Here are eight solutions to improve your indoor health.
Solution #1– Maintain your HVAC system
Regular heating and cooling maintenance is essential for keeping your indoor air quality at its best. Over time, dust, dirt, and other pollutants can build up in your HVAC system, reducing its efficiency and circulating contaminants throughout your home.
- During a tune-up, your system is thoroughly cleaned, tested and reset to factory specifications .
- Receive consistent airflow and proper humidity levels, which are key factors in keeping your home’s air clean and healthy.
- Address potential mold growth or leaks early so that your system will not inadvertently contribute to indoor air pollution.
- Change air filters regularly especially if you have pets.
- Learn more of PDM's heating maintenance and air conditioning rejuvenation.
Please feel free to contact PDM for HVAC maintenance in Joliet SW Chicago suburbs since 1885.
Solution #2 - Clean your air ducts - Save $100
Duct cleaning has a role in maintaining and improving the quality of the air inside your home.
- Dust, pollen, pet dander, and other airborne contaminants can accumulate in your ductwork, creating a breeding ground for mold, bacteria, and allergens.
- As your HVAC system circulates air throughout your home, some pollutants can be dispersed into your living spaces.
- You know dust builds up every day. Some studies say an average home collects up to 40 lbs of dust a year.
- What is dust? A mix of dead skin cells, hair, bacteria, dust mites, bits of dead bugs, food particles, clothing fibers, pollen, and microscopic particles of plastic.
- If you have not cleaned your air ducts for years, open a vent and wipe the inside with a wet paper towel. What do you find?
If we can help you improve your home’s Indoor Air Quality, please feel free to contact PDM for a no-strings-attached FREE duct cleaning consultation in Joliet SW Chicago suburbs.
Research has shown that whole building air purifier can help to remove harmful pollutants and particles from the air you breathe. Whole home Air Purifier helps to:
- Reduce Harmful Particles. Ion Generator air purifiers are designed to reduce allergens, mold spores, and even certain bacteria and viruses
- Reduce Allergy and Asthma Symptoms by filtering out common irritants
- Reduce Unpleasant Odors and improve sleep too
- Better Respiratory Health and can boost your immune system
- Improve HVAC Efficiency. Help keep your heating and cooling equipment cleaner, potentially improving efficiency and extending the lifespan of your HVAC system
If we can help you improve your home’s Indoor Air Quality, please feel free to contact PDM for a FREE indoor air purifier consultation in SW Chicago suburbs.
Solution #4 – Whole house humidifier improves health and lowers heating bills
Benefits of a whole home humidifier:
- Improves Respiratory Health by easing congestion and coughs.
- Improve Immune System - Your sinus is protected by paper thin and fragile mucous membranes. When dry, they crack and allow infectious germs a direct path to your bloodstream. Dryness can also cause a bloody nose.
- Virus Protection - Keeping indoor humidity between 30%-50% minimizes virus survival rates.
- Avoid nosebleeds itchy skin, scratchy throats, and irritated sinuses caused by dry winter air. Helps with coughing & sore throat. Dry eyes. Itching, flaking skin. Chapped lips.
- Lower Heating Bills Up To 4% - Moisture regulates body temperature. When perspiration evaporates, it absorbs heat from your skin. The dryer the air, the quicker your body cools. When chilly, you turn up your furnace thermostat which dries the air even more. With a furnace humidifier you can lower the temperature, which will save 1 to 3 percent for every one degree you lower the thermostat.
- Preservation - Humidifiers can help prevent cracks and damage to wooden floors, furniture, plants, and even animal health.
- Reduces Static Electricity. Raising winter humidity level in your home via a humidifier will reduce random static shocks, static cling, and static in your hair.
- Improve Sleep Quality - research suggests that the best relative humidity for sleeping is between 40% and 60%. This range is also helpful for reducing indoor pollutants that can interfere with sleep.
- Moisture Added To Air: Most furnace humidifiers can deliver anywhere between 12-18 gallons of water per day into the air.
Please feel free to contact PDM for a FREE humidifier consultation in SW Chicago suburbs.
Solution #5 – Germicidal UV LED air purifier in Joliet
Help reduce both the surface mold and the airborne bacteria that grows on your HVAC air coils with this UV Treatment system.
- Designed to help improve indoor air quality in your home.
- The system also helps with energy efficiency and can save money by not needing your HVAC coil to be cleaned as often.
- Installed inside HVAC system to minimize the risk of airborne bacteria, mildew, and mold particles.
- UV lights work by disrupting the DNA in these microorganisms, killing them at a rate of 99% in optimal conditions.
- Not effective against viruses. Will not filter air particles. Some bulbs require annual bulb replacement.
- Additionally, smart technology optimizes the lamp's run time, and a LED notification alerts you when replacement is needed.
Next-generation commercial UVC light
Disinfect high-traffic, high-touch areas safely...without chemicals. Effective against a wide range of bacterial, viral and fungal pathogens. Maintenance-free and can be mounted or light fixtures.
Great for hospitality, schools, gyms, offices, retail, elder care, your place too!
Designed to bring continuous surface and air disinfection to:
- Bathrooms
- Waiting rooms
- Classrooms
- Food prep area
- Sinks
- Equipment closets
Contact PDM for free commercial UV air quality advice and estimate.
Solution #6 - Upgrade to an advanced media air filter
A media air cleaner is an advanced air filtration option that is up to 85% more efficient than a standard air filter at capturing indoor pollutants like dust, smoke, mold spores and pet dander.
- Traps up to 85% more airborne particles compared to a standard one-inch filter
- Captures both microscopic particles and larger contaminants
- Lasts up to four times longer than a standard one-inch filter
- Replace filter every 6-12 months
- Compatible with most HVAC systems
PDM professionals will install your media air cleaner cabinet in the return air duct of your HVAC system. As air passes through the system, airborne particles are trapped within the media air filter. Media air filters also require minimal maintenance. Contact PDM for a free media filter estimate.
Solution #7 - Improve ventilation
There are four basic mechanical whole-house ventilation systems -- exhaust, supply, balanced, and energy recovery. Energy.gov
- Exhaust Ventilation Systems work by depressurizing your home. The system exhausts air from the house while make-up air infiltrates through leaks in the building shell and through intentional, passive vents. Rely in part on random air leakage. Can increase heating and cooling costs. May require mixing of outdoor and indoor air to avoid drafts. Can cause backdrafting in combustion appliances.
- Supply Ventilation Systems use a fan to pressurize your home, forcing outside air into the building while air leaks out of the building through holes in the shell, bath, and range fan ducts, and intentional vents. Can cause moisture problems in cold climates. Will not temper or remove moisture from incoming air. Can increase heating and cooling costsMay require mixing of outdoor and indoor air to avoid drafts in cold weather.
- Balanced Ventilation Systems, if properly designed and installed, introduce and exhaust approximately equal quantities of fresh outside air and polluted inside air. Will not temper or remove moisture from incoming air. Can increase heating and cooling costs.
- Energy Recovery Ventilation (ERV) exchange indoor air with fresh outdoor air five times per hour to remove contaminants and improve carbon dioxide (CO2) levels. Balanced ERV ventilation brings fresh air into the home while retaining up to 60% of the energy value of the exhaust air, and rejecting about 40% of the moisture in the fresh air stream. Reduces the workload for your humidifier (dry seasons) by retaining up to 40% of the moisture from the humidified air leaving the home; similarly, it reduces the workload for your dehumidifier, air conditioner or heat pump (humid seasons) by rejecting moisture from the humid air entering the home (humid seasons).
- Helps remove odors. The whole-home system exhales bad and inhales good air. Contact PDM for free advice and estimate!
Solution #8 - CO2 air quality monitor
In most indoor settings, a CO2 concentration of 400-1000 ppm is considered acceptable. This range is commonly used as a guideline for maintaining good indoor air quality in homes, offices, and public spaces. Be proactive and stay informed about the air you breathe with a CO2 Air Quality Monitor. What are your home and office CO2 levels?
Joliet’s indoor air quality specialists!
We are always here for you at PDM Plumbing, Heating, Cooling Since 1885! If we can help you improve your home’s Indoor Air Quality, please feel free to contact us for a no-strings-attached FREE indoor air consultation in Joliet SW Chicago suburbs.
