How to Improve Your Home’s Indoor Air Quality

Breathe Easy in Your Lehi, UT, Area Home with the Help of Western

Your homes should be safe havens for your family’s health, safety and well-being. However, the air in your own home could be causing poor health symptoms. In this month’s blog, the experts at Western Heating and Air discuss why you should improve your home’s indoor air quality (IAQ) and how to do it. With our help, you can rest assured your home’s IAQ is clean and healthy for your family.

Why is Poor Indoor Air a Concern?

Did you know:

• Over 50% of single-family homes have one person with a respiratory sensitivity or condition that is exacerbated by inadequacies in air health.

• Occupants at the highest risk for adverse health symptoms caused by poor indoor air are children, the elderly and those with chronic respiratory issues.
• Children are more susceptible to respiratory illnesses because they inhale 50% more air per pound of body weight than the average adult.

Indoor environments are frequently designed with energy and efficiency in mind. Unfortunately, the impact on indoor air quality is often overlooked.

Tighter building envelopes and regulations do not optimize healthy air, causing inadequacies in ventilation and filtration in many homes. Chances are you have items in your living space, like carpets and furniture, that produce airborne pollutants. These, along with everyday activities such as cooking and cleaning, release harmful particles into the air.

When homes do not meet indoor air quality standards, the people living there are at risk of developing health conditions or irritating existing health issues, such as asthma. They may also experience symptoms including headaches, throat irritation, fatigue, allergies and trouble concentrating.

Our Indoor Air Quality Solutions

We have several options to help improve the indoor air quality in your home, including:

• Upgraded Filtration – Most homes come with a standard 1” filter. Although they keep your HVAC equipment clean, these filters let the finer contaminants into the system which then cycle back into the home’s air. We suggest upgrading to a 13+ MERV rated filter. These pleated filters can remove up to 85% of all particles.

• Bi-Polar Ionization – Air purifiers using bi-polar ionization methods purify the air by creating both positive and negative ions. These ions cling to the particles in the air and make them larger to get caught by a standard air filter. These types of air purifiers limit dust, and dander, and help neutralize pathogens in viruses, bacteria and mold spores, removing these harmful particles from your air.  

• Western Signature Series PCO Air Purifier – Photocatalytic Oxidation (PCO) air purification occurs when a UV light moves through an oxidizing material to create peroxides to help sanitize surfaces in the home. This technology uses nanoparticle science to destroy pathogens including bacteria, viruses and mold. These air purifiers also create ions, much like the bi-polar ionizers, to help knock finer particles out of the home air supply.
• Electronic Air Cleaners (EAC) – These devices clean the air through statically charged prefilters that trap larger particles. Electrically charged filters attract and trap smaller particles as well to prevent them from circulating through your home.

What Can I Do to Improve Indoor Air? 

Along with including an indoor air quality product in your home, there are little things you can do to help fight air quality issues. Whether it’s the middle of a heat wave or you’re bundled up for the winter, consider the following DIY tips for fresher, healthier air:

• Regularly changing your air filter can significantly reduce the pollutants in your indoor air.
• Changing the cleaning products you use in your home can impact your IAQ. Less toxicity in the product means less toxicity in your home (and the air).
• Any open chemicals or paint should be sealed if still in use or disposed of if used up.
• Make frequent use of the exhaust fans in your home. By removing airborne remnants of a cleaning or cooking session from your kitchen, or water vapor from the bathroom after a shower, you can prevent the inhalation or growth of any unsavory particles.
• When you schedule an HVAC maintenance service , your heating and cooling system will be thoroughly inspected. The technician will examine your unit to look for leaks, dirty coils, broken or malfunctioning parts and other problems. These issues can impair your system’s capacity to not only heat and cool your house but keep the house at an appropriate humidity level. High humidity in an HVAC system can lead to dangerous biological growth.
• Bring plants into your home to absorb carbon dioxide and other harmful toxins from the air while releasing life-supporting oxygen in their place.

You Have an Indoor Air Quality Partner in Western

At Western Heating & Air, we take clean air seriously and strive to improve the quality of air in homes in Utah County because we want a healthy environment for our clients and their families. Our highly trained, certified technicians will take the time to learn what factors may be negatively impacting your home’s air, then provide you with a solution to ensure you and your family feel good and breathe easy.

For a consultation or FREE ESTIMATE on an indoor air quality product, connect with our team today!