The last thing that you want is to sneeze or break out in a rash just because you took a breath in your own home. However, if your home’s indoor air quality is poor, you may suffer a variety of health issues that could erode your quality of life. Poor indoor air quality may also result in damage to your home or items within your home.
How Indoor Air Quality Impacts Your Health
It’s not uncommon for people to be allergic to dust, pollen or pet dander. If it gets in the air, you are at a high risk of breathing it in or otherwise coming into contact with it. Typical symptoms of an allergic reaction can range from itchy skin or eyes to difficulty breathing.
Inhaling contaminated air can also be dangerous if you have asthma as the key symptom of an asthma attack is a restriction of your airways. In the case of a minor attack, you may be able to regain your breath by going outside where the air is cleaner. However, if you suffer a major attack, you may need to use an inhaler immediately or seek medical attention if you don’t have an inhaler. In some cases, you might need to take an inhaler to stabilize your condition before seeking medical attention.
You may also experience health issues from mold exposure over a period of several months or years. This may be true even if you don’t otherwise have a history of asthma, allergies or other serious ailments. Mold allergies can be seasonal or persist throughout the year depending on how your body reacts to the substance.
The Cost of Getting Sick
By itself, getting sick because your home has poor indoor air quality is a negative experience. However, getting sick might also mean having to pay for medication or for a stay in the hospital. You may also miss work, which means that you’ll lose out on income.
Fortunately, the team at TitanZ Plumbing & Air Conditioning in Port Charlotte can take steps to help improve your home’s indoor air quality. Primarily, we will install or maintain an existing air purification system to take as many contaminants out of the air as possible. We can also maintain heating and cooling components to ensure that they aren’t cycling dirty air around your home.
How Indoor Air Quality Impacts Your Home
Let’s say that someone smokes inside of your home or had smoked for many years. The particles will coat ceilings, walls and other surfaces in any space where smoking occurred. Over time, the smoke particles will make their way into vinyl, wood and other materials. Therefore, you may need to replace drywall, countertops or your favorite couch because you won’t be able to totally eliminate the stains and smell associated with smoke.
Now, assume that your home is caked in a layer of dust. That layer of dust could wreak havoc with a computer, television or other similar items. It could also cause damage to floors, furnishings or anything else it comes into contact with as it has the ability to scratch surfaces that it’s not removed from properly. This may be especially true if you’re dealing with drywall dust as it can be harder to get rid of compared to the normal stuff.
Poor Air Quality Impacts Your HVAC System Also
If there is a lot of dust, pollen or other pollutants in your home, there is a good chance that they are present in your HVAC system as well. This can be problematic as a furnace that is covered by particles has to work harder to keep your home evenly heated or cooled.
This is partially because the furnace is heavier and needs to generate more energy just to send air through your home’s ducts. In addition, air will have less space to navigate through ducts that are covered in pollen, dander or other contaminants. Ultimately, you will have to deal with increased heating and cooling bills as well as the cost of excess wear and tear on your furnace.
Be Wary of Gas Leaks
In some cases, indoor air quality issues have nothing to do with too much dust or pollen in the air. If your furnace, stove or other gas appliances don’t combust properly, they can release natural gas fumes into the air. In some cases, they can backdraft into various spaces if you have a damaged duct or pipe. Essentially, the gas can’t be vented out of the house because it falls through a gap in the air duct or pipe. Instead, it will fall into the basement, attic or other spaces that you or your family might occupy.
Be Careful When Cleaning or Maintaining Your House
If you have a clogged pipe, it can be tempting to use caustic chemicals to do so. However, they can actually have a detrimental effect on your home’s plumbing system and potentially endanger your health at the same time. This is because those chemicals can actually make their way back up a bathroom or kitchen pipe and waft throughout your house.
Spraying your home with too much aerosol cleaner can also result in putting harmful chemicals in the air. Breathing in just a small amount of a cleaning product may cause dizziness, vomiting and other negative health impacts.
Instead of using potentially toxic chemicals, you can use baking soda and vinegar to clean or unclog a pipe. You can also use plant-based or other all-natural sprays to clean furniture, floors or other surfaces inside of your home in an effort to maintain adequate indoor air quality.
Other Ways to Improve Indoor Air Quality in Your Home
Although poor indoor air quality can wreak havoc on your home and health, there are a number of easy ways to improve your environment. For instance, if you have pets, you can groom them more often to reduce the amount of fur and dander that gets into the air.
You can also replace carpets with wood or vinyl floors that are easier to clean and are resistant to mold and water damage. This will reduce the amount of material trapped in flooring that is released into the air whenever you walk across it.
It’s also a good idea to have your HVAC system inspected and cleaned at least once a year. In addition to removing particles that can be hazardous to breathe, you get an opportunity to spot damage or other issues while they are relatively easy and affordable to fix.
Trust the Professionals
If you are looking to improve or maintain your home’s indoor air quality, don’t hesitate to call the folks at TitanZ Plumbing & Air Conditioning today! We can also help with leak detection, install a new toilet or take care of other plumbing issues throughout your house. Our team can also install a new water heater or test a backflow prevention system to ensure that it is working properly. Contact TitanZ Plumbing & Air Conditioning to help with all your home service needs.