How Do HVAC Systems Affect Indoor Air Quality? | Tips from Your Trusted Katy, TX Heating and Air Conditioning Service Provider
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Heating and cooling are great when it comes to making the temperature in your Katy, TX home comfortable, but you must also consider the air quality. Since your HVAC system send air through ducts and vents to get it to various rooms in your home, that air can pick up a lot of contaminants along the way. As long as you have a heating and air conditioning service keep up with regular air filter replacements, you don’t too much to worry about when it comes to how your HVAC system affects indoor air quality.
What Are Contaminants?
While there are various types of heating and cooling, most homes use a combination of a forced-air furnace and a central air conditioning unit. Since these are both larger units that are designed to provide power throughout your home, the air they put out needs to go through ducts and vents. As air moves through the ducts in your home, it can pick up contaminants from them.
Any heating and air conditioning service will tell you there are numerous contaminants that can lie dormant in the ducts in your home, but the biggest culprit when it comes to indoor air quality is regular old dust. While dust won’t cause any serious issues, having dusty air blown throughout your home can make the air feel stale and cause dry sinuses.
Despite dust being the most likely contaminant, there are other things to worry about, too. Any germs that may make their way into your air ducts can be spread throughout your home, making it easier for people to get sick. This is one of many reasons you should have heating and air conditioning service done at least twice a year.
Air Ducts
Air ducts are one of the big things you need to keep clean if you want to have good indoor air quality in your Katy, TX, home. Not only do air ducts have a lot of potential contaminants in them, they constantly have air blowing through them that makes it easy to spread those contaminants.
When you hire a professional heating and air conditioning service to maintain your HVAC system, make sure they’re cleaning out your ducts and vents. A lot of the dust and other debris that builds up in your ducts can be removed simply by vacuuming it out, but it’s not something you want to mess with yourself. An HVAC professional will know how to cut power to the HVAC system and safely remove contaminants without damaging ducts.
If you haven’t had the ducts in your home cleaned in a long time, call a heating and air conditioning service to take a look at them and get them cleaned up for you.
Air Filters
While the air ducts in your Katy, TX, home play a big role in terms of spreading contaminants, it’s the air filter in your HVAC system that has the biggest job. As air passes through your ducts and into your home, it runs through an air filter that’s designed to filter out as much of the contaminants as possible.
Having your air filter replaced should be a part of every heating and air conditioning service call. As a matter of fact, you might want to replace your air filter more than that depending on the type of filter you’ve got.
One of the best parts about air filters is that they come in all sorts of different styles and strengths, which means you can invest a little more money in your air filter if you want to maintain excellent indoor air quality. Most people use a standard air filter that’s designed to filter out contaminants like dust, but there are other types of filters which can help get rid of things like bacteria and viruses.
Even if you do opt for a regular old air filter, you have the option of buying a filter with a high MERV or HEPA rating. MERV is the standard rating for air filters, ranging from 1 to 20. These are the filters most heating and air conditioning services use. A 3 is considered the minimum rating for a MERV filter for residential use, which means you have a lot of room to step up your filtration quality if you want to. HEPA filters use a different rating system but are all made to be incredibly efficient. Whether you opt for a HEPA filter or a MERV filter with a higher rating, you’re going to have better indoor air quality.
Humidity
One of the most important things to remember if you’ve got a whole-house air conditioning system is that AC makes the air in your home drier. If you’re especially sensitive to dry air, ask a heating and cooling service about using a humidifier and air conditioner together.
The fact of the matter is, the air will always be a bit dry in your Katy, TX, home if you want to keep it comfortably cool. While a heating and air conditioning service can help you keep your indoor air quality free of contaminants for longer, there isn’t a whole lot that can be done about dry air. Thankfully, there are no major health risks associated with breathing dry air.
A Little Help
If indoor air quality is a major concern to you, you need to have a good heating and air conditioning service on your side. Maintaining good indoor air quality in your Katy, TX, home means you need to keep ducts and vents clean and a fresh air filter on your HVAC system.
The good news is, Cypress Heating and Air is here to help you make the indoor air quality in your home a little better. From keeping things clean to helping you choose the right air filter, we can do it all. If you need heating and air conditioning service, give us a call at (972) 278-3506 today.
