How healthy is the air quality inside your home?
How often do you think about the air quality inside your home? Also, do you ever think it may affect your and your family’s health? If you’ve been experiencing persistent allergy attacks, coughing, or discomfort in your airway, poor indoor air quality may be to blame.
Poor air quality can be caused by tobacco products, certain building materials, household cleaning products, outdoor air pollution, excess moisture, and indoor pets, to name a few. Inadequate ventilation and high humidity levels within our HVAC systems can also contribute to poor indoor air quality. Children, the elderly, and persons with breathing difficulties, lung diseases, or allergies are the most affected by poor indoor air quality.
Indoor Air Quality and Allergies
One of the most common health problems associated with poor indoor air quality is indoor allergies. Furthermore, allergic reactions to airborne contaminants drifting in the air that affect your skin, eyes, sinuses, respiratory system, or digestive system. The severity of an allergic reaction varies. It ranges from minor skin or eye irritation to a potentially fatal condition called anaphylaxis.
Mold, pollen, dust mites, and pet dander are just a few of the airborne allergens that can be circulating throughout your home via our HVAC units. Even more importantly, if you suffer from allergies, your HVAC system could be making them worse. Here are three reasons why:
Dirty Air Filters
Clogged, dirty air filters can have a significant impact on the air quality within your home. Therefore, it is important you change your air filters regularly and avoid using washable air filters. Fiberglass air filters are an inexpensive option for homes with adequate air quality. In contrast, homes with poor air quality can use polyester and pleated air filters to effectively remove up to 40% of the existing air pollutants.
Contaminated Air Ducts
Dust and debris can collect in our air ducts, allowing allergens and other contaminants to enter the air inside our homes. Therefore, having your air ducts regularly inspected and cleaned is an effective way to prevent allergens from spreading throughout your home.
Condensation and Humidity Collecting in Cooling Coils, Humidifiers, Condensate Pans
Humidity doesn’t cause allergies. However, the dark, damp spaces within HVAC systems, especially in and around the cooling coils, humidifiers, and condensate pans are a perfect environment for mold, mildew, bacteria, and other allergens. Therefore, regular maintenance of HVAC units can prevent a lot of these problems.
According to the EPA, in addition to allergens, HVAC units can circulate the following throughout your home:
- Infectious illnesses such as influenza, measles, and chickenpox
- Secondhand smoke
- Radon
- Formaldehyde
- Asbestos, especially in older homes and businesses
- Volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, released from household cleaning products
Worried About Indoor Air Quality? Give Home Comfort USA a Call
Home Comfort USA wants you and your family to live in the most comfortable and healthiest indoor environment possible. Unfortunately, problems with HVAC systems often lead to problems with air quality. If your heating and cooling bills are higher than usual, or your system isn’t working as effectively as it once was, call Home Comfort USA to come out and take a look.
We’ll inspect your HVAC system for condensation, clean the ductwork, replace any dirty air filters, remove any obstructions, and fix any mechanical problems that affect the operation of your HVAC system and the air quality within your home.
You can trust Home Comfort USA to deliver expert, dependable service and repair to your home’s entire HVAC system. We know how committed you are to providing a safe and healthy environment for your family and we will do everything we can to ensure the air your family breathes is as fresh and clean as possible. Also, we’re always up-front and honest with our customers about the work we do. In fact, we strive to deliver 100 % customer satisfaction; our commitment to outstanding customer service has earned Home Comfort USA a 2018 Angie’s List Super Service Award.
Home Comfort USA provides expert installation, repair, and maintenance of HVAC systems services to customers in the Southern California area. Contact us online! Or you can also call us at 1-888-462-0089, and we’ll send our licensed HVAC contractors to fix the problem ASAP.
