Air Quality – Inside vs. Outside

Air Filters

I know we’ve talked about air filters for your HVAC system a lot, along with your home’s indoor air quality. But that is because filters are one of the easiest things to forget about and one of the easiest things to change that will help give you quality indoor air.

Air filters are designed to capture and trap airborne particles such as dust, pollen, and pet dander, and prevent them from circulating throughout your indoor air. However, over time, the filter becomes filled with these particles causing it to become clogged and restricting the airflow. This can cause several problems, including reduced indoor air quality, decreased system efficiency, increased energy consumption, and potentially even system damage.

Cheap Filters

Cheap HVAC filters don’t last long as the more pricer ones do, so they need replacing more often. They may only trap half as much dust, dander, and pollen before becoming clogged with larger particles creating a need for replacement; thus, requiring twice the amount of maintenance time per year (and twice the cost), and we’re just talking about the filters, not the unit.

Achieving Indoor Air Quality

Achieving quality indoor air in your home is important for your health and comfort. Identifying and eliminating sources of pollution within your home also helps your indoor air quality. These sources can stem from someone that smokes in the house to the cleaning products that you use.

Here are a few statistics that might convince you to keep a better eye on your furnace filter and cleaning products.

• Concentrations of volatile organic compounds are at least 10 times higher indoors than outdoors.
• Breath circulates in small spaces – in a crowded room with no windows, one in every seven breaths a person breathes is air another person had breathed out.
• Outdoor pollution events like wildfires and 4th of July fireworks can increase indoor air pollution two to three-fold.
• Cooking is a common source of indoor air pollution — According to researchers, particles emitted from cooking account for approximately 30% of indoor fine particulate matter.
• Major sources of indoor air pollution include exhaust from gas stoves and fireplaces, candles, air fresheners, tobacco smoke, laser printers, household cleaning products, pollen, mold spores, and dust mites.
• 87% of U.S. homeowners are not aware that the air quality inside their home may be less than the air quality outside their home
• 29% of Americans never change the air filter in their home.

And there are so many more. With all of those statistics, don’t you think you should make it a priority to routinely change your HVAC filters? We do.

We can assist with your indoor air quality. Call us to schedule an appointment or join our Comfort Club and we will maintain your system to keep it running as efficiently as possible. We can supply all variations of air filters, including the HEPA filters which I use in my own home, along with different types of air purifiers!