I will be giving you the ten best ways to improve your air quality, but first would like to go over a few very important facts about your Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning System. A lot of us are unaware of how to properly maintain our HVAC system and how important it is to properly maintain it for efficiency, life expectancy, and performance. Here are a few maintenance tips you can do personally while still having your HVAC system serviced by a professional:

  1. Run your heating and air conditioning system at least once a month for 10-15 minutes. Your condenser fan motor is internally lubricated and being in its off position all winter can cause it to seize. Running it regularly helps keep all components moving and ready for summer. Running your heater also helps burn off any dust that accumulates on it so when winter arrives, we are not dealing with horrible allergies from the excess lint and dust burning off the heater.
  2. CHANGE YOUR FILTER. The filter serves two purposes; it helps clean the air (the MERV rating on the filter determines how well it does clean), and it protects the air conditioner from getting dirty which can result in catastrophic damage.
  3. Change the batteries on your thermostat. Putting in a fresh battery yearly will help your thermostat accurately sense temperatures and properly operate. I highly recommend getting a common powered thermostat that is hard-wired which will be much more efficient and work a lot better.
  4. Clean your outdoor air conditioner. Even if it doesn’t look too dirty, there can be a very thin layer of dust which will cause the unit to be less efficient and can also lead to damage.
  5. Visually inspect your HVAC equipment. You may be able to see something that doesn’t look right, and have a professional repair it before worse damage may happen. Frayed wires at outdoor unit, gas smell near appliance, a missing filter, etc. are some things to keep an eye out for.

You should perform these preventative maintenance tips yearly. It is always best to have a professional perform a proper maintenance which they should perform a variety of services which I can go over with you if you have any questions.

Having great indoor air quality is crucial for great health and wellness of ourselves and our family, we typically cannot see the harmful contaminants in our air due to the particles being too small or the gases being invisible, so having a plan for better indoor air quality will help with achieving excellent air that will make you fell great and prevent you from getting ill as often.

I have become very passionate about indoor air quality as when I grew up, we were not educated on this topic, I don’t think anyone was, I mean we were drinking out of the hose and riding bikes without helmets and jumping off roof tops onto trampolines. I was also very sick all the time with flus, viruses, and allergies. Looking back now I know it was due to the air quality outside and inside in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Nowadays we have become much more mindful of our surroundings and the things we consume so we can stay healthy and live longer. A lot of us take the air we breathe for granted and don’t think twice about how we’ve gotten sick, why we have allergies, or why our home has a funky odor. We typically just mask these factors using harmful chemical sprays, medication that our doctor has given us, and just dealing with these ailments. Because of this, I really began to start wondering WHY. As a result, I found that when these things do happen to us, not even our doctor really knows how we’re living, what kind of conditionings we’re living under, where we are located, or even what kind of animals we have in our home. So, I began doing A LOT of research on indoor air quality, and how to fix our indoor air quality and make it better, not just better but excellent. So here’s what I came up with for a DIY way of improving your air quality.

These are the 10 BEST WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR AIR QUALITY AT HOME OR WORK

  1. Get an air filter with a high MERV rating. This will not just help with large particulates which you can see, but they will remove smaller particulates down to the micron level (140x smaller then a hair follicle) which are the harmful particles for our lungs. You will need to change these filters often (around once a month), unless you have a proper air cleaner installed professionally which can last up to a year.
  2. Run your fan often, there is a setting on your thermostat labeled fan, turn that on often for cleaning your home. Having a proper filter will help with turning your HVAC system into a whole home air cleaning system.
  3. Clean your ducts at least every 5 years. This will help with removing any particles or other harmful elements out of your system, which even cleans your heater preventing those dust particles from burning when it comes on and causing a horrible smell and effecting your sinuses, throat, eyes, and wellness.
  4. Place indoor green plants around your home. This will help with turning harmful carbon dioxide and other gases into healthy breathable air. These are natural air purifiers and are also great for the feng shui of your home and also make your home smell better.
  5. Open windows often. This will help bring in clean air from outside and into your home, I like to leave my fan on when I open windows that way it helps to bring the air in and will bring that air through the filter to be cleaned.
  6. Have your home professionally cleaned at least every 6 months. When I say professionally I mean cleaning carpets and furniture along with blinds. This will help remove any harmful components in your home which would make its way into the air and into your lungs.
  7. Having carpets or rugs instead of tile or wood. Using a particle counter and indoor air quality testing instruments I found that homes with carpet have less particles flying around as they get trapped into fabrics, which you can vacuum and remove along with professional cleaning will help remove these particles. I’ve read that people recommend the opposite but you would have to clean your home daily to prevent a home with tile or wood from having high levels of particles in air.
  8. Seal your registers and attic access. These areas typically have gaps which can cause horrible attic air to enter your home, especially on hot days when the attic pressure is greater then your home’s. Sealing your register ( vent in ceiling or floor) requires you to remove the grill and seal the seam between the can and drywall using silicone. And sealing your attic requires using a foam tape which, when the lid rests on it, seals the attic access gap.
  9. Reduce off gassing, un-filtered water and harmful chemical cleaning solutions cause what’s called off gassing which results in harmful gasses in our air when used. Having a good water cleaning device (water purifier) will help reduce the harmful off gassing every time we run the dish washer or the tap, and by not using harmful chemicals and sprays to clean your home your air will have less horrible gasses that can be harmful when inhaled.
  10. Use a high quality room air purifier. This helps destroy gases, helps remove odors, and causes particles to stick together helping them get trapped in your filter. They also reduce bacteria, mold, flu, viruses, and much more for healthier breathable air.

These are the 10 Best Ways to improve your indoor air quality on your own. There is a much more scientific way using high tech equipment and materials and would require a professional to design and install, which is what we specialize in. We have developed a system utilizing a variety of components to deliver fresh clean air while efficiently removing particulates and purifying your homes air while also achieving a level of comfortability and efficiency that is unprecedented. Here is a description of some things we can do to make your homes air quality not just great but EXCELLENT for your health, life, family, stamina, and mood not to mention you will feel great having the most efficient and comfortable home.

Our complete IAQ (indoor air quality) System includes dehumidification for greater efficiency and comfortability in the summer. Humidifying in the winter helps lubricate sinuses, furniture, and throat while improving efficiency and comfortability. A top-of-the-line heating and cooling system achieves the highest efficiency on average, saving $8-10k every 10-12 years, while also delivering the best performance. Having a high-tech and top-of-the-line air purifier destroys odors, VOCs, chemicals, viruses, flus, diseases, and helps filter air. Having a properly designed air cleaner with a high MERV rating improves system efficiency and filtration performance resulting in the cleanest air in your home. It will also include a fresh air delivery system allowing for proper air changes per hour bringing in fresh air from outside and exhausting harmful stagnant air in your home while filtering that air through the filtration system before supplying into your home. Cleaning your duct professionally removes harmful dust and particles which can cause illness and allergies. We also seal all your vents and registers preventing harmful attic air from entering your home.

There are a variety of methods, and we would love to design a customized system just for you, or offer ways that you could personally improve your home’s IAQ.