Am I contributing to my home’s poor air quality?

With global warming and climate change taking center stage at international talks, you are more aware of outdoor pollution. You’ve taken steps to reduce your impact on outdoor air quality, but you still feel you should be doing more. To increase your effort and impact, you should first find the answer to ‘Am I contributing to my home’s poor air quality?’

Indoor air pollution results from the accumulation of pollutants like carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and VOCs from several sources within your home. They could be emissions from the stove, cigarettes, fireplaces, and cleaning products.

According to the U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA), the levels of indoor air pollutants are 2-5 times higher than outdoor levels. This should be a cause for alarm, especially since most Americans spend 90% of their time indoors. Unfortunately, some of your actions may affect your indoor air quality without realizing it.

For instance, neglecting or postponing air duct cleaning could result in poor indoor air quality over time. Fortunately, AirWiz Duct Cleaning can help with the cleaning and reduce the risk of developing respiratory diseases or triggering allergic reactions.

How you contribute to poor indoor air quality

Apart from outside air getting into your home, here are four ways you might be contributing to indoor pollution.

Poor ventilation

Inadequate ventilation is when there’s insufficient flow of fresh air between the outside and inside of your home. This results in the stagnation of air pollutants in your house. When your home is poorly ventilated, your home will get stuffy and have all kinds of smells.

Proper natural ventilation gives contaminants and pollutants an easy way to escape your indoor space. Practice proper ventilation by opening windows, turning on ceiling fans, and running exhaust fans in your kitchen and bathrooms. You can also use an air purifier to get rid of less serious pollutants.

Since you cannot open the windows during the cold seasons, you must rely on your HVAC system to filter airborne pollutants. However, if your system isn’t clean and the air filter isn’t changed regularly, it’ll re-circulate the pollutants throughout your home.

At AirWiz Duct Cleaning, we recommend changing your air filter every 90 days or as directed by the manufacturer and cleaning your air conditioning ducts every 3-5 years.

Not regularly washing bedding

Blankets and bedding accumulate a lot of pollutants and allergens fast. Pet dander, dead skin cells, pollen, hair, dust mites, and dust are just some of the things that may be burrowed between the fibers in your bed.

To keep these pollutants from floating around in your home, wash your pillow covers, comforter, and sheets at least once every week. Use the high-temperature cycle on your washing machine to kill mites and other allergens.

Insufficient dusting

If you’d like to improve your indoor air quality, you cannot fail to dust your home. How you do it is just as important as how often you do it. Your dusting efforts will be ineffective if you use the wrong tools. For instance, using a rag, paper towel, or a feather duster to dust pushes dust around instead of collecting it.

Instead, you should use disposable polyester dusters or microfiber wands to trap and collect dust. When dusting, do it from top to bottom. Start with the fan blades in each room and work your way down to low-level surfaces.

Using harsh cleaning agents

Although cleaning products are designed to help you clean and sanitize your home efficiently, many are bad for indoor air quality. Chemicals such as chlorine bleach, disinfectant sprays, oven cleaners, dishwasher detergent, and toilet bowl cleaners release volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polluting the air around us.

These VOCs include fluorine, chlorine, formaldehyde, and bromine, which can be dangerous for human health. By utilizing natural cleaners, you can reduce the amount of VOCs in your home and improve the cleanliness of the air you and your family breathe.

Get professional air duct cleaning

While you can do most of these cleaning and adjustments to get rid of indoor pollutants, you should leave air duct cleaning to the professionals. Air duct cleaning requires specialized tools for effective cleaning, which has numerous benefits, including energy efficiency, odor reduction, mold and mildew prevention, and cleaner indoor air.

AirWiz Duct Cleaning is a professional air duct cleaning company you can trust. Contact us for a consultation, quotation, and inspection today.