Did you know that millions of people die across the globe each year because of poor indoor air quality? Air quality is a major contributing factor to overall wellbeing regardless of your age or individual healthiness.
Poor air quality can increase the chances of developing serious diseases like cancer, heart disease, and stroke and can exacerbate existing conditions like asthma and allergies.
The air inside your home is typical of lower quality than the air outside, but most people spend more time indoors than out. By following our tips, you can improve the quality of the air in your home, and in turn your health.
Benefits Of A Clean Home
Although I’m sure you love how that layer of dust on your coffee table looks, your lungs will be happier without it. Having a dusty house is detrimental to anyone with existing respiratory issues like asthma, allergies, or emphysema.
Even healthy individuals can suffer from eye irritation, sneezing, coughing, and shortness of breath in a dusty environment. To improve air quality, dust and vacuum regularly. You should also regularly launder fabrics around your home like throw blankets, rugs, and curtains.
Cleaning your home is doubly healthy because not only does it improve air quality, but its good for your health to get up and move around. In addition, a clean home can help you avoid sickness. If you have less clutter, you’ll have an easier time dusting and germs will have fewer places to hide when you disinfect surfaces.
Change Your HVAC Filter
Having a fresh HVAC filter is an important factor in maintaining a clean home, but knowing just how often you need to refresh the filter can be challenging. A filter in an average home will last around 90 days, but there are a number of factors that impact whether you will need to change the filter more or less often than that.
If your home is small, your filter will often last longer than one in a large home because less air flows through the filter. Also consider the number of people who live in your home. More people usually means more dust, so larger families should replace filters more often than smaller families.
If you have pets or allergies, you should change your filters more frequently, as often as every 3 to 6 weeks depending on how many pets you have or the severity of your allergies. Also consider how much your HVAC system runs. A home in a temperate climate will use fewer filters than one in a very hot or very cold climate where the HVAC runs continuously.
Monitor your filter every week or two to see how quickly dust accumulates. If you can still see the filter material, you don’t need to change it yet. However, it’s time to change the filter as soon dust obscures the surface. Keeping your filter fresh has a number of benefits.
Of course, your air quality will be better with a fresh filter. Also, your home will stay clean for longer because dust will accumulate in the filter rather than blowing through your ducts and throughout your house. Your energy bills may go down because your HVAC will run more efficiently with a clean filter.
Natural Ways To Improve Air Quality
There are a number of easy ways you can improve the quality of the air in your home:
- Open the windows – Even just a few minutes of fresh air each day will help pull some pollutants out of your home.
- Buy indoor plants – Having a few plants will improve air quality by reducing the carbon dioxide in your air.
- Use LED candles – Choose LED candles over traditional candles to reduce soot in the air.
- Take your shoes off – Your shoes will track pesticides, pollen, dirt, and bacteria throughout your house, so leave them at the door.
- Use an air purifier – Just remember to change the filter regularly.
- Keep your home mold-free – Mold is dangerous for your lungs, so use natural cleaners (fewer toxins for your lungs!) to get rid of it.By taking a few steps to improve the air quality in your home, you can have a strong positive impact on your health. If you have any questions about air quality or services to improve the air quality in your home, call (913) 432-3342 or leave us a comment below!
