Modern people spend over 80% of their lives indoors. Naturally, the quality of the air inside the rooms should be given the highest priority. Poor quality indoor air may not be a good option to live a healthy life.
By opening the windows and doors, air circulation inside your rooms can be improved. However, it may not always be possible for you to keep your doors and windows open. That’s why, you may depend on the HVAC system.
An HVAC system may help you to control the temperature of the room. But at the same time, an HVAC system can also provide you with high- quality indoor air.
5 HVAC solutions are discussed below to improve the quality of the indoor air. But before that, you should know the importance of improving the quality of the indoor air.
Why Should You Improve The Quality of Indoor Air?
1) To Save You From Allergies
If the quality of your indoor air becomes poor, then you may have allergies. Skin problems, heart problems, sneezing, coughing, red eyes, throat problems, and more health problems could be there. The problem is that you may not even realize why you have suddenly developed such allergic reactions. When there is not enough indoor air circulation, microbes are born and they enter your body. In this way, you may become ill. Hence, you should always try to improve the air quality of your rooms.
2) To Keep Your Lungs Healthy
Poor indoor air quality is the biggest threat to your lungs. Asthma, pneumonia, and chronic lung diseases may take a bigger shape if your indoor air is not fresh. Low air quality could be the reason behind many lung diseases. Poor quality of indoor air helps this bacteria to grow at a faster rate. That’s why to avoid all kinds of lung diseases you should keep the quality of your indoor air high.
3) To Provide A Pleasant Working Ambiance
Nobody wants to work at a place that smells bad. If your office or business place lacks air circulation then the place may smell bad. As a result, the employees in your place may lose their interest. They may want to get out from that place as soon as possible. Fresh air is not only good for your lungs, but, it also brings a positive mood. So, it could be good for your employees.
4) To Keep Your Overall Health Happy
Air that you breathe supplies your body with oxygen. If the quality of the air becomes poor, then your body may not get enough oxygen. Naturally, you may feel tired and you may fall sick frequently. To avoid these health problems you need superb quality fresh air in your rooms.
Improve Indoor Air Quality With These 5 HVAC Solutions
1) A-Grade Air Filter
To keep the quality of indoor air fresh, you need a high-quality air filter in your HVAC system. Now you might think that you already have a filter in your system. Then – why do I need to install a new HVAC filter?
Well, your HVAC unit may have a one-inch filter. But this filter may not be enough to catch dust or mold spores. Hence, you need a better filter. A filter that can catch small particles (0.3 microns) could be an ideal one for your rooms.
MERV is a rating system that can tell you – how efficient is an HVAC filter!
Rating 5 to 12 can filter 34% to 90% particles. This may sound a bit complicated. But in simple words, a filter with this rating may stop dust and pollen from entering your rooms. As a result, if you have any lung-related allergies, then these filters may protect you.
When you don’t have such particles in your rooms, you will breathe fresh and clean air. So, check your HVAC filter and replace it with a better one.
2) Air Purifier
Air purifiers can work with your HVAC system to keep your room’s air quality clean. Air purifiers use several methods to keep the indoor air fresh. The best part is that air purifiers can also filter bacteria and viruses.
A good air purifier can filter almost 98% of the airborne particles. A HEPA air purifier can filter – volatile organic compounds (VOC), pet dander, carbon dioxide, mold spores, smoke particles, and more.
You can keep more than one air purifier in your rooms and you should not turn them off. To improve the air quality an air purifier should not be turned off.
With activated carbon filters an air purifier can remove odors. Apart from that, some air purifiers (modern) release charged particles to clean the indoor air. Now, there could be multiple types of air purifiers in the market. So, pick an air purifier that suits your HVAC system.
3) UV Lights
UV lights could be a highly effective way to kill bacteria and mold. Perhaps some decades ago UV lights were not used in the HVAC unit. But now these UV lamps can be installed in your HVAC system to keep your indoor air clean.
There are two types of UV lights – 1) Air sanitizing and 2) Coil sanitizing.
Around the evaporator coil moisture gathers and mold may form. Here coil sanitizing UV lamps can be installed to reduce the growth of mold. On the other hand, air sanitizing lamps can keep the ducts clean from different types of germs.
With UV lights germs may not circulate in the air and the indoor air may remain healthy.
4) Energy Recovery Ventilation system and Heat Recovery Ventilation System (ERV and HRV)
A proper ventilation system can extract contaminated air from your rooms, kitchen and other indoor areas. ERV and HRV are the two ventilation systems that can keep your indoor air quality fresh.
These ventilation systems work according to your climate and they supply fresh air even in a tightly built place. Dry winter days or humid summer days can lower the quality of indoor air. The ERV and HRV can adjust humidity and heat. Moreover, they can exhaust air properly. In this way, you can save energy bills and you can also get a perfect air ventilation system with your HVAC.
5) Humidifier and Dehumidifier (Whole-House)
The function of a humidifier is to increase the level of moisture or humidity in the air. Sometimes the air inside your rooms may become too dry and you may not feel comfortable. In that case, you can install a whole-house humidifier to adjust the humidity level in your rooms.
A whole-house dehumidifier can control high humidity levels in the summer season. However, you should remember that humidity in the indoor air should not exceed 60%.
Controlling the humidity is really important as it could be the reason for several health problems. Furthermore, too high or too low humidity level can also damage your house, furniture and walls. By installing a whole-house humidifier and dehumidifier you can enjoy healthy and comfortable indoor air quality.
Some Pro Tips To Maintain Indoor Air Quality
1) Test The Air Quality
Testing the quality of your indoor air could be a smart option. Before spending money on all these HVAC products to improve indoor air quality, you can test the air.
Just buy some kits that can help you to know the quality of your indoor air. You can also call some professionals to check the quality of the air that you are breathing.
2) Clean the Air Ducts
Cleaning the air ducts can sometimes improve the quality of indoor air. You may have been using your HVAC unit for years and you might not have cleaned it. You can call an expert and they can clean the air ducts. Thus, you may enhance the ventilation system of your rooms.
3) By Increasing The Air Circulation
To increase the air circulation you may have to keep the blower on. There is a blower in your HVAC system. Usually, the fan remains in the “auto” mode. So, the blower does not always work. But if you keep the blower “on”, then it may run constantly increasing the air circulation. So, you may try this tip to have an increased air circulation.
4) Regular Maintenance
Many people ignore this step, but, regular maintenance of your HVAC system may help to improve the quality of indoor air. The coil, compressor, air ducts, condenser, fans and more parts are there. Professionals can inspect these parts and they can keep them running. Moreover, if you are experiencing poor indoor air quality, then you can also tell them to check the ventilation. Hence, you should not ignore the importance of regular maintenance of your HVAC system.
An air purifier, dehumidifier, air filter, UV lights, and Energy recovery ventilation system are some of the best ways to improve the quality of your rooms. Stale air can create an uncomfortable atmosphere inside the rooms. Poor quality air is neither good for your family’s health nor for your house. That’s why the above HVAC solutions would surely help you to improve the indoor air quality of your home.
Just contact an experienced professional and discuss with him – exactly why your indoor air quality is poor! Then, the person may help you to choose and install the right product.