When you think of allergy season, you typically think of the early days of spring when trees and flowers are all beginning to bloom and putting heavy pollen out into the air.
This is further aggravated as summer begins and grass pollen joins the mix until fall and winter take over. A tough allergy season followed by the drying effect of furnaces within an HVAC setting can be a recipe for misery. However, the extended periods of warmth experienced as climate change take its toll have increased this yearly cycle of heavy pollen production greatly.
The milder winter months now being experienced have left the more than 50 million allergy sufferers in the United States with longer allergy seasons to endure. The last thing needed is the poor air quality in the home worsening allergies. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), indoor air can often be worse than outdoor air due to the recirculation of harmful allergens in a confined space.
Improving your home’s indoor air quality is one of the most important things you can do to mitigate allergies. To keep your home air as pure as possible, you’ll want to take some measures to keep the air circulating throughout your house clean.
Here are some tips to achieve high air quality in your home:
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Allergens are substances that we eat, inhale, or otherwise ingest which cause an allergic reaction in our immune system.
When our immune system detects an allergen, it attacks it as a foreign object invading and threatening the health of our system. Though something like a bit of pollen might not truly be a threat to the body, the immune system can overreact to an excess of it and treat it as one.
Because allergens are usually so small that they can only be seen with a microscope, we often don’t notice them on our clothes, skin, or other objects brought in from the outside into our homes. Once there, they can get distributed by air moving around inside the home and settle across numerous surfaces, including on the occupants.
You can minimize allergens in two ways. One way is through cleaning. The other is through filtering the air in your home to prevent further distribution.
While the first may be obvious, many people don’t consider that cleaning alone won’t remove an excess of allergens in their homes. Here are some ways you can keep allergens at bay inside your domicile:
Your bathroom, kitchen, or laundry room can all contribute significantly to the humidity level of your home. Be proactive in preventing leaks. Don’t run showers without the exhaust. Use disinfectant to remove the mold before it forms. Install a dehumidifier if necessary.
In addition to the suggestions above, there are also measures you can take that will help your HVAC do some of the work when it comes to removing allergens from your home. If you are experiencing excessive allergy symptoms, these added actions can help reduce the number of allergy-inducing particles in your indoor air.
If you have concerns about the quality of your indoor air and how it is affecting your allergies or asthma, you should contact a professional HVAC professional to do an inspection and make recommendations about improving your situation.
These companies are usually licensed and trained to maintain proper air quality throughout your home and can provide personalized advice and recommendations based on your HVAC system setup.
