Maintaining good air quality in your Westminster, MD home this summer is just as important as keeping it cool. When most people think of indoor comfort, temperature is the only thing on their minds, crowding out considerations about IAQ. Despite this, there are many reasons why it’s worthwhile to invest in improving IAQ.
Less Stress on Your Body
We breathe in approximately an astonishing 11,000 liters of air per day. Ideally, breathing should happen unconsciously and easily. If you’re stuck for prolonged periods of time in a low-IAQ environment, however, that won’t necessarily be the case.
If your home’s air is dirty and contains pollutants, your body may react by only drawing in shallow breaths. This will put unnecessary stress on your cardiopulmonary system. This increased stress may cause deleterious health effects.
Low IAQ thus puts stress on your body and deprives you of oxygen. This is true both because low-IAQ environments can make your breathing shallower and because breathing in low-quality air can be harmful to your health. Improving IAQ will undo these problems.
To help you improve your IAQ, use products like air cleaners, air purifiers, and humidifiers. Most modern AC units also come with built-in humidifiers. Accordingly, to further improve your IAQ, have technicians repair your AC or install a new one.
Better Sleep
Just as breathing polluted air is difficult, uncomfortable, and stressful while you’re awake, so it is when you’re asleep. Sleeping in a place with low IAQ will negatively affect the quality of your sleep for the same reasons that breathing low-quality air is harmful when awake. Your body can respond to low IAQ during sleep in the same way that it can during waking hours: by drawing shallower or less frequent breaths.
Fewer Allergy Issues
About one-quarter of the population suffers from some kind of seasonal allergy. These can trigger coughing, sneezing, an itchy throat or eyes, and other symptoms.
If you have allergies, then exposure to air pollutants will likely trigger them constantly. Even if you don’t have allergies, you could eventually develop them if you don’t remove the environmental irritants in your midst.
Better IAQ at home can help lead to better health and an improved quality of life overall. If you’re suspicious that something about your indoor air at home isn’t right, call Siegman Forced Air Systems, Inc., and request our services so that we can clear the air.
Image provided by iStock