with excellent IAQ tend to have a higher resale value. Potential buyers are often willing to pay more for a home with up-to-date HVAC systems and proven measures to ensure good indoor air quality.
Overall, maintaining your home’s IAQ not only improves your comfort and health but provides your HVAC with long-term benefits, enhancing its efficiency and potentially increasing your home’s resale value.
How to Improve Your Home’s Indoor Air Quality
Improving your IAQ isn’t as difficult as it may sound, and it doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. Making a few simple upgrades and changes in your home can make significant improvements to the air you breathe indoors.
Here are some of the easiest and most effective ways to regulate and maintain your home’s IAQ.
1. Ensure Proper Ventilation Throughout Your Home
Ensuring proper ventilation is one of the most effective ways to improve IAQ. Opening windows for even a few minutes a day can help circulate fresh air and remove stale indoor air.
If opening windows and doors for a few minutes isn’t a viable option, mechanical ventilation systems such as exhaust fans or whole-house ventilation systems can be installed to ensure consistent air movement.
2. Utilize Air Purifiers and Filtration Systems
Air purifiers can help remove pollutants from the air, especially in homes with pets or those located in high-pollution areas. HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filters are particularly effective at trapping tiny particles like pollen, pet dander, and dust mites.
Inspecting and replacing air filters in your HVAC system is also standard practice to remove dust and dander from the home and improve IAQ.
3. Add Humidifiers and/or Dehumidifiers
Maintaining proper humidity levels is crucial for both comfort and health. Ideal indoor humidity levels range between 30-50%.
Too much humidity can make you feel sticky and uncomfortable, while too little humidity can dry out your skin and respiratory system.
Dehumidifiers can help in humid climates, while humidifiers are useful in dry environments.
4. Regular Cleaning and Maintenance
Regular cleaning is essential for controlling dust, dirt, and other allergens. Vacuuming carpets and rugs, wiping down surfaces, and washing bedding regularly will help reduce allergens.
Additionally scheduling routine HVAC maintenance ensures that filters are clean and the system is functioning efficiently.
5. Use Low-VOC Products
Many everyday cleaning products release VOCs into your home’s air, decreasing the quality of air you breathe. You can improve IAQ by choosing low-VOC paints, furniture, and cleaning products.
These alternatives emit fewer harmful chemicals and are safer for indoor environments, especially in poorly ventilated areas, and will help you and your pets breathe better.
Improving Your Home’s IAQ And Maintaining Comfort Levels
Now that you have a full understanding of what indoor air quality is, how it affects your home, and what you can do to regulate it, you can go forth and make the necessary adjustments to improve your home’s IAQ and make it more comfortable for the entire family.
Remember that temperature, humidity, allergens, dust, dander, and air pollutants are the top factors that affect IAQ in the home.
By monitoring each of these items and noticing if any major changes occur, you can take action to regulate them and make sure you continue to breathe easy.
To improve your home’s indoor air quality, remember to
- Ensure proper ventilation and air circulation throughout the home
- Invest in an air purifier
- Inspect and change air filters regularly
- Utilize a humidifier or dehumidifier
- Vacuum, dust, and clean regularly
- Use products with low VOCs when possible
Implementing even just a few of these tips can drastically improve your home’s air quality and provide a noticeable difference in the way you breathe.
Now, while these tips can be applied by ordering an air purifier online or visiting a big box store, you may be interested in professional IAQ upgrades.
At Wright Home Services, we offer top-of-the-line IAQ upgrades from Aeroseal and Solaris. Aeroseal is a duct sealant that seals your ducts from the inside while Solaris is a complete air purification system that is installed in your HVAC system.
Along with these additions, learning all about indoor air quality upgrades and maintaining your HVAC unit will help regulate your home’s IAQ and improve the longevity of your system.
If you’ve noticed an increased amount of dust in your home or have been sneezing when your AC turns on, your HVAC system may be the problem of your home’s IAQ.
To get the answer and know if your system needs improvements, check out this article that goes over signs your HVAC system is lowering your IAQ, ways to fix it, and when you may need professional help.
