Get Rid of Dust Mites: Tips for Creating an Allergy-Free Home
If you or someone else in your household has allergies, asthma, or another chronic respiratory condition, dust mite control is important. Dust mites can trigger asthma and allergy attacks. According to the American Lung Association, it isn’t the dust mites themselves that cause respiratory irritation. Instead, people react to the proteins in dust mites’ urine, feces, and carcasses. While maintaining a clean HVAC air filter is a critical step in protecting your indoor air quality (IAQ), dust mite control often requires advanced IAQ solutions.
Why Standard HVAC Air Filters Won’t Help
Although they provide limited IAQ support, the primary role of standard air filters is to protect HVAC equipment. These components remove dust and other particulates from incoming air. This keeps larger airborne allergens and contaminants from settling on sensitive internal components. Air filters minimize buildups on and in flame sensors, burners, evaporator coils, condensate drains, and more.
All air filters produced and distributed in North America have maximum efficiency reporting value (MERV) ratings. These ratings denote the minimum size of particulate matter that filters can retain. MERV ratings run from one through 20. Twenty is the highest possible MERV rating. Thirteen is the highest possible MERV rating that homeowners can use without making HVAC system modifications.
High-rated air filters can collect and retain the protein-rich allergens that trigger asthma and allergy attacks. But most can’t capture dust mites themselves. By upgrading to a higher-rated filter, you can get rid of the allergens. But you’ll need to make other changes to get rid of dust mites, too.
Humidity Control Is Key
Dust mites flourish in damp, humid environments. While air conditioners and heat pumps offer limited humidity control during the cooling season, they can’t correct serious and ongoing humidity challenges. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), homeowners should maintain indoor humidity levels between 30% and 50%. When indoor humidity is between 50% and 75%, dust mites thrive. These humidity levels also create the perfect conditions for other allergens, such as mildew and mold.
Integrated IAQ Accessories With Multi-Pronged Benefits
For many households, the first step in getting rid of dust mites is regulating humidity. Whole-house dehumidifiers are integrated HVAC accessories. HVAC companies install these on or in HVAC air ducts. Whole-house dehumidifiers extract excess moisture from conditioned air before distribution. With a whole-house dehumidifier, you can maintain balanced humidity and cull dust mite populations.
In reality, there’s no way to completely eliminate dust mites from your home. But you can significantly reduce their populations.
To address the ongoing allergens found in dust mite waste, you can install a whole-house air purifier, an air scrubber, or a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter. Each of these integrated IAQ accessories offers multi-stage air filtration. They can pick up the many micro-fine particulates that pass through standard air filters. Some of these IAQ accessories can also neutralize gaseous chemical contaminants and kill off airborne bacteria, fungi, and other pathogens.
The key to succeeding in your battle against dust mites is finding the right integrated IAQ support for your home. For advanced and needs-specific indoor air quality support in Panama City, FL, contact Ridge Heating & Air Conditioning today.
