How many times a day do you stop and think about the indoor air quality of the air you are breathing in your home? If you are like most people, you don’t give much thought to it unless you are alerted to an issue. Air quality issues, though, can create a serious health issue. Allergies, chronic sinusitis, COPD, asthma and even carbon monoxide poisoning or cancers caused by radon can create everything from mild discomfort up to and including death. Truth is, we take breathing for granted and we often don’t pay enough attention to the fact that the quality of our air impacts the quality of our lives.
Similarly, we are quick to invest money into making cosmetic changes to our homes to make them more aesthetically appealing, but we sometimes balk at the thought of spending money on important preventative maintenance such as duct cleaning, even though this expense can improve the quality of both our home and our health and even pay for itself in savings on our energy bills.
Most of us change the air filter to our furnace or air conditioning unit and ensure that they are running smoothly, but lack the knowledge, skill, or equipment to properly maintain the air duct work in our walls, basements, and attics. Why is this important? Without regular cleaning, dust, mold, and allergens can build up in the air duct, spreading them throughout the home every time the unit starts. When you think about how much time we spend in our homes, breathing in dust and mold can really take its toll on our health and the health of our families.
In addition to our health, it has an impact on the health of our HVAC systems as well. Not only is the indoor air quality impacted negatively, but when our air ducts are clogged, the exchange of air going to and from these units are bogged down, impacting the safety and efficiency of our HVAC systems and consequently raising energy costs.
What can you do to improve the indoor of the air quality in your home? In addition to general housekeeping such as vacuuming your floor and regularly changing the filters on your AC/furnace, you should schedule duct cleaning regularly throughout the year to keep dust, mold and other allergens to a minimum and to improve the overall efficiency of your loved ones depend on it.