4 Indoor Air Quality Tips for Winter

During winter, the temperature isn’t the only factor you need to consider. You may or may not know it, you also need to think about your home’s indoor air quality. Since airing out your home is highly unlikely, you have to find other ways to make sure your family breathes clean, fresh air indoors.

Four Seasons Air Specialists is your trusted HVAC company in Shoreview MN. We are experts at purifying the air that circulates in your home. Here are four tips you should look into.

Use Indoor  Plants

You can grow some indoor plants to improve your indoor air quality. Several studies, including one conducted by NASA, have associated indoor plants with better indoor air quality. Houseplants can soak up harmful pollutants in the air. They work perfectly in enclosed spaces and rooms with little to zero airflow. While plants may be slower than air purifiers in purifying indoor air, they do have other significant benefits. For example, they are more therapeutic and economical than mechanical air purifiers.

However, you need a certain number of plants to make this work. Your indoor air quality will benefit from about 2-3 plants for every 100-square feet of indoor space. Some plants are also better than others at cleaning the air. Chinese evergreens, Areca palm, snake plant, and money plant are examples of good indoor plants to consider to improve your indoor air quality.

Observe Indoor Air Quality

To have better air quality indoors, you must first know the status of your indoor air quality. Indoor air quality monitors (IAQ monitors) provide detailed information on air quality, allowing you to take effective improvement steps. The best IAQ monitors today can detect nearly all indoor pollutants, including radon. This chemical is associated with over 13 percent of all lung cancer-related deaths in the U.S. IAQ monitors can detect also recognize organic compounds (VOCs) responsible for many respiratory ailments.

The advantages of monitoring indoor air quality include identifying the specific pollutant in your home. With this piece of information, you can find effective ways of getting rid of that pollutant. You will have the ability to know exactly when to increase ventilation when the levels of a certain pollutant go beyond a certain level.

A good air quality monitor will check many other metrics, including indoor temperature, air pressure, and humidity. These factors are linked to how we feel and function. Issues in temperature, air pressure, and humidity are common causes of headaches, migraines, joint pain, and other similar health concerns.

Use a Humidifier

Winter air can cause you to have cracked skin and lips, runny nose, etc. While most people think that it is the warm air from your furnace that’s causing these problems, the dryness of the air comes from the outside.

When the outside temperature reaches the freezing point, the air gets very dry. Regardless of how insulated your home may be, that cold air will still find its way indoors. Too much dry air can cause many problems, including dry skin.

Your immune system depends on the mucus in your nose to catch germs before they get into your body. According to research, low humidity levels make flu viruses more infectious, while a relative humidity level of around 40 percent lowers their ability to develop.

With all these things in mind, it only makes sense to run a humidifier to get rid of dry air and the negative effects of exposure to low humidity.

Use an Air Purification System

Air purifiers are an effective way to clean the air in your home. Also an investment in your health, air purifiers can help with allergies, awful smells, snoring, and more.

Air purifiers use fine sieves that filter particles from circulating air. As air flows into the air purifier, the finer the filter used, the smaller the particles it captures. The more times the air passes through the high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter, the cleaner the air becomes. HEPA filters are guaranteed to trap 99.97% of airborne particles larger than 0.3 microns.

Most whole-home purification systems can eliminate up to 95 percent of particles from the air. Over 90 percent of bacteria and airborne chemicals that are produced by decomposing organic matter can be eliminated from the air with a central air purifier.

Air purification systems are installed as part of the home’s heating and cooling system, giving you efficient, silent, and advanced air filtration without using any wall or floor space.

Furthermore, central air purifiers can also extend the life of your heating and cooling system by reducing the presence of dust and other airborne particles throughout the system. A cleaner HVAC system results in better efficiency and a longer lifespan.

Ask the Air Quality Pros

To enhance your indoor air quality this winter, call Four Seasons Air Specialists, your friendly Circle Pines heating and air conditioning company.