How Indoor Air Quality Is Impacting Your Health

Have you noticed lingering headaches, sneezing and coughing, even fatigue and concentration problems when you’re indoors, only to have them disappear when you head out? Then they come right back again when you spend time inside.

You may have indoor air quality problems. And your HVAC equipment may be to blame.

Many of us attribute our allergy-like symptoms to outside triggers – pollen season or the cottonwood trees letting loose. The EPA has a different opinion; they state inside air can be as much as 5 times more polluted than outside air.

Up to half of all illnesses are aggravated by indoor air quality – when you’re sick, you stay indoors breathing in the polluted air. And when you go to work, you’re sharing those germs with everyone else in the building too.

When you control contaminants that cause indoor air quality problems – dust mites, pollen, and other pollutants – allergy and asthma related problems reduce by as much as 60 percent.

Most people think of their HVAC equipment – furnaces and air conditioners – as a way to stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer. They forget that a crucial part of the HVAC system is ventilation. A well designed system does more than push conditioned air into your rooms, it controls the air quality too.

When your HVAC system works properly, it pulls in air from the outside, feeds it through the system, and returns outflow back outside. How well that process works depends on your system. If your air filter clean? Are your ducts polluted? Is your HVAC system pushing air properly throughout your home, or are there inefficiencies within the system?

When you forego routine maintenance, your HVAC equipment doesn’t operate as it should. Pollutants can get trapped inside the equipment, and release into the ductwork. As air flows throughout the ventilation system, it releases these pollutants into your air supply. If moisture is present, and mold spores begin to grow, they will be released into the air your family breathes every day.

How do you know if your system is operating correctly? Have an HVAC technician check out your equipment at the beginning of each season to ensure everything is working as it should. Consider a preventative maintenance plan, they are designed to provide you with top service at affordable prices, and give you peace of mind knowing your HVAC system is operating as it should.