Are worries about your indoor air quality stopping you from breathing easily? Americans reportedly spend on average 90% of their time indoors, where the concentration of many pollutants is often two to five times higher than outdoors.
The people who are most adversely affected by the heightened amount of indoor air pollutants are typically those who spend even more time indoors, such as the very young, the elderly and those with cardiovascular or respiratory illnesses.
Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can improve your indoor air quality with HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) solutions.
What Are Some of the Causes of Indoor Air Pollution?
Dust, fine particles from the exhausts of vehicles, construction, and other outdoor activities can find their way indoors through doors and windows or any other openings in your home. This particulate matter can also enter a building through its HVAC system.
Dander, pet hair, mold, and dust mites can build up over time, creating problems for those with chronic illnesses and allergies.
Top-quality No Problem Heating and Cooling – Indoor Air Quality services can help alleviate some of these problems. Let’s look at how.
Poor ventilation can lead to a build-up of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which are emitted from synthetic building materials, paint products, smoke, furniture, carpeting, personal care products, dry-cleaned clothing, pesticides, air fresheners and cleaning solvents.
UVC Lights
Most people have heard of ultraviolet (UV) radiation because of applying sunscreen to protect themselves from the damaging rays of the sun. These are usually UVA or UVB. UVC is another type of ultraviolet radiation and is the most damaging type. However, it doesn’t reach Earth, as it is filtered out by the atmosphere.
Lights that emit UVC are useful for destroying many contaminants and microbes on surfaces. You can take advantage of this technology by having UVC lights installed on your HVAC system to keep the equipment free of pathogens and stop them from spreading throughout your home or building.
UVC technology is being implemented in many healthcare facilities as a part of the air disinfection systems. It’s also being implemented in other high-traffic buildings such as schools and colleges, airports, office buildings, large residential buildings and so forth.
Use VRF for Humidity and Temperature Control
VRF stands for “variable refrigerant flow,” and is a new HVAC technology that can provide both heating and cooling while using less energy. A VRF HVAC system detects the requirements for each zone in a building and sends the right amount of heating or cooling required.
The result is a consistently comfortable living environment with no hot or cold spots or fluctuations in humidity levels.
The Bottom Line
Poor indoor air quality can wreak havoc on your health. With more and more Americans spending more of their time indoors, ensuring that indoor air quality is high is vital for ensuring optimal health.
Poor indoor air quality can be caused by a wide variety of sources, including personal and cleaning products, clothes and furniture, dander, pet hair and mold. Outdoor contaminants from construction and vehicle fumes can also enter your building.
Keeping up to date with the latest in HVAC solutions can keep you, your family, or your workforce in good health moving into the future.
