How You Can Control Pollutants in Your Home

A major urban center like Orlando gives us plenty of air pollutants to worry about. Even so, the air quality in your own home could be worse than outdoors. If you want to clean up your air, there’s a lot you can do.

Let the Air Flow

Turn on your exhaust fans while you’re cooking or showering and let them run for around 10 minutes after you finish. These fans remove odors and excess humidity.

Many modern homes are made airtight for energy efficiency, which reduces air circulation. These homes often require a whole-house ventilation system to achieve sufficient airflow and remove built up pollutants.

Consult with a heating and cooling technician about installing a whole-house fan. This fan is installed in the ceiling and turned on in the evening to draw hot, humid air out of the house as cool air enters through the open windows. It provides cooling at a lower cost than air conditioning.

Knock Out the Contaminants

Keep air contaminants out of your home by placing mats in front of your doors. Use caulk and weather stripping to seal the air leaks around windows and doors. These leaks waste conditioned air and let in dust, pollen, and other debris.

Make sure the joints in your duct system fit tightly and are sealed with mastic. Duct leaks suck in contaminants from unconditioned spaces and distribute them around your house.

While you’re dusting and vacuuming, set your A/C to run on “fan only” mode. This circulates your indoor air through the air filter, removing the dust you kicked up while cleaning. Invest in air filters with a minimum efficiency reporting value (MERV) of between 5 to 12. If you have allergies, stick to the MERV 10 to 12 range. Consider a whole-house air cleaner to control contaminants filters miss.

Have your fuel-burning appliances, such as your gas furnace, inspected annually to make sure they aren’t releasing trace amounts of harmful carbon monoxide (CO) gas.

For professional guidance on reducing the pollutants in your air, get in touch with us at Rinaldi’s Energy Solutions.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Orlando, Florida and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).

Credit/Copyright Attribution: “Jana Guothova/Shutterstock”