Spring Cleaning: How to Improve Your Indoor Air Quality

No matter how well you clean your home, some dust and microbes are inevitable wherever living things are found. Pollen and mold enter your home from the outdoors, stuck to clothing, shoes and pet fur. With flowers and trees blooming, spring is the perfect time to check on your HVAC systems and make sure you’re doing everything you can to reduce the amount of bacteria, dust, mold, pollen and viruses in your household air supply.

We know that you can’t enjoy your home if you can’t spend time there comfortably, and poor indoor air quality can trigger or aggravate allergy and asthma symptoms, smell unpleasant and otherwise make your home less pleasant to live in.

Some signs that the indoor air quality inside your home can be improved include:

• Cold and hot spots in the home
• Dry skin
• Excessive dust build-up
• Headaches
• High humidity levels
• Household odors that linger
• Itching eyes
• Odors of mold and/or mildew

If you experience any of these issues, your home may benefit from adding one of the following services to your spring cleaning checklist. Fortunately, you can find solutions to all of your home’s air quality issues in the Bountiful area.

HVAC AIR CLEANING SYSTEMS

All homes have some level of odor from time to time, whether they come from cooking, pets, smoking or volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In a well-ventilated home with adequate airflow and filtration, these odors should dissipate naturally. Household odors that linger longer suggest your home may have an issue with ventilation.

If you work with a professional to upgrade your HVAC’s ability to clean the air, they may suggest one of the following:

• Air purifiers
• Air scrubbers
• Dehumidifiers
• Filtration
• Humidifiers
• Vent cleaning services

The two types of air purifiers are portable and whole-house. Whole-house air purifiers can be added to an existing HVAC system. They use an extra filter in addition to the furnace filter to trap smaller particles than those captured by the furnace filter. Air purifier filters often trap contaminants such as mold spores and bacteria. Some also use an activated charcoal filter layer to trap household odors. Whole-house air purifiers are ideal for single-family homes and easy to install within cold air-return ductwork.

In apartments and condos, portable filters provide the same protection from bacteria, mold, and (in some cases) odor. In general, one portable air purifier will filter the air in one room, so multiple portable filters are needed to equal the effect of a whole-house air purifier. Both types of air purifiers are easy to install, operate and maintain.

For people with asthma and other breathing issues, an air purifier with a HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filter can reduce the amount of airborne contaminants in the air you breathe. Due to the amount of force required to pull air through these filters, they are typically not put into residential systems and are used instead in smaller, portable units. A HEPA filter can trap up to 99.7% of bacteria, dust, mold and pollen in the air.

Air scrubbers are high-powered filtration systems used to pull particulates and bind to airborne chemicals. These systems are mostly used in industrial settings. However, you can rent portable units for homes that have extreme issues like mold or smoke infiltration.

THREE MORE AIR QUALITY SOLUTIONS

Three of these solutions to improve indoor air quality are duct cleaning, UV light and humidifiers. Let’s look at some of the advantages of each of these.

DUCT CLEANING

When homeowners think of spring cleaning, many forget about the unseen ductwork that moves air throughout the home. Even though ductwork may not be the most obvious candidate for regular cleaning, ducts can harbor a lot of contaminants.

Signs your ductwork may need some maintenance include:

• Hot spots/cold spots
• Unusual sounds like whistling
• Weak airflow
• Dust whenever the HVAC unit kicks on
• A constantly running HVAC unit

Vents may become clogged with dust and pet fur over time, causing heating and cooling appliances to work harder to move air around your home. Holes in vents can pull dirt from surrounding areas like crawl spaces into your system. Removing fur and other obstacles to smoothly flowing air will not only allow your furnace and air conditioner to run efficiently but also reduce the amount of pet dander and other potential allergens in your home.

UV LIGHT

UV (ultraviolet) lights are also used in HVAC to reduce the amount of bacteria, mildew, mold, and viruses inside household ductwork. In some systems, the UV light itself kills unwanted indoor pathogens living in ductwork and prevents them from multiplying. Other systems use an additional low-level carbon dioxide output that’s deadly to mold, mildew and microbes but harmless to the other living things in the household. If you or someone in your household has asthma, UV light can be an especially effective tool for keeping microbes that trigger asthma attacks out of the circulating household air.

Because ultraviolet light bulbs have to be handled in a particular way and can, in some circumstances, be harmful to the human eye, UV light installation should only be done by a professional. The cost of adding a UV light system to existing HVAC ductwork varies depending upon the exact type of UV light used and the size of the HVAC system.

HUMIDIFIERS

Mold and mildew odors are a sign that your house may be too humid, but did you know that a home that’s too dry can also cause issues? Signs include stuffed-up noses at bedtime, dry skin, cracked lips, and frequent nosebleeds. In some cases, moisture in the air can help to weigh down airborne pollen and drop it out of the air. A good home humidifier can be programmed to provide only a specific amount of humidity, so you avoid creating overly humid conditions. If humidity is an issue in your home, a whole-house humidifier may be a good solution to your problem.

PROGRAMMING CLEAN AIR

Whole-home air cleaning systems can be connected to your smart thermostat. This allows you to monitor air quality levels. In some cases, the system may be able to notify you that a filter is clogged or that dust levels are unusually high. This is a great way to stay proactive in preserving clean indoor air.

BOUNTIFUL, UT AIR QUALITY IMPROVEMENT

Blue Best Plumbing, Heating, Air, Generators offers a full complement of heating, air conditioning, and air quality services in the Bountiful area. We service households and some light commercial properties with 24-hour emergency repair service available for our neighbors who need it. Our locally-owned business has served the Wasatch Front community for more than 20 years, including Layton, Ogden, Salt Lake City, and Tooele.

In addition to the air quality services detailed above, Blue Best Plumbing, Heating, Air, Generators also provides heating and cooling repair, replacement, and maintenance. Our air conditioning services include repair, replacement, and maintenance as well as the installation of ductless mini-splits. We offer plumbing services that include pipe repair, drain repair, water heater installation and replacement, and repair, replacement, and maintenance of tankless water heaters, water filtration systems, toilets, water softeners and gas pipes. Contact Blue Best Plumbing, Heating, Air, Generators today for more information.