What You Can Do to Keep Your Indoors Healthy in Winter
Even in the mild Tallahassee, Florida climate, winters are a time for settling in at home, gathering with friends and family, and spending a bit more time indoors. If you’re not careful, this can compromise indoor air quality. This may lead to shared germs, a stuffy house, and other seasonal discomforts. Keep your home clean and healthy all winter long with a few smart tricks for freshening things up and fighting cold-weather hazards.
Make Sure You Have Good Ventilation
You may have heard about the importance of properly insulating and sealing your home, but are you balancing these measures with good ventilation? Weather stripping and caulking are effective ways to prevent air loss around windows and doors, while attic insulation is a must for energy efficiency as hot air attempts to rise out of the home. Though these practices will prevent heat loss, they also restrict air flow and lead to uncomfortably stale conditions in the home.
The best solution is to install a ventilation system. A mechanical ventilator will allow a continuous stream of fresh air to enter the house, while pulling stale air out. This helps minimize indoor air pollutants like VOCs, dust, dander, and other irritants. If you don’t have a ventilation system in your home, our technicians can help you explore your options for an air quality solution.
Stay on Top of Maintenance Tasks
Make sure you’re keeping up with important maintenance tasks throughout the winter. Do this so your home is equipped to deliver the healthiest and cleanest air possible. Ideally, you should schedule your furnace maintenance in early fall before the peak heating season hits. However, if you haven’t had a furnace tune-up within the last 12 months, you should go ahead and give us a call today.
Between tune-ups, you can keep your system clean by regularly changing the air filter. You should do this at least once every three months, and more often if you have asthma or allergies.
Keep the House Clean
Don’t wait for spring cleaning to give your home a thorough scrub down. Stay vigilant with your housekeeping tasks during the winter to keep your space fresh. Battle the common cold and flu bugs of the season by disinfecting remotes, phones, knobs, and handles often. Vacuum carpets several times a week to keep dust mites from settling in, and launder your sheets weekly.
Maintain Healthy Humidity Levels
ENERGY STAR recommends humidity levels between 30 and 50 percent in the home. Floridian homeowners are often familiar with the hazards of high humidity in summer, but winter’s drier conditions bring their own challenges. Adequate humidity helps dust and other contaminants settle and stick on flat surfaces where they’re easier to clean up. With low humidity, these irritants become airborne. Low humidity also leads to cracked skin and dry, inflamed nasal passages.
A whole-home humidifier is the most efficient way to maintain healthy humidity levels in the winter. This installation fits directly into your central heating system, so you can adjust humidity throughout the entire home simply by managing the settings on your thermostat.
Consider an Air Cleaner
Your standard heating system has a single filter that stops airborne irritants as they cycle through the home. While this will capture larger dust and dirt particles, it’s not the most efficient solution for truly cleaning the air. A high-efficiency air cleaner will take filtration even further, capturing fungi, bacteria, mold spores, smoke, pollen, pet dander, and more.
Some signs of poor indoor air quality include frequent asthma and allergy flare-ups, persistent headaches, fatigue, and congestion. You or your family members may be suffering from otherwise unexplained symptoms like these If so, an air cleaner might offer the solution you need for a healthier winter home.
If you’re interested in upgrading the indoor air quality systems in your home, contact our knowledgeable technicians at Advanced Air Care. Give us a call today at 850-688-9265 to learn more about how you can manage and improve air quality. We offer air quality testing to give you a comprehensive picture of your problem spots, so you can choose the best solution for your needs.
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