Home air quality is a big issue among homeowners. For people with allergies, having clean air in the home is even more important. Putting an effective air filtering system to work in your home – either as part of a dedicated air cleaner or high-efficiency HVAC filter – can pull irritants out of indoor air and help to reduce symptoms suffered from fall allergies.
While general pollen is a constant issue from spring through autumn, common fall allergens in the home include ragweed, mold and spores from airborne fungus, each of which can be virtually eliminated from indoor air with a proper air cleaning and filtering strategy.
Like HVAC air filters, some air cleaners can be installed as part of the heating and cooling system, while others come as stand-alone or portable air-cleaning devices. They'e capable of capturing larger airborne particles, such as dust, pollen, insect allergens, some molds, and animal dander that can cause fall allergies.
Options for Air Cleaning
A variety of air-cleaning technologies are available for residential use, ranging from the basic air filters in the MERV (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value) 1-4 range, that you can find at the grocery store, to sophisticated air cleaners that use a variety of technologies to clean indoor air. Depending on the severity of your air quality issues, or the sensitivity of your family members to allergens, you'll want to choose your filters and/or air cleaners accordingly. For example, well-known HEPA filters populate the higher end of the MERV scale (17-20) with 95 percent filtration rates or better.
Portable air cleaners work towards filtering the same particles and allergens but on a much smaller scale. They also contain fans to circulate air and can easily be deployed in a rotation from room to room so all corners of your house can get regularly cleaned.
Effects of Unclean Air in the Home
Poor indoor air quality can directly cause or contribute to the development of lung cancer, infections, allergies and even asthma, a chronic lung disease. Bad indoor air can also cause dry eyes, nasal congestion, headaches, nausea and fatigue.
While properly sealing your home is a good strategy for keeping airborne allergens from infiltrating your home, it doesn't do anything to remove the allergens that get in through other means or develop inside the home. This is why the American Lung Association recommends that ventilation and effective air filtering and cleaning systems be used to reduce levels of indoor air pollutants.
Contact us at Hartman Brothers Heating & Air Conditioning for professional air quality services. We've been serving Fort Wayne area residents in home comfort since 1963.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in New Haven, Indiana and surrounding Fort Wayne area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about allergens and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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