Could Your Indoor Air Be Making You Sick?

Did you know the air inside your home can make you sick? Indoor air quality (IAQ) measures how healthy the air is inside your home or business. According to the EPA, poor IAQ can have both short and long-term negative health effects.

If you don’t know the causes of poor IAQ, however, it’s hard to fix the problem. Since we spend about 90% of our time indoors, here are 3 key factors to address to improve indoor air quality.

1. Contaminants In The Air

Contaminants in the air, such as mold spores, dead skin, dust, bacteria, viruses, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are gasses emitted from everyday products in our homes, like carpet and furniture, result in poor IAQ . These contaminants can occur in any home or business whether the space is clean or not. Good ventilation is necessary to circulate these contaminants out of the space. If your HVAC system isn’t ventilating your building properly, the professionals at Masters Heating & Cooling will offer comfort system solutions to clear the contaminants out of your home or business in Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Angola, Greenwood, and Decatur, IN, and have you breathing better air.

Aside from making sure your property has proper ventilation, you need to clean the air you have. IAQ products like air purifiers, filtration systems, and even UV lights are all viable solutions to cleaning your air, depending on the specific needs of your space.

2. Too Much Or Too Little Humidity

The ideal range for indoor humidity in a home or business is between 30% to 50% for good indoor air quality. When humidity levels are too low, it can cause allergy-like symptoms such as itchy skin and eyes and a stuffy nose. Nasal passages may also dry out, which may cause nose bleeds and promote the susceptibility to sinus type infections. When humidity is too high, increased growth of bacteria, mold, and viruses. These contaminants become airborne, and whatever is floating in the air is breathed in, potentially making you sick.

The professionals at Masters Heating & Cooling can perform a comprehensive inspection of your cooling and heating systems in Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Angola, Greenwood, or Decatur, IN, to ensure the humidity level is ideal for either your home or business.

3. A Low Air Exchange Rate

The air exchange rate is the number of times per hour the indoor and outdoor air changes within a space. The higher the level, the more comfortable you’ll be inside and the healthier the indoor air will be. While opening and closing exterior doors has an effect on the exchange rate, the amount doesn’t have a significant effect on removing contaminants from the indoor air, causing them to be trapped and negatively affecting the occupants.

Call Masters For Indoor Air Quality Testing

To keep the indoor air in your home or business as comfortable and healthy as possible, look for a long-term solution such as a HEPA air purifier or a filtration product that’s compatible with your existing HVAC system. The trained professionals at Masters Heating & Cooling can help you achieve an ideal air exchange rate in every season.

Keeping your indoor air quality ideal takes the work of a team, and Masters Heating & Cooling is a great teammate to have. Whether it’s an AC or furnace repair, inspections, or installations, we can do it all. Call today for a consultation .