The average American spends approximately 90% of their lifetime indoors. According to the EPA, air pollutant levels are often two to five times higher indoors than they are outdoors. The levels of indoor air pollutants occasionally exceed 100 times those of outdoors!
We’re not making a subtle point: The air in your home can be positively thick with pollutants. This can include bacteria, pet dander, dust mites, pollen, formaldehyde, smoke, and other things you would never inhale voluntarily. And you would be smart not to breathe in such pollutants, as they may cause health issues ranging from mild irritation of the nose to heart disease and even cancer.
Now’s the right time for a little good news. You can easily improve the air quality inside your house! Here are five simple ways to breathe easier while you’re at home.
1. Install an Air Purification System
It’s easy to add a stand-alone air purifier to your home. Simply unbox it, plug it in, and let its fan continuously draw air through its replaceable filter. But the most effective air purifier is affixed directly to the HVAC unit, where it spends all day extracting pollutants from all the air circulating throughout your home.
State-of-the-art air purification systems are highly effective. The REME HALO by RGF Environmental Group utilizes a unique technology called reflective electromagnetic energy (REME) to remove all of the most common varieties of indoor air pollutants. A recent independent study demonstrated that the REME HALO inactivates COVID-19 by 99.9%! That’s downright revolutionary.
The REME HALO is designed to help eliminate sick building syndrome risks by reducing odors, air pollutants, VOCs (chemical odors), smoke, mold, bacteria, and viruses. The HVAC REME units are easily mounted into existing air conditioning and heating systems ducts where most sick building problems start.
When the HVAC system is in operation, the HVAC REME HALO cell creates an advanced oxidation process consisting of ionized hydro-peroxides, superoxide ions, and hydroxide ions. All are friendly oxidizers. By friendly oxidizers, we mean oxidizers that revert back to oxygen and hydrogen after the oxidation of the pollutant.
2. Replace Your HVAC System’s Filters
Regularly replacing your HVAC unit’s filters won’t just appreciably extend its lifespan and reduce your heating bill by as much as 15%. It will also treat you to much higher-quality indoor air! Furnace and AC filters clog up surprisingly quickly, as the average American home collects up to 40 pounds of dust every year. It is recommended that you replace them every 90 days (or every month, if you have shedding pets).
3. Clean Your Air Ducts
If there are pollutants inside your home, then they are inevitably going to pass through – and accumulate inside – your air ducts. Dust, dirt, mold, pollen, drywall particles, food residues, and insect and rodent feces all commonly gather inside a home’s air ducts where they can trigger allergic reactions and asthma attacks.
The National Air Duct Cleaners Association recommends having your air ducts professionally cleaned every three to five years. If you would like to enjoy cleaner air in between these visits, then periodically wiping the areas surrounding your air vents with a damp cloth is a great way to reduce dust circulation within your home!
4. Control the Humidity Inside Your Home
High humidity is not inherently dangerous. But black mold, a hideous fungus that produces spores that can cause a wide range of adverse health effects, thrives in environments where the relative humidity exceeds 55%.
The Environmental Protection Agency recommends keeping the relative humidity within your home between 30 and 50%. Once you’ve purchased an inexpensive hygrometer, you’ll be able to gauge your efforts to reduce indoor humidity. Those can include covering pots while cooking, taking cooler showers, using bath fans during bathing, and installing a vent system for cooking can help reduce humidity in your home.
The easiest fix for high humidity is a dehumidifier, especially in the summer months. Like an air purifier, a dehumidifier can be a stand-alone unit or incorporated into an HVAC system. For the winter months, adding humidity to your air is usually necessary. The best humidifier to install into your HVAC’s ductwork system is a steam humidifier, as this releases steam into your air evenly and effectively all season long.
Did you get the impression that we are excited by the REME HALO, the revolutionary new air purification system? We’d love to tell you more about it, as well as any of the other professional plumbing and HVAC services we provide to Albany, Avon, Cold Spring, Eden Valley, Freeport, Kimball, Lake Henry, Paynesville, Richmond, Rockville, St. Joseph and Watkins, Minnesota. We welcome you to contact Gilk Plumbing, Heating & A/C today!
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