Welcome to cold and flu season - when your home can feel like a dangerous breeding ground for bacteria. Sometimes, this fight against bacteria in your home can feel hopeless as you watch those around you succumb to the common cold. As it turns out, though, there might be a simple and effective solution to your issues with bacteria and air quality. By guiding the percent of relative humidity in your home to acceptable levels, you will have a better grip on things like bacteria, viruses, chemical interactions, and mites. This is your guide to improving the air quality in your home.
Why should I improve the air quality in my home?
Even if you don't consider your home to be particularly stuffy or drafty, likely, the humidity levels in your home are still not within ideal parameters. When you do nothing to rectify the air quality issues in your home, a variety of harmful strains bacteria, viruses, mites, and more have the potential to affect the health of yourself and your family. These air quality issues, when left untreated, can cause respiratory infections, allergic rhinitis, asthma, and other maladies.
Also, other chemicals within your home can contribute to its poor air quality. Chemicals like formaldehyde and polyurethane are commonly found within the items in your home - like carpets, wood paneling, and mattresses. Even household cleaning supplies can wreak havoc on your indoor air quality.
What sort of humidity levels should exist in my home year-round?
Relatively speaking, the percentage of relative humidity in your home should be between 30 and 55 percent, meaning that your home should never be too humid or too dry. Outside of this optimum zone, the aforementioned bacteria, viruses, fungi, etc. can breed quickly in your home.
What can I do to improve the air quality in my home?
To improve the air quality in your home, you'll need to ensure that you're swapping out your air filters regularly and investing in machines that can clean your air and control the amount of humidity in your home.
Swap out the air filter in your AC and household appliances like your vacuum cleaner and clothes dryer to ensure that your issues aren't coming from the daily use of dirty household objects. You should also get in the habit of checking the air ducts in your home to make sure that dust, dander, and mold aren't blocking the distribution of hot and cold air throughout your space. You can either do this yourself or have a certified professional do the cleaning for you.
A more comfortable habit to implement? Keep your rugs and carpets clean and perhaps even invest in plants that pull contaminants out of the air.
Perhaps the most effective (and costly) option is to invest in dehumidifiers, humidifiers, air purifiers, air cleaners, and UV lamps that work their magic to ensure that your home's humidity levels are always healthy. While dehumidifiers and humidifiers are very simple in their intent, air purifiers and air cleaners use smart processes that maintain the cleanliness of your home's air quality.
No matter how you may choose to improve the air quality in your home, the Factory Furnace Outlet can assist you with this process by providing a variety of air purifying products at steeply discounted prices!