Breathe Easy At Home: Four Tips To Improve Indoor Air Quality

By Jim Gates, CAFS

The quality of the air inside your home is very important to the health of you and your family. Poor quality indoor air can result in many negative health effects, including breathing disorders, respiratory ailments and more. Improving the indoor air quality in the home can help all of the members of the family breathe a little easier.

1. Control Sources Of Air Pollution

One of the most efficient ways to improve the quality of the air inside the home is to maintain control of any air pollution sources that could contaminate the interior air. Control methods include the elimination of harmful contaminants (such as asbestos), reducing emission levels by reducing the usage of combustion sources (such as wood burning fireplaces, gas-fueled stoves, or smoking tobacco products) within the home, and using high quality air filters near emission sources to quickly remove pollutants from the air. Controlling sources of air pollution is viewed as one of the most cost effective ways to maintain good indoor air quality because it rarely increases energy costs.

2. Improve Ventilation in the Home

Another method used to improve indoor air quality is improving the ventilation of the home so that contaminated air is removed and replaced with fresh air on a routine basis. Many types of home heating and cooling systems simply recycle the air that is inside the home without adding fresh air from outside the home, allowing levels of contaminants to build up until they reach levels that can be harmful to your health. Opening windows in the home during nice weather and operating window or attic fans can improve ventilation in the home by a significant amount.

3. Make Use Of Exhaust Portals

Many of the areas in the home that routinely create indoor air contaminants are equipped with exhaust portals that remove them from the room where the portal is located. For example, kitchen exhaust portals can typically be found above the stove to remove smoke and cooking odors from the kitchen before they can spread to the rest of the home. Most bathrooms are equipped with exhaust portals and fans to remove smells and other contaminants. Using these exhaust portals can also increase ventilation in the home by replacing the air removed from the home with fresh air from outdoors.

4. Choose High Quality Air Filters

A wide variety of air conditioner filters are available on the market, ranging from inexpensive flat panel models to high performance pleated air filters. Many of the high quality varieties of these air filter models are capable of removing numerous types of contaminants and particulates from indoor air, with high MERV (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value), indicating high particle removal effectiveness. Certain models of high quality air filters contain activated carbon to aid in the removal of gaseous pollutants from the air. Choosing a high quality air filter to filter the air in your home will improve the quality of the air inside your home considerably and will reduce the risk of health complications arising due to the inhalation of harmful contaminants.