Many people are not concerned or aware of the quality of indoor air until health problems arise. A home with poor air quality can cause various health problems, including asthma, allergies, and chronic respiratory issues. That’s why indoor air quality improvements are important to consider for the health and well-being of your family.
This blog will outline concrete steps along with strategies that can significantly improve the air quality inside your residence. Enhancing your indoor air quality remains simple; all you need to do is attend to some minor details.
So, let’s begin.
Why Is Indoor Air Quality Improvement Important?
It’s important to understand why indoor air quality is so vital. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), indoor air pollution levels at times exceed outdoor air pollution levels. People dedicate 90 percent of their daily hours inside buildings, which makes clean indoor air crucial.
The hazardous quality of contaminated air causes different health complications that affect human wellness. It includes:
- Coughing, sneezing, and asthma or asthmatic condition
- Fatigue and headaches
- Eye irritation
- Aggravation of allergies
Better air quality at home will enhance sleep quality, increase energy levels, and improve the health of your household members.
We will now look at different methods that can help keep the indoor air quality clean.
Proper Home Ventilation Is The Key
Improving ventilation is the most convenient method for enhancing indoor air quality in homes. The correct airflow removes stale air and lets fresh air inside, resulting in reduced indoor pollutant buildup.
How To Improve Ventilation?
Improving ventilation inside the home is no rocket science. You can achieve it by doing the following:
- Opening Windows: Open the windows whenever the weather permits to let fresh air in and ward off heat inside the home.
- Exhaust Fans: Ensure your kitchen and bathroom exhaust fans evacuate moisture and pollutants outdoors and function correctly.
- Air Exchange System: This system removes stale indoor air and brings in fresh outdoor air. Install it if you can afford to.
Use Air Purifiers
Air purifiers help decrease the presence of airborne pollutants in the air. Portable air cleaners have filters that remove microscopic pollutants, including dust, animal dander, pollen, and smoke particles. This is beneficial to anyone who experiences allergic symptoms or asthma.
Choosing the Right Air Purifier
When choosing and using an air purifier for indoor air quality improvements, keep the following in mind.
- HEPA Filters: Air purifiers bearing HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Air) filters should be your priority when shopping for an air purifier. These filters can capture 99.97% of particles, even as small as 0.3 microns in size.
- Size Of Your Room: Pick an air purifier of the proper size to match the dimensions of the space where you plan to install it.
- Filter Replacement: Regular filter changes following the manufacturer’s guidelines result in excellent maintenance of its efficiency.
Control Humidity Levels
The growth of mold and mildew triggered by humid conditions leads to dramatic deterioration of air quality. Dryness caused by low humidity conditions negatively affects your respiratory system by creating irritation. Maintaining the right balance is important.
How To Control Humidity
Employ the following methods to control humidity inside your home.
- Use A Dehumidifier: A dehumidifier decreases moisture levels in places with mold growth, such as basements.
- Monitor Indoor Humidity: Maintaining indoor humidity between 30% and 50% guarantees a good indoor environment. Use a hygrometer to track humidity levels inside your house.
- Repair Leaks: You must repair all leaking pipes and roofs, as leaks lead to higher moisture levels and increased dampness inside the house.
Regular Cleaning And Dusting
Dust accumulates on surfaces, causing indoor air quality to suffer. This is because it releases airborne particles that circulate through the environment. Regular cleaning removes such particles, preventing them from causing adverse effects and providing indoor air quality improvements.
Tips For Effective Cleaning
The following tips will help you maintain a neat look at your home and ensure clean air.
- HEPA-filtered Vacuuming: It provides a solution to trap tiny airborne particles that typical vacuum cleaners would redistribute.
- Mop Floors: A moist floor mop will efficiently gather airborne pollutants that dry dusting leaves behind.
- Clean Vents And Ducts: The accumulation of dust with debris inside air vents produces blockage. It affects ventilation and air quality by obstructing clean air. Regular maintenance of these items will help.
Remove Toxic Chemicals
Multiple household cleaning liquids and materials release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that produce health risks to people. Reducing the use of toxic chemicals is essential for improving indoor air quality.
How To Reduce VOCs
Here’s how you can reduce the amount of toxic VOCs in your home.
- Prefer Natural Products: Natural cleaning products should replace all modern commercial cleaners because you can easily make disinfectants from simple ingredients such as vinegar, baking soda, and essential oils.
- Say No To Synthetic Air Fresheners: Synthetic air fresheners should be avoided. Instead, use beeswax candles and essential oil diffusers as natural replacement options.
- Store Chemicals Properly: Store chemicals by placing paints and cleaners in adequately ventilated storage areas that are not near living spaces.
Keep Your Home Smoke-Free
The inhalation of secondhand smoke negatively affects indoor air quality and generates health complications, including respiratory ailments. Making your home completely smoke-free is the most effective way for indoor air quality improvements.
Tips For Making Your Home Smoke-Free
Follow these simple tips for a smoke-free home environment.
- Ban Indoor Smoking: Smoke outside the house because indoor smoking raises the risk of home contaminants entering the air.
- Use Air Purifiers: Households with smokers should buy air purifiers to clean the air from any smoke residue.
Add Houseplants
Certain indoor plants can enhance the quality of enclosed air environments. Plants have a natural capacity to clean the air around them since they collect carbon dioxide from the environment while releasing oxygen. Plants also help eliminate formaldehyde and benzene from the environment.
Best Plants For Air Quality
To improve the air quality inside your home, use the following plants.
- Spider Plant: The common room plant Spider Plant does its job by removing both formaldehyde and benzene gas.
- Peach Lily: The Peace Lily stands out as an attractive plant that naturally removes VOCs from the air to purify it.
- Snake Plant: It acts as a tough plant that destroys toxic substances while enhancing air oxygen content.
Final Thoughts
Making your house air cleaner is an easy yet powerful method of producing a better environment for your household. Upgrading ventilation, using air purifiers, and following other methods outlined above can substantially improve your house’s air quality.
These indoor air quality improvement methods don’t require major investments and can significantly improve your health and well-being. Every change you implement leads to better air quality, including controlling humidity levels and choosing safer cleaning supplies.
Ally Property Inspections leads homeowners toward healthy air with its property inspection services. When you work with Ally Property Inspections, you get assistance building a healthier home environment.
Our inspection process enables teams to find all indoor air quality problems before suggesting ideal resolution options.
Reach out now to Ally Property Inspections to schedule your property inspection because poor air quality can compromise your health.