Improve Your Indoor Air Quality This Summer With These Tips

Summer is officially here, meaning many people will spend most of their time outside, enjoying the sun. While this is undoubtedly a great way to spend the warmer months, it is essential not to neglect the indoor air quality of your home. After all, when it gets too hot outside, you want to return to a safe and pollutant-free home.

It is important to take steps to improve the indoor air quality in your home, and the experts at Rainaldi Home Services have some ways to help.

Change Your HVAC Filters

Air filters have the critical job of filtering out the air circulating through your heating and cooling system. When dirty and clogged, they cannot efficiently clean the air, sacrificing the indoor air quality in your home. To ensure your air filters can work adequately, change them every 90 days and more often if you are a pet owner.

Create an Indoor Garden

Not only are indoor plants excellent for beautifying a space and adding character, but they also work to improve your indoor air quality! They can serve as natural air purification systems, helping you and your family breathe easier. So while planting flowers and plants outdoors this summer, don’t forget about inside your home.

Keep Your Floors Clean

After a long day of outdoor summer activities, pollen, dirt, and other allergens can easily be tracked into your home. These allergens can significantly impact indoor air quality and can be especially harmful to people with allergies or asthma. Eliminate this problem by having friends and family leave their shoes at the door and by cleaning your floors often.

Invest in Air Quality Equipment

One of the best things you can do to improve the indoor air quality in your home is to invest in indoor air quality equipment. Devices like UV Germicidal lamps and whole-house filtration systems can work wonders for indoor air quality. If you are unsure what indoor quality equipment is best for your home, call a plumbing professional.

Air Quality Solutions in Orlando, FL

To make sure the air you breathe in your home this summer is safe, get in touch with Rainaldi Home Services in Orlando, Florida. Our skilled team of technicians is dedicated to providing home comfort solutions that work for you and your family. Just give us a call today at a (206) 156-2849 or schedule your appointment online.

Common Indoor Air Pollutants

You might think the air in your home is the safest to breathe, but pollutants can still seep in through windows, unsealed cracks, etc. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the top five air quality issues are indoor air pollutants. Many homes in Central Florida will experience these pollutants and need experts like Rainaldi Home Services to help.

The five most common indoor air pollutants include:

1. Dust Particles

No matter how often you clean your home and dust the shelves, dust particles carrying a plethora of microscopic pollutants can make you shudder. Dust is part of particulate matter—a term for a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets found in the air. These particles come in various sizes and shapes and can increase depending on your location (proximity to construction sites and unpaved roads, for instance). 

2. Smoke

We all know the problems with tobacco smoke and secondhand smoke and how they affect your and your family’s health. The EPA points out that secondhand smoke contains more than 7,000 different substances, and it can move between rooms in the home and between apartments in a building. In most cases, prohibiting smoking indoors is the only way to eliminate the threat of secondhand smoke in your home.

If you have a wood-burning fireplace in your home, the biggest threat comes from the fine particles blown into the house from the fire.

3. Radon

Radioactive gas (aka “radon”) is generated naturally from the soil and can enter the house from the ground and is odorless and colorless. Having your home tested by a professional or a do-it-yourself testing kit is the only way to determine actual radon levels. It is also the second leading cause of lung cancer (second to smoking).

4. Formaldehyde

Formaldehyde is a chemical used by manufacturing companies with building materials (think compressed wood) and many household products. Formaldehyde can irritate the eyes, nose, throat, and skin, with some types of cancers due to high levels of exposure.

5. Moisture

Moisture may not be commonly considered a “pollutant,” but it can still cause havoc on not only your home’s interior but your health as well. With moisture in the home comes mold, mildew, and dust mites. This combination can cause breathing issues for those with allergies and asthma and cause physical deterioration in your home by destroying the integrity of the wood and accelerating the growth of rust.

How to Stay Healthy

So how can you keep your family healthy? The air quality experts at Rainaldi offer whole-house air filtration to assist your heating and air conditioning system’s primary air filter. Our Carrier air cleaners are up to 40 times more efficient at removing all virus-sized particles and bacteria, airborne contaminants, and breathable allergens and dust. They also provide up to 25 percent efficiency, which means it’ll cost you less to run your home’s comfort system.

Contact Rainaldi to see how we can help your Central Florida home and family breathe easier today.

Your House can Help Reduce Spring Allergies

Wouldn’t it be nice if your home could help you reduce your seasonal allergy symptoms? If you asked the professionals at Rainaldi Home Services, you would find that yes, your home can do that. And they can help make that happen.

So, how is it possible for your home to reduce your seasonal allergies? It all centers around your heating and air conditioning system, inside and outside. First, we’ll start outside by cleaning the area around your outdoor unit. Clearing debris from around your outdoor unit will assist in the system’s efficiency, as well as allowing your unit to pull in cleaner air.

Your HVAC unit pulls in air from the outside, circulating it throughout your home. Any dirt, dust, and debris can be drawn in, bringing allergies along.

Next, the air that is brought in is filtered through your system’s air filter. It’s essential to invest in high-quality air filters because, as they say, you get what you pay for. Look for a filter with a minimum MERV 8 rating (air filters are measured by particle filtration level, with 20 being the highest/best). You’ll want a filter that traps the smallest allergen particles.

Finally, remember that air filters should be checked monthly and replaced at least every quarter (three months) to ensure the HVAC system’s efficiency and air quality.

Sometimes air filters that are part of a home HVAC system need some assistance in cleaning the air. That’s why Rainaldi offers whole-house air filtration systems. These systems can take the air from the outside, pass it through the HVAC air filter, and fully filter out the allergens and particles in the air, relieving the symptoms associated with asthma, allergies, hay fever, etc. other breathing difficulties.

As the air passes through the air filters and home filtration system, it enters the living space of your home through the vents in your floor or ceiling. During your weekly cleaning, it is recommended that you dust your vents. Dust mites are a common indoor allergen that may not be caught by air filters or air filtration systems since they’re already in your home. Be sure to use a damp rag to pick up particles from the registers and return vents, eliminating the possibility of sending particles back into the air.

Another routine action that can reduce allergy symptoms and help increase your system’s efficiency is scheduling an HVAC maintenance appointment with Rainaldi Home Services. Having regular maintenance prolongs your equipment’s life, plus pinpoints potential significant issues that could happen at any time. Your Rainaldi technician can answer air quality questions and recommend best practices to improve your home’s air system.  They can also recommend quality products and services to help save you money and frustration during allergy season.