Tips To Improve Indoor Air Quality For Your Family Home

Tips to Improve Indoor Air Quality for Your Family Home

Some things in the house are as easy to get as going online and paying to have them delivered ready to install or use. But other items fall in the home improvement category; such items usually demand a great deal of research and inquiry from professionals before spending any money. One example of such items as air filters, HVAC filters to be specific. The amount of time you spend indoors combined with Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) status is significantly related to the type of filters used at home.

Cost-Free Solutions

For the regular household, indoor air quality can be easily polluted by everyday consumer products that contain Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC). These include aerosol sprays, cleaning detergents, and air fresheners to pesticide and maintenance products like paint. To keep the home air cleaner, it is always advisable to remove such items from inside the house if no longer in use. For items occasionally used, it is better to store them outside the house. Cleaning and washing products need to be kept in well-ventilated rooms; generally, a good vacuum clean helps when combined with a regular wash for sheets or items that collect tiny particles. Opening the window can be an alternative depending on preferences and the surrounding climate.

Choosing An Air Filter

When deciding which filter is best for your home, the best policy to follow is to consider what type of particles in the air affect you or the people at home the most. This consideration links to the fact that air filters are rated by their Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value (MERV). This system is designed to indicate how the air filter will capture many harmful particles in the air.

Since most people have a local HVAC company that performs regular maintenance on the air filter at home, most of them don’t even know about the MERV ratings. Furthermore, since most of these companies are primarily just trying to maintain the life of the filtration system, they tend to follow the most cost-effective method using cheap filter replacements.

A good air filter should have a MERV rating anywhere between 7 and 13. A good example is the pleated 20x20x1 air filters; these filters are manufactured with multiple ratings, usually providing higher air quality as the number increases. In addition, if you have allergies or somebody visiting in the house does, then these filters have a rating designed to trap any allergen traveling through the air into your home.

Research and Professional Advice

If your house does not have an air filtration system or you are thinking of getting an upgrade, it is always best to get professional help, at least with the installation process. Maintenance of the system can be your DIY responsibility afterward, provided you know what you’re doing. A simple task such as asking the installation team what parts of the air system might require replacement and when to do the replacement count towards improving air quality. Taking the time to find out what type of filter your system uses helps you buy the right product. Such information can be found directly from the filter to be replaced if you don’t know what you are supposed to do.

Research filters can be daunting if the terminology used is new to the user; a professional will let you know which terms are related to the type of filter in your house if you ask. In addition, always check the sides of a filter for information indicating when it is supposed to be replaced. Another vital piece of information to be found is the size measurements for the filter.

Conclusion

Whatever the option you choose to take, whether professional or DIY, the outcome should be to make your home a safe and comfortable environment with clean air for everyone, even if you live alone.

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