Home Air Quality: What You NEED to Know

Imagine that your child struggles to breathe, day and night. You lie awake listening to her through your bedroom wall.

Gasping and wheezing, followed by a violent coughing fit.

What if your home’s poor air quality hurts your child’s breathing or will hurt your child’s breathing in the future? For families who in live in homes with indoor air pollution, that is a reality.

A common health hazard, Indoor air pollution creates respiratory sickness in adults, but especially children.

If you, your spouse, or one of your children suffers from persistent allergies and asthma, this information could change your lives.

Home Air Quality Dangers

The EPA estimates that in-home levels of pollution are on average between 2-5 times worse than the outdoor levels.

Shocked?

Most homeowners are.

Chemicals vapors, molds, and harmful bacteria can infiltrate your home, polluting the air you breathe every day. Although the concentration of these hazards is low, they build potency over time.

Consider that you and your family spend the majority of your time in your home, with the windows closed. Think about how much of that polluted air you might breathe in, day after day.

You might assume that if your home air was polluted you’d know.

However, you may have never had truly healthy air in your home, so you’re accustomed to the polluted air. You wouldn’t realize how much worse the polluted home air makes you breathe.

What Makes My Home Air Quality So Bad?

Polluted home air can create asthma and irritate sensitive allergies. In some cases, home air acts as the primary allergy trigger

The CDC defines 3 major types of home air quality pollutants.

Particulates

The tiny particles in these pollutants inflame airways or sinuses making breathing difficult. In people with pre-existing respiratory conditions, this can be especially dangerous.

Picture that you’re allergic to cats, yet an invisible horde of cats invaded your house. You can’t see them and you can’t stop them. You get sicker and more miserable. That is akin to the danger of particulate polluted air.

Common indoor sources:

Cigarette smoke
Outside Car Exhaust
Wood smoke
Pollen
Mold
Dust

Germs

Simply put, germs pollute by infecting you and your family. Due to the nature of ventilation systems if someone sneezes or coughs in one room, those germs can spread to any connected room.

So even if you try to avoid catching the flu from your wife, your quarantine fails more often than not. Airborne germs travel quickly without anything stopping them.

Gasses

Just like particulate matter, this pollutant constricts airways and irritates lungs, making breathing difficult. Typically toxic in nature, gasses come from a variety of sources, including, cleaning chemical, pesticides, resealed cans of paint and gas stoves.

Poor ventilation can cause these vapors to linger, causing injury, generally to the respiratory system. In a dense enough concentration, gases can cause central nervous system or other serious injury.

Role of Ducts in Home Air Quality

Your air ducts provide ventilation to every room. Keeping them clean and efficient is crucial to keeping your house healthy. Well-sealed ducts can work to limit these hazards.

Why children are susceptible to asthma

Asthma attacks injure and even kill people of all ages every year. Since children have naturally smaller and un-developed airways, they are more vulnerable to asthma.

An irritation that might feel like routine shortness of breath to an adult can deprive a child of oxygen. What’s more, young children don’t always have the ability to understand what’s happening to them or communicate it you.

One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning® of Outer Banks to the Rescue

You want to know, is my home’s air safe to breathe?

That question requires an in-person, professional diagnosis. A Google search can’t tell you if your home air quality is safe for your family. Good thing you have One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning® of Outer Banks.

Whole House Air Treatment Center

If you want to ensure the healthiest air quality in your home. The only option is One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning® of Outer Banks. We make it our promise to transform you HVAC system into a Whole House Air Treatment Center.

One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning® of Outer Banks utilizes professional-exclusive technology to eliminate threats to your air quality. Our sophisticated add-ons include:

MicroPower Guard® — a system which removes minute particles
OxyQuantum® UV lights — technology which destroys bacteria and odor

Our systems go beyond a simple filter, which is great but not enough on its own. Using a basic filter is like catching fish with a nylon net. Bringing in One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning® of Outer Banks is akin to fishing with dynamite — effective and awesome.

Conclusion

Houses on average have 2-5 times as much pollutant content as the air outside. You might not realize the negative effect it has on your health until remedied.

If you, your spouse, or one of your children suffers from persistent allergies and asthma, you need to call One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning® of Outer Banks.