Your Nanaimo home serves as your safe space where you can relax, unwind, and more. It serves as a sanctuary where you and your family can breathe easily. However, if the indoor air quality in your home is less than satisfactory, breathing becomes a challenge. In order to improve and protect the air quality in your home, employ the following solutions.
1. Get an Air Purifier
While you’ll want to maintain a number of air quality habits to protect your indoor air quality, an air purifier is an excellent machine to use. You don’t need to purchase one for each room in your home. There are whole-home air purifiers you can invest in. If you’d prefer a smaller option, choose one that covers the square footage of the main rooms you and your family spend the most time in.
2. Use Vents, Fans, and Hoods
In rooms like the bathroom and the kitchen, you’ll find built-in vents and fans. Develop the habit of using those fans each time you cook or shower. In many cases, people turn on these fans in order to monitor the way a smell spreads throughout the rest of the house. While the fans and vents are beneficial in that regard, they also help in other ways.
When you take a lot of steamy showers, this might feel good to your senses. However, if you don’t turn on the fan, this constant spread of humid air can serve as an issue for the air quality in your home. The fan helps to monitor the moisture. It prevents the moisture from seeping into the walls which leads to issues with mold and mildew.
When you’re cooking on the stove with oil and grease, those particles get into the air. When you turn on the vent or hood, it’ll reposition and remove those particles so that they don’t negatively impact the quality of the air in your home.
3. Monitor the Use of VOCs
VOCs are volatile organic compounds. They’re often found in most mass-produced products. They’re especially prevalent in cleaning products, candles, and furniture. These chemicals can be damaging to the air quality. While it’s hard to completely avoid VOCs in some aspects, there are ways to decrease their impact on your home.
For starters, it’s best to really research and read the labels of the products you purchase. There’s a reason why there’s such a major influx of clean products and clean ingredients. Whether you’re looking for perfumes or toilet bowl cleaners, consider options that are free of VOCs in order to improve your home’s indoor air quality. Consider making your own cleaning solutions with natural ingredients like white vinegar, lemons, and baking soda as well.
4. Replace Carpet
Even though carpet can feel really good underneath your feet and those carpet streaks from the vacuum can be satisfying to create, carpets can actually be cesspools of germs. They can easily and quickly collect bacteria, allergens, and dust. Even if you’re a stickler for creating those carpet streaks with the vacuum cleaner, there’s only so much that a vacuum cleaner can pick up.
When it’s possible, get rid of the carpet in your home and replace it with materials like hardwood flooring, vinyl flooring or tile. These options still require routine cleaning schedules. If you need to feel soft textures underneath your feet, opt for area rugs in certain spaces. Also, it’s okay to wear comfortable house shoes in order to feel comfortable as you walk around. While carpets might feel comfortable, opt for other materials as they’re sanitary options for long-term benefits to your indoor air quality.
5. Check the Humidity
It’s equally dangerous to live in a home where the humidity is too high or too low. When it’s too high, this can lead to mold. Mold can damage the integrity of your home’s materials, but it can also lead to a host of illnesses and breathing concerns. When the humidity is too low, this means that the air is dry. It’s difficult to breathe or function in areas where the air is dry.
Purchase a humidity thermometer in order to know when the air is too high or too low. Never rely on someone’s inability to breathe or the visible sight of mold to invest in humidity tools. With a thermometer, you’ll be able to know whether you’re in need of a humidifier, a dehumidifier, or any other tools to provide a stable environment.
6. Open Windows to Promote Air Circulation
Unless someone in your home has seasonal allergies, it’s a wise idea to open the windows every day. You don’t need to leave them open for a long time. In fact, start the day by going around the house opening at least one window in each room. Just crack the windows open for at least 15 minutes to allow the fresh air to come in. Air circulation is healthy and important for air quality as well as getting rid of odors. Another great option involves opening windows at the end of each day. When you’re cooking a meal with strong, pungent aromas, crack open the nearest window in order to help the smells from seeping into the furniture, walls, and more.
7. Create an Indoor Garden
In order to benefit from indoor plants, you’ll need to maintain a number of options throughout your home. Indoor plants are revered because of their natural ability to help with the purification process of indoor air. If you don’t have a green thumb, look for indoor plants that don’t require a lot of maintenance.
Over time, do your research in order to learn more about how to cultivate a green thumb as it can really have a positive impact on your home’s air, your mental well-being, and more. Some great options to consider include peace lilies, snake plants, and rubber plants. If you’re okay with a high-maintenance option, fiddle leaf figs are both beautiful and add to any visual aesthetic.
8. Change Air Filters Regularly
Air filters come into contact with the air that flows throughout your home. Especially when you’re regularly using your HVAC system, you’ll need to change your furnace air filters on a regular basis. Most manufacturers recommend changing the air filters once every three months in order to experience the benefits.
When you skip the process of changing your air filters, the HVAC system exerts more energy to push air through all of the debris that’s caught in the dirty air filter. Plus, you don’t want a dirty air filter to circulate more dust into the air of your home. By not changing the air filter, you’ll only decrease the indoor air quality in your home.
9. Install a Carbon Monoxide Detector
Never leave the car running in a closed garage as that can lead to fatalities due to the excess carbon monoxide. Because you can’t smell or taste the impact of too much carbon monoxide in your home, a carbon monoxide detector is a mandatory tool to use in your home. This indoor air quality tool is beneficial because it can save your life. When there’s too much carbon monoxide in your home, it can result in fatalities.
Using Professional Assistance
At Twin Peaks Plumbing, Heating & Gas, our highly trained technicians are ready to help improve your indoor air quality. We also offer professional services for your plumbing, heating, and cooling needs. Contact us today to see how we can best serve you in your Nanaimo home.
