Winter is an excellent time for celebrating holidays and spending more time with family. But as a homeowner, it’s important to be aware of indoor air quality problems that happen during this time of year. You don’t want to risk your home becoming a breeding ground for pollutants. Poor indoor air quality not only impacts your health but also the energy performance of your home.
What Causes Indoor Air Quality Problems During the Winter?
Indoor air quality is harder to manage in the winter because of the colder weather and how it changes how the home circulates and filters air. When you understand these challenges, it becomes much easier to address them with simple preventative steps.
Dry Winter Air From Heating Systems
Winter weather in Shawnee, KS usually brings about temperatures that range from 25°F to 45°F. It’s not uncommon for freezing temperatures to stick around for extended periods of time. You may find yourself running your heater around the clock. As it runs, it pulls moisture out of the air, leaving behind cooler-feeling living spaces. The dry air can also irritate your sinuses and eyes and dry out your skin. Furthermore, the low humidity increases dust and airborne allergens inside the home, adding to the discomfort.
Spending More Time Indoors
Colder weather often leads people to spend more time indoors. While this is fine for comfort, it also presents air quality concerns, especially if the home has poor ventilation. Plus, when you combine more indoor cooking during the winter with tightly sealed homes, the buildup of pollutants becomes all the more noticeable.
Spread of Illnesses
Peak season for colds and flu usually occurs in Shawnee during the winter. A large reason for this stems from the fact that people spend more time indoors with one another, making it easier for sickness to spread. When everyone is touching surfaces and sharing common spaces, the spread of the illnesses becomes even worse.
Common surfaces that spread illnesses are as follows.
- Doorknobs and handles
- Light switches
- Countertop areas
- Remote controls
- Faucet handles
Poor Ventilation During Cold Weather
Ventilation plays a key role in indoor air quality. During the winter, though, you probably don’t want to open a window during 20-degree weather to swap the stale indoor air with fresh air from outside. This can lead to stagnant air when you don’t have other ventilation systems in place.
Poor ventilation is a major contributor to the buildup of the below pollutants.
- Carbon monoxide buildup
- Cleaning supplies
- Pet dander
- Cooking fumes
- Dust mites
- Mold spores
Particles From Fireplace or Heater Use
Indoor fireplaces are very common in residential homes all throughout Shawnee. They provide fast, supplemental heating during cold weather. But they also introduce smoke particles and ash into the air. If you breathe in these particles, they can harm your health by irritating your lungs and triggering allergies. Even electric fireplaces add to indoor dryness because of the constant heat output. If you don’t have proper filtration and ventilation in place, the air quality will become worse.
Ways to Improve Winter Indoor Air Quality
There’s no need to stress about fixing your home’s indoor air quality. Here at Air Care Heating & Cooling, we make it simple to update your home with strategies that target the specific problems you’re facing.
Use a Whole-Home Humidifier
Because winter air tends to stay more dry, especially when you run your heater, it’s imperative to have a whole-home humidifier installed. This type of system connects directly to the HVAC, automatically adding moisture back into the air every time it drops below a certain level. This does much more than help the home feel warmer. It also reduces dry skin and sinus problems and helps the HVAC perform better.
There are numerous ways that added moisture boosts HVAC efficiency.
- Reduces strain on blower components
- Improves overall heat transfer efficiency
- Prevents excessive system run times
- Helps maintain stable thermostat readings
- Enhances airflow consistency throughout rooms
Install a Whole-Home Air Purifier
Humidifiers will help with moisture levels, but they don’t directly remove pollutants. That’s why you need a whole-home air purifier. These devices, like whole-home humidifiers, connect directly to the HVAC to provide automatic filtration. And since they clean the air as it circulates, they provide purification throughout every room in the home, which is unlike portable units that only treat a single space.
Whole-home air purifiers are especially good at getting rid of a number of pollutants.
- Pet dander and hair
- Airborne dust particles
- Mold spores and fungi
- Pollen tracked indoors
- Smoke and soot residue
- Bacteria and viral droplets
- Chemical fumes from cleaners
Seal and Repair Leaky Ductwork
Leaky ductwork is one of the biggest contributors to winter indoor air quality problems. Ducts that have tears and holes in them let the conditioned air escape before it reaches its destination. This causes the heater to work harder and use more energy, which increases your heating costs. And it also allows dust, attic debris and insulation fibers to make their way inside the ductwork. When the heater runs, it pushes these pollutants into the living spaces. By getting your ductwork regularly inspected and sealed, you won’t have to worry about these contamination issues.
Improve Airflow With Clean Vents and Registers
You’ve probably walked by an air vent before and noticed all kinds of dust collecting on it. Unless you wipe the dust and dirt away, it will mix with the air that comes through the vents. And when this happens, it greatly decreases indoor air quality. This is why it’s so important to clean the vents every couple of weeks. You’ll not only notice improved air quality but also better heating because there’s less dust blocking the airflow.
Enhance the Home’s Ventilation
If it’s been more than a year or two since you had someone check your home’s ventilation, you need to book an inspection. Adequate ventilation is what helps the home get rid of polluted air by pushing it outdoors. When ventilation has blockages, damaged ducts or failing fans, it won’t be able to work properly. We can look at these parts to determine whether they need any upgrades.
Schedule a Professional Indoor Air Quality Assessment
The best way to improve your home’s indoor air quality is to know what you’re up against. We can do an air quality assessment to find which pollutants are causing the most problems. In some homes, the lack of ventilation may be the biggest contributor to poor air circulation. In others, it could be excess dust, mold spores or high particulate levels from heating equipment. Once we determine the source, we’ll create a custom treatment plan that targets your specific issues.
Improve Your Air Quality Now
Air Care Heating & Cooling is here to meet all of your HVAC and indoor air quality needs. We specialize in a variety of solutions, including whole-home humidifiers, air purifiers and more. Contact Air Care Heating & Cooling now to access premium support for creating a healthier home in Shawnee.
