Tips to Keeping Your Fairfax Home Dust Free

If you or someone else living in your Fairfax home suffers from frequent allergies, it could be due to poor indoor air quality. Asthma and other more serious respiratory problems aren’t generally brought on by poor indoor air quality, but it can certainly make symptoms worse. Since dust is a major trigger for both allergies and asthma, it is the first thing you need to tackle when trying to improve indoor air quality in your home in Fairfax, Virginia. Commonwealth Cooling & Heating, a heating and cooling contractor in Fairfax, recommends the following suggestions for keeping your home free of dust.

Change Your Furnace and AC System Filter Frequently

Filters in your heating and AC system trap dust and all other airborne debris and keep it out of your air. When filters get full and bogged down with dust and other pollutants, they can actually become counter-productive by re-releasing these particles into the air that you and your family breathe. 

To avoid this problem, be certain to check on the condition of your furnace and AC system filter every month. If the filters are only mildly dirty, you can remove the contents just as you would lint from a dryer trap. However, you shouldn’t let more than three months pass by without replacing the filter completely. Also, remember that standard filters only capture about 10 percent of airborne pollutants.

Consider an Air Purifier, Humidifier or Dehumidifier

Air purifiers help to improve indoor air quality by removing a higher percentage of dust and other particles from the air. You can place one in every room or in just the bedroom of the person with respiratory issues. Like a furnace or AC system filter, air purifiers need to be checked and cleaned regularly for maximum efficiency. For severe allergies or asthma, consider purchasing a HEPA filter for your air purifier.

When there is too little moisture is the air, you end up with an excess amount of dust, animal dander, bacteria, viruses and other airborne pollutants. One way to alleviate this problem is by making an investment in a room humidifier or a whole house humidifier. Both types of humidifiers add moisture to the air, but it is important that the humidity level in your Fairfax home does not exceed 40 percent.

It is sometimes difficult to find the right level of indoor humidity. When there is too much moisture present in your home, you end up with mold and mildew problems. This is a situation where a dehumidifier can be especially helpful. It keeps your home humidity level stable and improves the indoor air quality at the same time.

Consider Having Your Indoor Air Quality Tested by Commonwealth Cooling & Heating

It is difficult to make improvements to the quality of your indoor air when you don’t know what’s wrong. Sometimes the particles that are causing trouble are so small that you can’t even see them. At Commonwealth Cooling & Heating, we use sophisticated diagnostic tools to determine where your air quality could be improved.