Summer is always such a wonderful time of year: longer days, vacations, beaches, BBQs, and of course, plenty of sunshine. Summer means a lot more time spent outdoors, and if the weather gets too hot, air conditioning is always a great option.
Staying inside with the AC on and the doors and windows sealed might be a pleasant and comfortable way to spend a hot day, but it’s not without its downsides. All that recirculated air can reduce indoor air quality, which can lead to allergy problems and exacerbate respiratory health conditions, like asthma.
Fortunately, there are a number of HVAC upgrades you can make to enhance comfort and health during the hottest months. We’ll discuss a few of the best ones below.
Buy a Smart Thermostat
One way to improve your home’s indoor air quality is to improve the overall efficiency of your HVAC system. A great upgrade is to have an HVAC professional install a smart thermostat. These thermostats are both programmable and capable of learning. Over time, they will begin to adjust to your schedule, helping to keep your home at your preferred temperature while reducing your energy costs.
These systems can improve air quality by reducing the amount of air circulating through the system, therefore moving less dust, dirt, and other particles around. A smart thermostat will slow or stop the HVAC system during periods when less temperature control is required, like at night. In doing so, it will stir up fewer contaminants and contribute to overall healthier air.
Invest in a Whole-Home Dehumidifier
Excessive moisture in the air, which is common during the summer months, can have a deleterious effect on air quality, as it encourages the growth of mold and other pathogens. Humidity also causes hot days to feel hotter due to the wet bulb effect. It’s possible to mitigate this issue, however, by using dehumidifier technology, which removes excess moisture from the air.
While you can purchase smaller dehumidifiers meant for a single room, a whole-home humidifier installed by your HVAC contractor is much more efficient if you’re dealing with a larger space. These are bigger systems that are connected directly to or even built into your home’s HVAC system. They have several advantages over portable units. Primarily, a larger unit won’t leave any areas untouched. This will improve air quality by eliminating moisture in hard-to-access areas that might otherwise be risk areas for mold or mildew.
Install High-Efficiency Air Filters
One of the most important roles an HVAC system has in the home (besides temperature control) is air filtration. It’s this capability that contributes to a healthy air supply in the building, as the filtration system draws mold spores, dust, and allergens out of the indoor atmosphere. All HVAC systems are built to remove impurities from the air to some degree, but high-efficiency filters—so named because they are vastly more effective than other versions—can take this to the next level.
There are many different types of impurities that can enter the indoor air of a building, ranging from large dust particles (which can be as large as 100 microns in width) to infinitesimally tiny mold spores (which can be as small as 2 microns in width). A high-efficiency filter is built to extract nearly all of them from the air, removing pollutants as small as 0.3 microns. This includes not only dust, pollen, and mold, but also aerosolized particles carrying bacteria and viruses, including the ones that cause colds and the flu, among others.
High-efficiency filters are one of the most important HVAC upgrades you can make because they both remove dangerous pathogens from the air and contribute to overall fresher indoor air. These filters are effective enough to remove particles that cause bad smells in a building, meaning a formerly musty, dank home can become more inviting once they are installed.
Plan to change your high-efficiency air filters every one to three months. Factors like the amount of use, number of pets, and whether any residents have allergies can affect the optimal timing between changes.
Include UV Light Purifiers
While high-efficiency filters can remove the majority of contaminants from the indoor air, there will always be a small number of pathogens that may slip through. For the highest possible air quality in the building, upgrade your HVAC system with ultraviolet (UV) light purifiers. UV light—the same type that is produced by the sun’s rays—has a destructive effect on biological contaminants, as the radiation scrambles their DNA and renders them inactive. UV filters can destroy mold spores, viruses, bacteria, and other fungi, ensuring a cleaner home than ever before.
One of the most important benefits of UV light purifiers is that they kill mold spores instantly—before they get the chance to take hold within the building. This not only eliminates mold as an allergen and potential cause of health hazards, but it also prevents even small mold patches from occurring within the HVAC system and surrounding areas. In turn, this allows homeowners to save money on repair costs, as the spread of mold can lead to a great deal of harm to a building’s structures.
Upgrades for the Summer and Beyond
Once you have invested in the upgrades mentioned above, you’ll notice a marked improvement in air quality over the course of the summer. As the weather cools down, you’ll begin to use the system less and less, until the wintertime when you’ll need to begin heating. It’s during the more temperate periods—spring and fall—that you should consider scheduling a maintenance visit from your HVAC contractor, such as All Weather Heating & Cooling. By replacing the high-efficiency filters and checking the wiring on your thermostat, among other key repairs, they will ensure that your upgrades improve your air quality not only this summer but for many summers to come.
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