Indoor Air Quality

Is healthy indoor air in your home under control?

Indoor Air quality, or IAQ, is probably the most important thing to consider when purchasing HVAC equipment but it is all to often the least talked about and the least understood.

Can you relate to one or more of the following IAQ related problems?

• During the summer does your home feel sometimes warm and sometimes cold even though you have the thermostat set at the same temperature all the time?
• When the kids return to school in the fall do you or your family suffer from increased illness?
• How about during the winter when everyone is spending most of their time indoors and sharing the same polluted air? Have you noticed more time spent in the doctor’s office?
• During the winter months do you experience dry sinuses, dry mouth, or dry and chapped lips?
• Do you have problems with dust in the home?
• Have you noticed the odor of pets, cigarettes, or maybe last nights dinner lingering around the home even though you clean regularly?
• Do your windows fog up?

Indoor Air Pollution and Viruses – The Real Story

The air you breathe inside your home could be the most polluted air you breathe all day. In fact, the EPA has named indoor air pollution as one of the top 5 environmental health risk. With the amount of time spent indoors it is no surprise so many people suffer from allergies, asthma, and other illness.

Here’s what is happening in the air you breathe right now.

• Just one cubic foot of air can have more than 30 million pollutants. That is 100 times more than the air outside. Polluted air like this causes 94% of all respiratory problems.
• If you see dust in the air or on your furniture, what you are really looking at are mold spores, pet dander, dust mites, insulation, bacteria, and pollen. Approx 40,000 dust mites, which increase the chance of asthma development, can live in just one ounce of dust.
• In addition to the visible contaminants, there is an alarming concentration of harmful particulates that are invisible to the human eye. Particulate matter such as this is the leading cause of poor indoor air and is found in 85% of all homes.
• Every time you dust or vacuum, you actually increase particulate concentration.
• It is not just your family that suffers. Contaminants and humidity can also have a damaging effect on your furniture, windows, floors, and electronics.

The Importance of Humidity Control to IAQ

Comfort

During the winter, dry indoor air robs the skin of it’s moisture making you feel colder, which means you turn up the heat.

During the summer, extra humid conditions cause indoor air to feel muggy and uncomfortable causing people to turn down the A/C.

Varying degrees of humidity throughout the changing seasons can result in constantly changing comfort levels inside the home.

Health

During heating season, dry indoor air conditions are the leading cause of seasonal illness.

Low humidity can make you more susceptible to catching a cold or the flu. How? Air that is to dry dries out your nasal mucous membranes and causes the thin lining of your nose to crack and tear leading to infections and nose bleeds. These cracks and tears significantly aid in the transmission of viruses and bacteria into the blood stream and is the leading cause of seasonal illnesses such as colds, sore throat, and the flu.