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Indoor air quality to make sure the air inside your house is fine!
Is your house built so that it is completely sealed and insulated? While houses built his way can be energy efficient, a lack of fresh outdoor air and a constant inflow of indoor air can cause particular challenges.
Do you know many things going inside your house can cause indoor air quality problems? Here are some of the objects that can be problematic:
- Emissions from fireplaces and stoves.
- Cleaning products with smells and various gases.
We are not telling you to stop sitting beside the cosy winter fire or not eat delicious meals cooked on stoves or stop cleaning your house altogether.
It would help if you weren’t giving up on life’s little pleasures. However, we recommend discussing with our HVAC experts to achieve your home’s acceptable indoor air quality.
At RLD, we are highly trained professionals ready to help you make your home feel like home again. With our assistance, you sit back and relax while we clear the air.
What is indoor air quality?
Indoor air quality is the condition or quality of air inside a building, house or structure as it relates to :
- Safety.
- Health.
- The comfort of the people.
If the indoor air in your house contains some volatile organic compounds, it might cause harm to you and your family (1), so you must understand and research your home’s air quality and take immediate steps to improve it.
Why is indoor air quality essential?
If the air inside your house is unsafe, it can negatively affect you and your family. People with specific co-morbidities or already existing respiratory issues like asthma can be badly affected by poor indoor air quality.
Not only this, prolonged exposure to such polluted indoor environments can even affect relatively healthy individuals. You might not feel the effects at once, but it can become problematic for you in the long term.
Negative short term effects
The short-term or immediate symptoms of bad indoor air quality can depend upon a variety of conditions like:
- Age.
- Pre-existing medical conditions.
In a variety of cases, the adverse reaction of a person can differ based on exposure levels. You might experience cold or viral infection symptoms because of airborne pollutants, while your family members might get a headache and dizziness.
Long term risks
Repeated and prolonged exposure to harmful and polluted air may not show any adverse symptoms for years.
But it might create a huge health issue for you. However, this differs from person to person.
Though improving the indoor environment of your house can cure the symptoms and severity of pre-existing diseases or conditions, it won’t help in curing severe diseases like cancer or heart diseases.
Destroying your HVAC system
Another important thing that you must understand is that bad indoor air quality does not just affect your health but also destroys your HVAC system.
Though it is hard for you to diagnose lousy air quality in your house, the operations of your heating and cooling systems will give you some clear cut signals.
Now you must be wondering, what kind of signals?
Well! Dirty air filters that have dust and debris accumulated in them are meant to degrade your air quality and cause inefficiency in your HVAC system. An inefficient HVAC system will spike up the energy bills and won’t even function properly.
Causes of poor indoor air quality
Numerous things can spoil the air quality of your house, and none of them is suitable for your HVAC either.
Inadequate ventilation can cause indoor air quality problems. And it’s not just about ventilation; it can also give rise to airborne pollutants by not bringing up enough fresh outdoor air and not pushing out the polluted indoor air.
Apart from that, high humidity and temperature levels can increase the concentration of such pollutants.
Therefore it is crucial to have a professional check the indoor air quality of your house.
Pollutants
We can’t ignore the fact that air contaminants are everywhere. But how they affect you is unpredictable.
You must be thinking, why so?
Well! Everyone’s body reacts differently when exposed to outdoor air pollution or air pollutants. Some people might face life-threatening reactions when exposed to indoor air quality, while some might not even feel a thing!
But what constitutes indoor pollutants? It includes:
- Pet dander.
- Excessive moisture.
- Tobacco smoke.
- Powders.
- Building materials
Air filters are meant to absorb these impurities but become inefficient due to the accumulation of these pollutants.
Lack of ventilation
If a minimal amount of air enters your house, pollutants can pile up to a level that seriously impacts your health.
Homes built to reduce the passage of outdoor air may have higher levels of pollutants than homes with open and better ventilation.
However, pollution can build up even in houses with ample ventilation or are considered leaky.
Signs that your home has poor indoor air quality
As we know, indoor quality can take away your happiness by posing a threat to your health.
And you might not even know about that.
According to the environmental protection agency, pollution can be 5x times more concentrated inside your house than outside.
Indoor air contaminants spreading and circulating your house can cause allergies or headaches.
Moulds and mildew can become the root of many types of illnesses. Therefore you should go for air cleaners frequently.
Health issues
Several symptoms can result from other factors, but they can also point to indoor air quality problems. The best way to know if your indoor air is problematic is by noticing if you feel these symptoms only when you’re home. Here are the symptoms:
- Itching in the throat, nose, skin and eyes.
- Headaches and sinus problems.
- Fatigue, coughing and sneezing.
- Allergies and asthma triggers.
- Nausea and faintness.
Environmental challenges
If your heating and cooling system have become outdated, it can be a primary factor in degrading your indoor air quality. Usually, it happens if your system purifies the air and adjusts humidity levels.
Here are some of the signals you can rely on while evaluating your indoor air quality:
- Unwanted grime.
- Muddy odours.
- Excessive static or mould growth.
How outdoor air enters your house?
The passage of outdoor air in your house is carried out in three ways:
- Infiltration.
- Natural ventilation.
- Mechanical ventilation.
The Mechanical ventilation
Your mechanical ventilation includes installing specific ventilation systems like outdoor vented fans to remove the air from individual spaces in your house like kitchens, bathrooms etc. It also helps handle systems that use fans or ductwork to remove the indoor air and distribute filtered and conditioned air throughout your house.
Infiltration
In infiltration, the outdoor air flows into your house through openings, joints and cracks in the walls, ceilings and floors or around doors and windows.
Natural ventilation
As the name suggests, the air moves naturally through windows and doors in natural ventilation. The air movement in the infiltration and the natural ventilation process generally occurs because of the temperature differences between indoors and outdoors.
The rate at which the outdoor replaces the inside air is known as the outdoor ventilation rate or air exchange rate.
When all three processes are going low, the air exchange rate is also low, increasing pollutant levels.
How can I prevent indoor air pollution?
Want to save your house from indoor air quality issues? Follow these ten easy steps:
- Book an appointment with an HVAC expert to inspect your home’s air quality. At RLD heating & cooling services, we take a closer look at rooms that can cause problems with the air quality like humidity, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and carbon monoxide. If we find any faults, we discuss them and try to fix them.
- Regularly clean the house to control dust mites, which might amplify allergies and asthma.
- Ensure that your house doesn’t have any implications for second-hand smoke.
- Install an air cleaning or home filtration system to minimize odours instead of spraying room fresheners or lighting scented candles.
- Put away gas-burning appliances like stoves or water heaters from the HVAC.
- Install a humidifier in your house to keep the humidity levels in check. Set the humidity levels under 50% to prevent the growth of mould and mildew.
- Check your home for Radon gas- A non-coloured, hazardous gas that can contribute to lung cancer due to prolonged exposure. Therefore it is advisable to get a radon test kit for your family.
- Set up carbon monoxide detectors near your bedroom to get alerts about the dangerous gas.
- Set up a ventilation system to ensure unrestricted airflow so that the contaminated air is substituted with fresh air.
- Select cleaning solutions and painting supplies that are chemical-free and VOC free. A higher concentration of VOCs can heighten the issue of respiratory illnesses for individuals who already have them.
Improve the indoor air quality of your home with the help of RLD services
At RLD, our air quality services are aimed at improving the quality of air in your house and finding out the issue that can negatively impact the health of your loved ones. Our priority is your comfort, and we do everything to preserve it and provide you with quality services.
Here are the following services we offer:
- Home Assessment: Our home assessment helps us detect problems with your air quality and the source or root of the problem. Doing this will help you prepare better to make any decision and resolve the matter quickly.
- Indoor Air Quality Testing – The indoor air quality testing shouldn’t have to expensive or disturbing for your schedule. The experts at RLD at quick and detailed when it comes to assessing the air quality.
- Duct Cleaning – Dirty air ducts are equal to dirt indoor air quality. Therefore, sign up for our duct cleaning services to keep your home’s air clean & fresh and your HVAC running smoothly
- Air Filters & Purifiers – The first step toward good air quality is cleaning and changing the air filters and purifiers. Our licensed and fully trained technicians are experts in handling these fragile components, so better call an HVAC expert instead of doing it yourself.
- Air Handlers – Cleaning the air handlers is an essential task that leads to improved air quality and smooth functioning of your HVAC unit. At RLD services, our technicians are experienced in taking good care of your HVAC system and other components.
- Heat & Energy Recovery Ventilators – Ventilators are our saviours for breathing fresh air. Need fresh air without compromising on the temperature? Worry not! We will install an energy recovery ventilator (ERV) to save HVAC from unnecessary strain, plus the fresh is also circulated thoroughly in your space.
Indoor air quality experts you can trust
When it comes to indoor air quality, you shouldn’t trust just any HVAC company or service because it is a sensitive issue that needs careful attention.
Choosing a company only because it offers a wide variety of services and not the quality of work can lead to inefficient service and the system not functioning correctly. It might also cost you thousands of dollars in repairs and an unhealthy living environment.
AR RLD, we ensure that everything is done right and follows proper procedures to carry out the services. So you can trust us blindly when it comes to air quality services.
Here are some of the critical things that you get:
Same day service
Our specialists are thoroughly trained, insured and vetted before setting foot on your house.
They are trained to take care of your eating snd cooling systems. Still, they are also well educated on delivering a professional attitude and behaviour, ensuring that the customer is satisfied with the services and all the grievances are met.
Satisfaction guaranteed
How often do you see an HVAC company taking guarantee your satisfaction? Not very much, right?
The reason is- The other companies worry about not keeping up with their promises, but we are not one of them. We guarantee your satisfaction because we have a team of industry expert leaders committed to quality service every time.
So, you can sleep peacefully and leave your worries to us!
Dedicated and trained professionals
To maintain a comfortable and healthy lifestyle, you have to ensure that your home’s HVAC and other vital systems are running at their peak performance.
If your HVAC is malfunctioning, it might also hamper the air quality of your house.
Our technicians will help you install an air quality cleaning system within one or two days of initial contact. The reason is- We don’t like to make our customers wait for long because we know the consequences of long term exposure to such poor air.
FAQs
Here are some of the questions people usually ask:
What is the indoor air quality in HVAC?
Indoor air quality or IAQ refers to the air quality inside or around the buildings and structures. It relates to the comfort, safety and health of the building occupants. The indoor environment inside the building might include various gases, air contaminants, humidity and temperature.
Do HVAC systems bring in the fresh air?
The HVAC system does not bring fresh air into the building.
The space is heated up or cooled down using or recycling the already existing indoor air. The outdoor units of an HVAC help in air release and not intake.
So, fresh air coming out of an HVAC is not possible.
Do air conditioners help with indoor air quality?
Your air conditioner is meant to keep the heated air out of your house, but it won’t keep the pollutants and debris out of the air.
The reason is- If your AC doesn’t have air filters, it will not purify the air; also, most of the time, even the filters aren’t enough to keep the air pollutants out of your house.
Can your HVAC system make you sick?
HVAC heating and air conditioning systems are a great way of maintaining the right temperature in your house. And your HVAC system does not make you ill.
However, adjusting your home environment to battle airborne diseases will decrease your chances of falling ill.
Why Us?
SEE WHAT OUR FRIENDS HAVE TO SAY
I have been using RLD services for the last nine years, and if I’m said to describe the company, I will tag them as customer-oriented, ethical, transparent, skilled and fair. They communicate everything you need to know and never try to upsell. This time I called them for checking the air quality as I suddenly felt that something was not right. The crew arrived and assessed everything, only to find out that the air filters were dirty. They cleaned it up and charged a minimum price. I love their honesty and ethics. Highly recommended.
– Diana P.
To begin with, I’m thrilled with RLD’s services. My house smelled like a pile of mud, and I got a severe headache. So without delay, I called RLD. I got an appointment for the next day, and the team arrived on time. They were well equipped and so gentle to talk to. After inspecting the whole HVAC system, they found that the smell was because of the moisture accumulation in the system. It took them 5 hours to solve the problem, but they did it excellently. Loved their transparency and honesty. 10/10 for the professionalism.
– Karen F.
We bought a new office building and wanted to check if everything was alright. So we thought of contacting RLD services. After 2-3 hours, Tim arrived to assess the building. He fixed everything that needed to be solved and told us about various things that are crucial for HVAC systems. We feel so confident now! All thanks to RLD services and, of course, Tim.
– Frank J.
Advised everything to me on the phone and saved me from spending unnecessary money on visits. I took the advice, and it was done. I Loved the honesty. Thank you so much, RLD.
– John K.
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