How To Improve The Air Quality In Your Home This Winter

During the wintertime and in our cold climate, our homes understandably get a bit stuffy. Furnaces are designed to recirculate air for efficiency, so you’re getting exposed to the same air over and over again unless new air is introduced into the system. In addition to this, the heat in the furnace will remove moisture from the air, potentially making it dry and uncomfortable. Here are some tips on improving the air quality in your home this winter:

• You should already be doing this seasonally, but if you haven’t been, change it out and you might notice a small improvement in the air quality in your home.

• Even though it’s not very energy efficient, sometimes when your house feel stuffy in the wintertime, the best thing you can do is to open up a bunch of windows and let some fresh air in. Try to choose a mild day, so you can get some fresh air in without your house getting totally frigid. Generally, it’s probably good practice to let some fresh air into your home once a week or so in the wintertime.

• HVAC humidifiers can be more trouble than they’re worth, and if used improperly can actually create perfect conditions for mold in your ductwork. But if you feel like the air is too dry, you can certainly set up an in-room humidifier to improve air quality.

• This goes a step above your furnace filter to take out allergens and other nasty stuff from the air in your home.

• When was the last time you did a really deep cleaning of your home? If you’re hoping for good air quality, you’ll need to get rid of all the dust laying around before it gets picked up by your HVAC system and recirculated.

• Plants eat up carbon dioxide and produce oxygen through a process known as photosynthesis. A few plants may not actually make a real impact on the air quality of your home, but just being around plants will probably make you feel like your place is fresher (placebo effect!), and hey, if it works, it works!

• Our customers are always surprised by what we find in their air ducts during a cleaning. “We’ve been breathing THAT in all this time?” Give us a call today to schedule an appointment for your duct cleaning!