Your home should be a healthy place where you feel safe. Too often, issues like bacteria and mold undermine safety by putting a home’s inhabitants at risk for allergies and illnesses. Here’s what you can do to keep your indoor air quality healthy.
Causes
To understand the best solutions to a problem, it is helpful to look at the causes of the problem. Common causes of bacteria and fungus indoors are:
- High humidity — Most organisms need moisture to survive, and mold and bacteria can proliferate well when indoor humidity is high.
- Dust — Dust might not seem like a big issue unless you have bad allergies. However, dust is home to many types of contaminants and it provides a suitable growing medium for fungus and bacteria.
- Clutter — Clutter traps dampness and blocks light and airflow from surfaces. In addition, it makes a home more difficult to clean thoroughly. All of these factors encourage organism growth.
- Poor sanitation — Sweeping and cleaning with soapy water isn’t always sufficient to kill germs and destroy mold.
- Leaky plumbing — Leaks create pooling water and add to humidity in the home.
- Inadequate ventilation — Stale air harbors spores that can quickly multiply. Poor ventilation can also increase humidity.
Solutions
Reduce humidity in your home by using exhaust fans in the bathroom, laundry room and kitchen after each shower, laundry day, and after cooking or running your dishwasher. Dry out damp areas in the home by cleaning up pooling water, fixing leaks and using dehumidifiers.
If humidity is a frequent problem in your home despite an absence of leaks or other moisture sources, get a whole-house dehumidifier installed. In addition, have your HVAC technician inspect your ventilation system to ensure it is adequate for your home’s ventilation requirements.
Discard items you no longer need or use, or store extra items in a storage unit. Afterwards, clean your home and use a commercial sanitizing product in common problem areas, such as bathrooms and the kitchen.
For more tips about keeping your home free of these contaminants, please contact us at Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Lorain, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about indoor air quality and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Guide or call us at 440-201-2959.
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Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning
1 (440) 246-5440
Serving the Lorain, OH Area