How To Improve Your Indoor Air Quality in New Albany, Ohio

When was the last time you gave a thought to the quality of air in your home? Maybe it was during the winter when it was 10 degrees below Fahrenheit and your lips were chapped beyond belief? Or how about that one summer heat spell when you couldn’t stop sweating even though you had the thermostat cranked down?

Or maybe you were near a window one day when the sunshine was streaming in, and all you could think about was all of those dust particles floating around?

Or perhaps it was the time the entire household came down with a cold, one person and one sneeze at a time?

Let’s put it another way. You probably have some sort of water purifier set up because it’s the right thing to do. (Or maybe your community filters the water for you.)

So why not filter the air? After all, you’re breathing it in constantly.

According to the EPA:

• Americans, on average, spend approximately 90 percent of their time indoors, where the concentrations of some pollutants are often 2 to 5 times higher than typical outdoor concentrations.
• People who are often most susceptible to the adverse effects of indoor air pollution (e.g., very young, older adults, and people with cardiovascular or respiratory disease) tend to spend even more time indoors.
• Concentrations of some pollutants have increased in recent decades due to such factors as energy-efficient building construction and increased use of personal care products, pesticides, and household cleaners.

Since you found this article, you’ll receive a lot of information from Fire & Ice about how to improve your indoor air quality (IAQ). Whether you live in New Albany, Ohio, or elsewhere, we offer our advice based on the many years we’ve spent in people’s homes helping to improve their air.

How Can You Improve Poor Indoor Air?

Vacuuming and dusting go only so far, no matter how thorough a job you do. Unless you use something that’s designed to clean the air, it will remain full of particulates.

What to do?

Air Filters

First, you almost certainly have a filter located next to your furnace. Check it. If it’s covered in crud, it’s no use. Even the best filter on the market can’t do its job if it’s clogged. Dust that hits the filter when it’s that dirty either finds a way to go around it, or it backs up into the ductwork, creating a backup of air. That’s hard on the ducts, and the furnace can’t breathe, causing a host of performance issues.

We stress the importance of replacing the filter in most advice columns we write. Some filters last only a few months, while others can last six months or longer. Changing them creates better efficiency for the entirety of your HVAC system, helps to prevent repairs and breakdowns, and improves your IAQ.

Filters come in a variety of sizes and efficiency, which is measured by Minimum Efficiency Reporting Values, or MERVs. It rates a filter’s ability to capture particles between 0.3 and 10 microns. The higher the MERV rating the more efficient the filter is. (For comparison, a human hair is approximately 70 microns, give or take 20 microns.)

The cheap filters, which are usually made from fiberglass, have a MERV of about 1-4. They need to be changed every three months or so. You can also spring for more expensive ones, which can have a MERV of 16.

HEPA Filters

For the ultimate in filtration, you can step up to the High-Efficiency Particulate Air filter, or  HEPA. It’s what commercial airliners, laboratories, and hospitals use.

Read more: N95 Masks, HEPA Filters & COVID

This type of air filter can theoretically remove at least 99.97% of dust, pollen, mold, bacteria, and any airborne particles with a size of 0.3 microns. (Beware of misleading false advertising: Some products claim that their filter is “HEPA-like.”)

At Fire & Ice, whether we’re doing a furnace installation or a full system, we include an Aprilaire Air Purifier, which has a 4-inch, pleated HEPA filter. These range from MERV 11-16. Because of its pleats, it has 25 square feet of surface area, which make it 85-90% more efficient than one-inch filters.

If you know the make and size of your filter, you can order by clicking on the graphic:

Air Purifiers

Now we need to get a bit more technical as we talk about air purifiers.

A product such as the iWave is a needlepoint bipolar ionization generator, which is installed in the ductwork. When air passes over the iWave, ions produced by the device reduce pathogens, allergens, particles, smoke, and odors.

It generates the same ions that nature creates with lightning and, waterfalls. Nature creates ion energy to break apart molecules, which cleans the air. The iWave has a self-cleaning design that can clean the emitter brushes every few days, meaning that it never gets clogged.

The Reme Halo is yet another purifier that gets installed in the ducts. When it’s active, LED lights in the device turn on, which is harmful to bioorganic matter, including many diseases and viruses. There is also a version of the product that uses UV light instead of LED.

This effectively neutralizes many viruses and other contaminants, both airborne and on surfaces. It’s 99.9% effective at neutralizing novel coronavirus (commonly known as COVID-19) as well as:

• MRSA
• Strep
• Listeria
• Norwalk
• Bird flu
• Tuberculosis 

The Benefits of Air Duct Cleaning

The dirtiest place in your home is probably inside the ducts. Especially if you’ve never had them cleaned, or are in a place that recently has been built or renovated, the ducts could be harboring a layer of dust, drywall dust, mold, mildew, and worse.

Dirty ducts are a leading cause of a number of problems faced by homeowners. It creates an unhealthy IAQ and hinders HVAC equipment.  It’s not uncommon for homes to go 20 or 30 years without having their ducts cleaned.

Read more: A Complete Guide to Duct Cleaning in New Albany, OH

Here’s a brief list of how a professional air duct cleaning will benefit you and your family:

• Reduces dust mites and pollen; Those who are allergic will have a healthier atmosphere
• Helps eliminate mold and mildew, which loves dark places
• Helps to reduce indoor air pollutants and odors Improves airflow 

We recommend a thorough cleaning every two-three years.

What Is the Ideal Relative Humidity?

Now that we’ve addressed the cleanliness of the air, let’s talk about how the air feels. The French language has a great term for when it’s muggy outside. They say, “Il fait lourd” (It is heavy).

As you know, the outside air can dictate how it feels inside. Your air conditioner is doing its job (besides cooling, it removes some indoor humidity), but you’re still sweating. That’s why TV weather people talk about the heat index: what the temperature feels like to the human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature. 

Let’s establish a baseline. According to the Mayo Clinic, the ideal relative humidity for health and comfort is somewhere between 30-50% humidity.

In New Albany and Central Ohio, it’s not uncommon for the humidity level to soar past 70%, and the human body might not be able to sweat enough to cool down.

What Problems Can Be Caused by High Humidity?

Problems associated with high humidity include:

• Allergies, either seasonal or due to a specific environmental trigger
• An overly-warm upstairs or attic
• Musty smell
• Black mold or other mold growth in damp areas. Anything past about 60% relative humidity, and you’ll be at risk to develop black mold.
• Asthma Spiders, bug infestations, and cobwebs
• Moisture damage in floorboards
• Water stains, especially in the basement

One solution is to turn your fan to “on” instead of auto, especially if the AC needs a break. The circulating air will help you feel cooler, just like running a ceiling or portable fan can help. The temperature won’t drop, but the moving air will feel better.

Another solution is a whole-home dehumidifier.

Read more: Whole House Dehumidifiers: How They Work and How You Benefit

They can operate as a stand-alone unit (the best place would be the basement or bottom floor), or they can be fitted into the ductwork. Some models can remove up to 11.9 gallons of water a day.

And if the humidity is lower, you’ll feel cooler, which will add another benefit: If you’re cooler, you can turn the thermostat up a few degrees and still feel comfortable. That will give your energy bill a break.

What Problems Can Be Caused by Low Humidity?

In the winter the opposite occurs. Because cold air doesn’t hold water well, the humidity can drop to 15% or less. For comparison, a desert’s humidity level is about 20%.

The problem this can create:

• Dry skin
• Floorboards and other wooden objects can start to warp
• Some home insurers will cover certain things only if a whole-home humidifier is installed
• Static electricity
• Persistent coughs, colds, and cases of flu
• Decrease in overall comfort Increased heating costs

Related Content: How Does a Whole-House Humidifier Work? 

By increasing the relative humidity, your body will feel comfortable at lower temperatures. This means that maybe you’ll be able to set your thermostat a couple of degrees lower throughout the winter.

That may not sound like much on a day-to-day basis, but it can result in savings of hundreds of dollars per year in heating costs.

Clean Air Indoors in New Albany, Ohio

One solution that’s obvious to us but may not be to you is the practice of regular maintenance of your entire HVAC system. If your furnace filter isn’t changed regularly, the inside of your furnace gets covered in dust and debris. Technicians who know what they’re doing will take the time to clean that out, and especially to get the grime off of the blower wheel. That way, that dust doesn’t go back out through the ducts where you can breathe it in.

And a clean heat exchanger will make a huge difference in the amount of heat and cool you’ll get, as well as save on energy costs.

If you’re ready to have that discussion with an HVAC partner, we hope you’ll think of Fire & Ice to help identify and solve the issues you’re having with your house’s air.