Ways to Prevent Sickness With Indoor Air Quality Products
C & C Heating & Air Conditioning is the crew that the residents of Roseville and all of Macomb County trust to keep their homes at the right temperature in every season. With many years of experience, we have come to realize that there is more to home comfort than the number on the thermostat. Poor indoor air quality can have a strong negative effect on your health and well-being. For this reason, we carry and install an extensive line of indoor air quality products.
Common Problems With Indoor Air Quality
The two most frequent problems with indoor air quality are humidity levels and impurities in the air supply. It is important to remember that whatever is floating in your air is going into your body. Some impurities are easily detected, such as the dust and dander you can see floating in a room on a sunny day. However, impurities like mold spores, bacteria and volatile organic compounds are too small to be seen by the naked eye.
All of these impurities can affect your health. For some people, dust and pollen will trigger allergy symptoms. They may feel as though they have a cold whenever they are in the house. These impurities can aggravate respiratory conditions like asthma. VOCs can affect your sleep patterns. High chemical levels might make you feel fatigued, give you headaches and simply make you feel generally unwell. If you have these kinds of symptoms and find that they disappear when you stay at another location for a couple of days, it is time to check the quality of your indoor air.
Uncontrolled humidity levels create another set of problems. If the humidity is too high, it encourages mold growth and dust mite activity. This will send even more impurities into your air. If it is too dry, you will have issues with dry skin, itchiness and sore throats.
Getting a Handle on Ventilation
If you live in a newer building, you may have trouble getting adequate ventilation. Part of the reason that VOCs and other impurities build up in your air is that new homes are built with better materials and tighter construction methods than older homes. This kind of construction is great news for the efficiency of your heating and cooling systems since these systems will not have to work as hard to keep your home at the right temperature. However, tight construction is not the best for your air quality. It takes much longer for fresh outdoor air to replace the stale indoor air.
At C & C Heating & Air Conditioning we can install an Energy Recovery Ventilator to your existing system. This device gives you the ventilation you need by creating an exchange of indoor and outdoor air. As air travels through your ductwork, this system pulls in fresh air and pushes out stale air. As part of its design, an Energy Recovery Ventilator transfers heat from the indoor air to the incoming fresh air. This minimizes the system’s effect on the efficiency of your heating system. You can have cleaner air without a big increase in your utility bills.
Removing Dust, Dander and Other Impurities
There are several ways to remove impurities from your home. Some of this work can be done by you and your family members. If you can keep dust and allergens from getting inside in the first place, it can make a big difference. Simple practices like having people take their shoes off before entering will keep dust and dirt outside where it belongs. You may also want to increase the amount of sweeping and vacuuming you do during allergy seasons.
However, for even stronger cleaning power, you will want professional solutions. Most whole-house heating and cooling systems draw air through a system of ducts. Forced-air heating systems have an air filter that is designed to keep larger impurities from damaging the system. By installing an additional air cleaning or purifying system, you can remove many impurities as they travel through your air ducts.
Solutions range from adding filters with the ability to remove smaller particles to a comprehensive air filtration system like the Lennox PureAir system, which our company installs. This system not only removes dust and dander particles, but it also has a UV lamp to kill microorganisms and a carbon filter that can remove odors by trapping VOCs. This is an excellent system if you have higher levels of impurities due to smokers or multiple pets.
Killing Microorganisms
In many homes, when one family member gets sick, the others will soon follow. Viruses and bacteria are small enough that they can travel in the air riding on other dust particles. When you breathe the bacteria in, it will begin to multiply in your system, and you will fall victim to the illness it brings. You probably already disinfect frequently touched surfaces in your home. It is important to think about cleaning microorganisms from your air as well.
A germicidal lamp installed by the experts at C & C Heating & Air Conditioning can be a powerful force for removing microorganisms like bacteria and mold spores. The ultraviolet rays from this lamp will treat the air as it flows through your ductwork. Most bacteria are rendered harmless by this device.
Controlling Your Humidity
During the Michigan winter, the air in your home can get especially dry. For some people, this means itchy, red skin. It is not unusual for people who sleep in dry conditions to wake up with a sore throat. At this time of year, people haul out their single-room humidifiers to provide some relief. While these are helpful devices, they only cover a small space and need regular refilling and cleaning.
A whole-home humidifier circulates moisture throughout your residence. Not only will this make you feel more comfortable in the winter, but it can also lower your heating costs. Moist air feels warmer than dry air. You’ll be able to set your thermostat a little lower and still feel comfortable.
An Important Cleaning Service
While it is not a piece of equipment, one of the important services we provide at C & C Heating & Air Conditioning is annual duct cleaning. When the impurities in your air travel through your ducts, some of them settle in the ductwork. This accumulated dust can be a breeding ground for dust mites and mold. When it is time for your heating system to turn on, you may have an unpleasant surprise as some of this dust gets blown through your vents.
When you schedule a duct cleaning appointment before the heating season, you will prevent this problem before it starts. Our experts will remove the dust and dirt hiding in your system. You can start the heating season by breathing a sigh of relief.
Your Home Comfort Partner
At C & C Heating & Air Conditioning, we are passionate about the health and comfort of our Macomb County clients. In addition to indoor air quality solutions, we also offer a full range of heating and cooling services, including installations, maintenance and repairs. You can count on us to keep your home comfort system running as it should. Contact our office in Roseville today to set up an appointment.
