The United State Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stated that “in the last several years, a growing body of scientific evidence has indicated that the air within homes and other buildings can be more seriously polluted than the outdoor air in even the largest and most industrialized cities. Other research indicates that people spend approximately 90 percent of their time indoors. Thus, for many people, the risks to health may be greater due to exposure to air pollution indoors than outdoors.” Can you imagine having air pollution inside your home?

It is easy to understand why the outside air is so polluted, but how can the air inside your house be worse than the air outside when you keep a very clean house and never open the windows? There are several factors that contribute to the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) of your home and here is the scary part you might not even be aware that you are breathing bad air. The good news is there are products that can help your house not only have clean air but can make it the most comfortable place you know.

There are many sources of indoor air pollution – Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, biological pollutants like mold and mildew, second hand smoke, pet dander, dust mites, cleaning solutions, and pesticides just to name a few. Some of these sources can be removed quite easily while others can be a very difficult and expensive to get remove. Some examples of these pollutants are as follows:

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are chemicals that become a gas at room temperature and they have a strong pickle-like odor. One example of a very popular VOC is formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is currently being used in thousands of products as an adhesive, bonding agent and solvent. Just look around your home – if you have anything made out of plywood, pressed word product like furniture, paneling, certain types of form insulation, certain synthetic fabrics, and even some types of shampoos and cosmetics. You have formaldehyde in your house. The EPA has listed formaldehyde as a “probable human carcinogen” and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified formaldehyde as “carcinogenic to humans” based on nose and throat cancers in working populations.

Carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide are deadly gases that you can’t see, feel, taste or SMELL! These gases are by-products of any fuel burning appliance like your kitchen stove, furnace, water heater, fireplace and smoke from cigars and cigarettes.

Biological Pollutants covers a wide range of pollutants. The EPA states that “Biological contaminants include bacteria, molds, mildews, viruses, animal dander and cat saliva, house dust, mites, cockroaches, and pollen.”

Just as there are many different types of indoor air pollutants, there are just as many ways to clean up your indoor air quality. It can be as simple as looking at the material which were used in making a product you want to bring into your home or reading the ingredients on household cleaning products, shampoos and cosmetics. Another simple thing is making sure that all your fuel burning appliances are operating correctly and make sure you have a Carbon Monoxide detector in your house. Most people think that because they have a WORKING Smoke detector they are protected against carbon monoxide poisoning and this just isn’t true. Your furnace, stove, gas fireplace or water heater could be leaking carbon monoxide causing you to have flu like symptoms.

As the cost of energy needed to heat and cool a home becomes higher, the quest to make a home airtight to save fuel costs actually has a reverse affect on the home’s IAQ. With no fresh air coming into the house, pollutants stay inside and continue to circulate through the heating and cooling systems. Simple things like exhaust venting in your kitchen and bathroom help to remove bad air. By adding a Whole house ventilation system you will not only bring in fresh air from outside your home but by investing in a good system up to 80% of the heating and cooling energy can also recover from the air leaving your home. This is just one of the several products in the IAQ arsenal to fight the indoor air problem. Whole House Electronic Air Cleaners, Dehumidification Systems, Humidification Systems, and Whole House Ultraviolet Light Treatment Systems are the important systems which will take care of most if the IAQ problems.

Many people believe that the filter on their air handler is to clean the air in the house. This is not the case. The filter is there to protect your heating and cooling equipment. In fact you can actually damage your equipment by not keeping the filter clean. Your equipment needs to “breathe” fresh air and if you have a clogged filter this could shorten the life of your system. A Whole House Electronic Air Cleaner is installed on the air handler to remove dust and debris not only for the equipment but for the indoor air quality as well. There are many makes and models of Electronic Air Cleaners to choose from that will fit your particular situation.

By adding an Ultraviolet Light (UV)Treatment System to your Heating and cooling equipment you now can eliminate many of the bacteria, molds, mildew and other health harming microbes that are too small to be caught be a filter and which can live and multiply inside of a forced air heating and cooling system. As the biological pollutants move across the UV light they are destroyed by the UV light.

Humidity can either be a blessing or a curse depending on the time of year. In the winter with colder temperatures we need humidity in our homes to keep our skin, sinuses, hardwood floors and cabinets moist, but in the summer we want less humidity so that we don’t having the “sticky” feeling and to control the mold and mildew. By adding a humidifier and a dehumidifier not only can you control the humidity in your home but you can also lower your home’s energy costs. For every 3% change in humidity you can either lower or raise your thermostat one degree. So for example in the summer if you lowered the humidity in your home from 80% to 60% – that 20% change would allow you to raise your thermostat almost 7 degrees. If you needed to keep you house at 70 degrees to be comfortable by lowering the humidity to 60% you could raise your thermostat to 77 degrees. The reverse is true in the winter. By raising the humidity you could lower your thermostat. So now not only do you have healthy indoor air quality, you have a home that is the most comfortable place you know and you are saving energy cost as well.