Summer’s heat and humidity challenge indoor air quality. For many, Summer offers a variety of outdoor entertainment options. However, its heat and humidity often drive us inside where the US EPA warns that air pollutants are often 2 to 5 times higher than outdoor concentrations. In fact, according to the EPA, we spend 90% of our lifetime indoors. It’s time to take indoor air quality seriously.
Lisa E. Crosley, Lifestyle Comfort Solutions’ President, offers the following simple suggestions to protect the air you breathe.
Improve Air Filtration
Merv 13 filtration. Your filter’s ability to catch harmful mold and mildew, pet dander, viruses, and a host of harmful products is a critical step in protecting your family. A filter’s effectiveness is measured in MERV value, with 13 being the starting point for enhanced protection. Most American homes are protected only to a MERV 8 level.
Beware! Enhancing Merv filtration is not a DIY project. Simply purchasing a Merv 13 filter over the counter frequently creates comfort issues and interferes with the efficient performance of your heating and cooling system. Improperly installed filtration can shorten the life span of your HVAC system. The air flow which keeps your home comfortable may be compromised.
Talk to Lifestyle Comfort Solutions about professionally adding high quality filtration; you have a variety of affordable choices.
Clean the Air You Breath
Electronic Air Cleaners. Here, too, a variety of options abound. Your Lifestyle Comfort Solutions’ team has the expertise to help you choose what’s best for you.
Increase ventilation. Bring fresh air into your home to dilute pollutants and combat the adverse effects of cardiovascular and respiratory disease. The higher the air exchange rate per hour, the more you protect your lungs from dirty, polluted air.
A Word of Warning
Today’s market offers homeowners a variety of stand-alone indoor air quality products. These products may be purchased on-line or in big box stores. They promise to clean and purify the air you breath.
However, Lifestyle Comfort Solutions’ Service Manager, Jessica Arney, Lifestyle Comfort Solutions’ certified Building Performance Institute Building Analyst, points out the downfall of such items. “You live in your entire home. You cook in your kitchen. You bath in your bathroom. Your sleep in your bedroom. You enjoy life throughout your home. Most stand-alone items are expensive but are limited in their reach. They marginally protect just small spaces here and there throughout your home. Put your heating/cooling system to work adding whole home solutions for ultimate comfort and health throughout your home.”
Lifestyle Comfort Solutions is an award-winning, family-owned, heating and cooling (HVAC) company serving Dayton, and its surrounding communities: Kettering, Centerville, Bellbrook, Springboro, Englewood, Huber Heights, Clayton, Germantown, and Fairborn. Learn more about Lifestyle Comfort Solutions by visiting www.lifestylecomfortsolutions.com or calling us at 937.202.4520.
