6 Ways to Improve Your Indoor Air Quality

Is there anything more important than having a healthy, happy home for our families to live in? At Roby Services, our team specializes in keeping your home running smoothly, so you can rest assured knowing your family is protected. One of the best ways to keep your home healthy is to focus on improving your indoor air quality (IAQ).

According to the EPA, the air in your home is often 2-5 times more polluted than the air outside. In extreme cases, your indoor air can even be up to 100 times more polluted than outside air. Whatever the state of your indoor air, Roby Services is here to improve it. Continue reading to learn more about poor indoor air quality and how you can improve it.

How Do I Know If I Have Poor Indoor Air Quality?

Poor indoor air quality is usually quite easy to detect by searching for a number of signs. Most often caused by a combination of a poor indoor environment, indoor air contaminants (such as dust, cigarette smoke, chemical cleaners, pet dander, mold, perfumes, bacteria, and more), and an insufficient amount of outdoor air intake, poor IAQ can seriously impact both the health of your home and those living in it.

Some of the most common signs of poor IAQ in the home include:

• Excessive levels of dust around vents and throughout the home
• The presence of mold anywhere in the home
• Poor airflow
• Musty odors anywhere in the home

Some of the most common health symptoms associated with poor IAQ include:

• Coughing
• Sneezing
• Irritated eyes, throat, or nose
• Sinus congestion
• Respiratory problems
• Asthma attacks
• Dizziness
• Fatigue

Any of the above signs can be an indication that your indoor air is unhealthy. If left unchecked, health symptoms can worsen and lead to lifelong respiratory infections and complications.

What You Can Do to Improve Your Air Quality

There are a number of things you can do to improve the quality of the air in your home.

1. Change Your HVAC Filter

Your HVAC system takes outside air, runs it through a filter, and circulates the fresh air into your home. The filter in your HVAC system is responsible for filtering out larger particles (such as dust) from your air, which can significantly improve the quality of your indoor air. Unfortunately, many homeowners often forget about regularly changing out their filters to ensure effectiveness. Depending on how frequently you run your HVAC system, your air filter needs to be replaced every one to three months. Failing to change it out at the appropriate time, leads to it becoming clogged and unable to continue filtering out large particles from your air.

2. Clean Your House

Poor indoor hygiene can seriously impact the health of your home. One of the best ways to improve your indoor air quality is to keep your home clean. This helps to reduce the number of allergens and pollutants and minimize your risk of exposure to them.

Some of the most important tasks to pay attention to include:

• Wash your bedding at least once a week
• Wash your drapes and curtains regularly
• Clear away any clutter inside of your home
• Vacuum your carpets with a HEPA filter once or twice a week
• Mop all hard-surface floors once a week
• Clean high-traffic rugs and mats at least once a week

3. Open Your Windows

One of the leading causes of poor indoor air quality is a lack of sufficient fresh air. Without circulating fresh air into your home, the air inside becomes stale and packed full of contaminants such as bacteria, dander, dust, and chemicals. Without proper ventilation, your risk of exposure to these contaminants is much higher. Start opening your windows and screened doors for at least a few minutes each day to help bring in the fresh air and send the stale air outside.

4. Make Your Home a No-Smoking Zone

Cigarette smoke is one of the worst indoor air contaminants. It contains over 4,000 chemicals that can cause serious respiratory problems, cancer, heart problems, asthma, and more. Once inside, it can easily travel through air vents and circulate throughout your home. If you have a smoker in your home, make sure they smoke outside as far away from doors and windows as possible. You should also make sure that all windows and doors are closed when someone is smoking outside.

5. Use Natural Products

Many of the products we use every day contain harmful chemicals that pollute our air. From household cleaners to laundry detergents to perfumes, our products often contain fragrances derived from harsh gases and chemicals that have the power to seriously impact the quality of the air in our home.

In order to reduce the number of harsh chemicals in your home, we recommend that you:

• Start using fragrance-free or naturally-scented detergents
• Start using eco-friendly house cleaners
• Stop using aerosol products such as deodorant and hairspray

6. Install an Air Purifier

Air purifiers are a great way to combat poor indoor air quality. They improve ventilation and help to purify the air in your home, helping you to breathe fresher, cleaner air. Air purification systems are known to reduce the presence of dust, pollen, pet dander, smoke, mold and mildew, viruses, bacteria, and other contaminants from your home. It is best to work with indoor air quality specialists to determine which air purification system is best for your home.

How Roby Services Can Help

For over 40 years, the service professionals at Roby Services have delivered reliable indoor air quality solutions to countless homeowners. When you call on our team, we will carefully assess the quality of your air and provide you with a top-performing air purifier perfectly suited to your home. As a leader in the HVAC industry, we have access to the highest quality air purification systems on the market guaranteed to help your family breathe fresher, cleaner air right away.

Turn to Roby Services to start breathing easier. Call (980) 308-0200 or contact our team online today.