How to Improve Air Quality in a House: 9 Tested & Proven Tips

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Knowing how to improve the quality of air in your home is very important. There are so many allergens lurking in many a home’s indoor air, waiting to give you a real nasty time.

They include dust, smoke, dust mites, pollen, fungi, bacteria, mold spores, and more. Unless you make deliberate effort to purify your home air, you will not enjoy yourself.

So, would you like to know how to improve the quality of air in your home? Here are a few things that you can do:

Use an air purifier to remove impurities from the air
Use a humidifier when the air is too dry
Use a dehumidifier when the air is too moist
Keep a clean home
Proper ventilation
Check your appliances
Clean the Air conditioner

How to improve indoor air quality: 9 Tested & Proven Ways

With the onset of summer, we all want to escape the blazing heat outside and relax indoors. However, if the indoor air quality of your home is bad, you will not be comfortable inside.

There are simple things to help your family enjoy cleaner, better air quality.

1. Learn how to test air quality in your home

Before you know what kinds of measures you need to take to improve the air quality in your home, you need to know how to test for impurities.

This is a big topic, so we shall only touch on it a bit, just to give you an idea. In future, we shall write a bigger piece on it.

If you live in a city that has bad air quality, well, you can buy an air quality monitor. It will help you know whether you should buy an air purifier.

If you live in the following cities, you need an air purifier:

Los Angeles
Visalia
Fresno- Madera
Bakersfield
Long Beach Area

These places are all in California, the foremost state in the US with the highest Ozone concentrations. Also, the areas with the highest concentration of particulates in the air are in California.

While there is not much that you can do about the quality of the air outdoors, you can do much more for the air inside your home.

With a HEPA-filter air purifier such as LEVOIT Air Purifier H13 that you can buy on amazon.com, your indoor air pollution problem will be solved.

2. Use an air purifier to remove impurities from the air

How do you stop air pollution in your house? It is very simple. Even before you can buy an air purifier such as the Medify MA-40 2.0 Medical Grade air purifier, you need to take deliberate steps yourself to enhance the quality of your indoor air.

What is air purifier and how does it work? Well, this appliance pulls in contaminated air, captures/filters the contaminants and then blows clean air out. In non-technical language, this unit has fans, which blow the air in.

It also has a set of filters or perhaps one filter depending on the model to capture all contaminants. The air it pushes back into the house is clean and odorless.

Are air purifiers a waste of money? Apparently not. If you have pets, you need this appliance since it can capture pet dander, pollen, fur and dust.

If you do the math properly, you will find that an air purifier can save you trips to your doctor yearly. If you have asthmatic family member, you definitely need this appliance.

An air purifier will purify your indoor air holistically. It will even remove formaldehyde smell from new mattresses, new furniture and building material.

By this, we mean that it not only removes the indoor allergens such as pollen, fungi and dust mites, but it also removes odor from your air. That way, you can actually enjoy your stay at home.

3. Use a humidifier when the air is too dry

If your indoor air is too dry, you will not enjoy being inside your house. Besides, dry air is too harsh on the delicate airways of infants and people with respiratory illnesses.

If you live in a city that has dry air throughout the year or that experiences cold and dry winters, you need a humidifier.

This appliance works by spraying minute droplets of water vapor into the room. Others also work by sucking in dry air from the room, moisturizing it and then whipping it back into the room.

These ones work with a fan and they have a filter to capture allergens and germs.

Humidifiers come in different types. The most popular ones are the ultrasonic humidifiers such as the Pure Enrichment Cool Mist Humidifier.

It has a diaphragm that vibrates and breaks water into tiny particles. These are then blown into the room by a fan, as mist. They mix with the air inside your home thus raising the humidity.

Humidifiers have humidistat, which automatically turn off the appliance once the right humidity level is achieved.

Indoor dry air is bad for your health, so it too high humidity. Some indoor allergens such as dust mites thrive in really humid conditions.

4. Use a dehumidifier to improve the quality of air

If you have too much moisture in our indoor air, you are definitely not enjoying the best air quality. Besides, high humidity causes mold, which in return could cause serious mold toxicity symptoms among your family members.

Invest in a good dehumidifier for your basement, bathroom, kitchen or have one installed into the HVAC system.

The modern dehumidifier such as the Frigidaire 70 pint one is a real workhorse that can work for weeks on end without stopping.

You can invest in one for your wet basement. If you need small dehumidifiers for single room use, try Pure Enrichment PureDry Deluxe and Eva-Dry EDV 1100 Petite Dehumidifier. Both are excellent choices for spaces without too much humidity.

How does a dehumidifier work? For example, the Frigidaire 70 pint dehumidifier sucks in the moist air inside through the grille.

The moist air is then passed over the condenser which is basically a series of pipes running coolant, and the so the moisture in the air condenses and drips into the removable collecting bucket of 16 pints.

The now moisture-free air is then warmed and blown back to the room. Since most dehumidifiers come with filters, they will capture irritants, odor, germs, fungi and other indoor allergens so that you inhale dry clean air.

5. Proper ventilation – how to improve the quality of air

Ventilation is very good for how to improve the quality f air in your home. Good ventilation is responsible for letting air in and out of your rooms.

Fresh air can come from outside to help “dissolve” the indoor pollutants in your air and blow them outside.

Unless it is spring and the outdoor air is full of pollen, you want to let it in. In addition to having ventilation, also keep the windows open whenever you can do so.

This can also enable cool air to blow in therefore reducing you energy bill significantly.

6. Keep your home clean

If you have dust, fur, pet dander and other types of dirt all over the place, then buying appliances will not matter. You need to keep your rooms as clean as possible.

Consider how your rugs and carpets are made. They have so many spaces between the fibers and the threads. Therefore, indoor allergens, dirt and other things can be trapped inside these spaces.

When you turn on your fan, these things blow up and you inhale them. It is recommended that you clean your carpets and rugs weekly if you have pets or you live in a neighborhood with polluted air.

Clean under the furniture keenly. These are some of the hard to reach places and they collect dust over time.

The problem is that this is fine dust, which is blown back inside, and you inhale it. You need to clean up thoroughly to enjoy better air quality.

7. Keep the air ducts clean

All of your indoor air passes through the air ducts, that is, unless the windows and doors are always open.

Ducts also collect dust, dust mites and other indoor allergens over time. That is why you need to have them checked from time to time.

For that, you need a good company that deals in air duct repairs and related jobs. They can give your system a going-over occasionally to see whether air is flowing alright.

If too dirty, they will also clean up the ducts for you.

8. Check the condition of your appliances

We are all happy that today, we have vacuum cleaners such as the Dyson Ball Multifloor Cleaner with HEPA filters.

This means that when we clean our floors and couches, these gems capture 99.9% of the allergens leaving our air fresh and clean.

However, these allergens are not things that you can see with your eyes. In addition, if the filter breaks down or becomes too dirty, it will release many of these allergens back into your air. You need to ensure the filters are clean and if they are too old, replace them.

Also check the filters in your air purifier, humidifiers and dehumidifiers. Depending on the condition of your indoor air, you may need to replace these filters a couple of times a year.

9. Clean your AC – how to improve the quality of air in your home

Keep your air conditioner clean so that you can enhance its lifespan and so that you can always inhale clean air.

Because the AC filters are responsible for cleaning the indoor air, they clog up with time. If they are not cleaned, they will fail. If this happens, your air conditioner will be whipping dirty air around the rooms.

The best thing is to have a plan for servicing the air conditioning system with a local company. This will give you peace of mind that your air ducts are always clean, the filters germ-free and that the air your family is breathing in is clean.

If you neglect your air conditioner, it will break down and the repairs will be costly. It will increase your trips to see the doctor. You can prevent this with proper care and maintenance.

How to improve the quality of air in your home FAQ

Many people just worry about the indoor humidity level, without knowing that they could be inhaling air with a lot of impurities. Here are a few questions that most people ask in regard to indoor air quality:

How can I improve the air quality in my bedroom?

If you have appliances such as humidifiers, dehumidifiers, air purifiers, air conditioner, vacuum cleaner and others, clean their air filters often. You should also check for wear and tear and if replacement is needed, do it.

Clean your home often, especially the rugs and carpets. Basically, clean the house entirely to get rid of the dust, indoor pollutants and germs.

Whenever possible, keep the windows of your bedroom open to allow in fresh air from outside and check your ventilation for proper airflow.

How do you stop air pollution in your house?

There are tens of ways to stop air pollution in your house. The most popular ones are to keep the house clean. Organize a weekly cleaning schedule. Start by having plants in your house.

They have a way of purifying the air. In the day, plants produce oxygen but in the night, they produce carbon dioxide. Therefore, be careful to put it away from your bed, or place it somewhere close to the ventilation.

Stop smoking or bringing anything that produces smoke into the house. This includes fuel stoves, tobacco and even wood fires. Smoke is one of the most common indoor air impurities.

Leave shoes at the doorstep. Shoes carry dust and other impurities into the house. This is left on the rugs and carpets.

Buy a good doormat like the Delxo 24 x 36 Inch Magic Doormat on amazon.com to absorb all the dirt so that none gets into your house.

What causes poor air quality in home?

Anything that causes outdoor pollution also finds its way into your house. However, there are other causes of poor air quality that you bring into the house.

These include smoking, allowing dirt to accumulate, mold and mildew, pet dander, pollen, fur, dust and many more.

Dirty air ducts also cause indoor air pollution. Dirty filters will also contribute to the poor air quality. Another main cause of indoor air impurity includes cooking stoves.

Conclusion

That is it for how to improve the quality of air in your home. Of course, these are just the basics. If your area does not have polluted air, try the basic things such as opening the windows, cleaning up.

Installing vents in your kitchen and controlling humidity can help a great deal. Better air quality is achievable if you are ready to put in some work. How to improve the quality of air in your home is ever so easy with these tips.