As your family starts to spend more time indoors during the hot summer season, you may be concerned with the quality of air that they’re breathing in. Poor indoor air quality can lead to a number of different issues like aggravated allergy symptoms and headaches. Fortunately, there are many different devices that you can use to enhance the quality of air inside your home and get peace of mind about the air that your family is breathing.
Use a High-Rated MERV Air Filter
A great inexpensive place to start to boost the quality of air in your home is to get an HVAC filter with a high MERV rating. MERV stands for minimum efficiency reporting value, and it gives a rating to a particular air filter. The higher the MERV rating, the better the filter is at removing airborne contaminants from your home. Filters range in value from a rating of 1 to 20. Getting a higher-rated filter is a great way to help remove more airborne contaminants from your home.
It’s important to understand that residential air conditioning systems should only use filters with a MERV rating of up to 13. Anything higher is specifically designed for more industrial and commercial HVAC systems that are more powerful. Trying to run these filters in a residential system can lead to inefficient system operation and unfortunate breakdowns.
Keep Up With Regular Filter Changes
In order for your air conditioning system to operate efficiently, it needs to receive regular air filter changes. Most homeowners find that they need to replace the air filter in their AC system every two to three months. It’s a good idea to check your air filter at least once a month to see if it needs to be replaced. You can do this by simply pulling it out of its housing and holding it up to a light. If you can’t see through the filter, it means it’s time for a replacement. If you can see through the filter, then it still has some usable lifespan left in it.
Install Extended Media Filters
A very popular option for improving the quality of air inside your home is to get an extended media filter for your HVAC system. This filter will sit in the return ducting and work to filter out all different types of airborne contaminants. Think of an extended media filter as a beefed-up version of a traditional HVAC air filter. This device has multiple filters built into it, each removing different types of airborne contaminants. Many of these even come with a specialized activated carbon filter that will work to remove unpleasant odors from your air. You’ll typically need to replace the filter every six months for optimal indoor air quality.
Opt for UV Sanitizing Lighting
Another great option that’s a bit more expensive is a UV sanitizing light. There are two different styles of UV sanitizing lights that you can use for your air conditioning system, which are the air sanitizing light and the coil sanitizing light. An air sanitizing light sits within the return ducting of your system and will filter air as it flows through it. A coil sanitizing light will sit above the evaporator coil and not only treat the air but also prevent mold and mildew growth from occurring on the coil itself.
It’s important to make a very big distinction between how UV sanitizing lights work and how traditional HVAC air filters work. Traditional air filters will accumulate airborne particles in their filter material and eventually need to be thrown out to dispose of the toxic particles. A UV sanitizing light doesn’t trap airborne particles. Instead, its UV germicidal lighting will disrupt the DNA of the airborne particles so that they can no longer reproduce. This helps to minimize the amount of airborne particles throughout your home.
Schedule Duct Cleaning
The ducting that runs throughout your home is constantly pulling in air that’s filled with contaminants like dust mites and pet hair. Sometimes, those contaminants can build up inside your ductwork and restrict the airflow through it. This will not only reduce the operating efficiency of your air conditioning system but it will also poorly impact the quality of air inside of your home. One of the best things that you can do is to invest in professional duct cleaning service every three to five years.
If you or another member of your household suffers from severe asthma or another respiratory condition, you may want to consider getting more frequent duct cleaning service to minimize your symptoms at home. This professional service will use specialized tools to clean out all your air ducts.
Invest in Duct Sealing
When you’re getting duct cleaning service, you may want to consider also sealing up your ductwork. It isn’t uncommon for ductwork to develop air leaks over time. This is typically the result of the metal air ducts expanding and contracting with different temperature changes. When there are air leaks in your ductwork, some of your air conditioning can escape into the floor and wall cavities instead of making it to the rooms in your home. This causes your air conditioning system to work overtime in order to make up for the loss of treated air.
Professional duct sealing service uses a special serum that goes into your ductwork after it has been thoroughly cleaned. This serum will turn from a liquid to a hard substance that will seal out any leaks that are within your ducting. This will ensure that all the treated air from your air conditioning system will make it to all the rooms in your home.
Use Exhaust Fans
One very important thing to note when it comes to indoor air quality is the contribution of steam from activities like cooking and bathing. This steam can have particles from your soap or the oils that you’re cooking with. This can decrease the quality of air inside your home if you don’t properly vent it outdoors. Make sure that anytime you’re cooking on your stove, you’re turning on your range hood so that it’s sucking all of that contaminated air outside. The same holds true when it comes to your showers. Make sure that you’re using the exhaust fans in your bathrooms on a regular basis to remove all that soap scum and hot steam from your home successfully.
Get a Professional Air Quality Assessment
When it comes to increasing the quality of air inside your home, one of the best places to start is by getting a professional air quality assessment. This is where one of our technicians will come into your home and test the air in various locations to determine the presence of known airborne contaminants. By understanding the concentrations of different contaminants, you can determine which ones are going to be the most prominent in your household. It’s important to follow up with getting another air quality assessment after you make improvements to your home. This is for such things as installing a UV sanitizing light, to see the effect that it’s having on your air quality.
Exceptional Indoor Air Quality Service
Ahoy! Cooling & Heating offers exceptional indoor air quality service for the Tampa Bay, FL area. Our team can also assist with all your UV lighting, duct cleaning, air filter, and air purifier needs. Simply call our office today to schedule your next service consultation.
