The Importance of Air Quality in Your Home

Indoor air quality can affect your health and well-being. Exposure to common contaminants such as pollen, dust, dust mites, mold spores, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and pet dander can make allergies, asthma and other chronic conditions worsen. Luckily, there are things you can do to improve the quality of the air in your home.

Protecting Your Heating and Cooling Equipment

Not only can indoor air quality affect your health, but it can also impact your cooling and heating equipment. If there is an elevated level of particulate matter in the air in your home, it can accumulate on your HVAC system’s interior components. This can lead to inefficiency, more frequent repairs, a shorter system lifespan and more.

Making Regular Filter Changes

Experts recommend that you change your 1-inch furnace filter every 30 to 90 days. If you have whole-house filtration equipment, its filters will need to be changed as well. Consider upgrading your current filter to something that will trap more particles from your indoor air. However, make sure that your furnace or filtration equipment can handle the filter you end up choosing.

Inspecting Your Attic and Roof

Since your attic sits right under your roof, roof damage can lead to poor indoor air quality. Gaps, holes and cracks in your attic can allow outside air to circulate inside your living space. This can raise the concentration of particulate matter. If you have roof damage, you’ll need professionals to create a tighter seal inside your home. Inspect your attic regularly. Look for any light that may be coming through. These open areas promote heat loss, allow pests to come into your home and can negatively affect your indoor air quality.

Providing Whole-House Filtration

If you need more filtering power than your furnace filter can provide, consider having whole-house filtration equipment installed. This will treat all the air circulating through your home so that you won’t need to move portable purifiers from one room to another. This equipment can usually handle more restrictive filters than your furnace can — ones that can remove up to 99.97% of the particulates in your air.

Staying on top of HVAC and home maintenance can help promote optimal indoor air quality and protect your health. By being attentive to the quality and condition of various aspects of your home, you can maintain safe conditions there. If you would like to schedule service from an experienced HVAC company that can improve your indoor air quality along with providing inspections, repairs and equipment replacement, reach out to Ridge AC in Panama City, FL.