The time of the year usually associated with allergies and asthma is the spring. This is when the pollen count rises, and it’s definitely a time when people who have allergy and asthma issues are more likely to encounter health concerns. However, a serious decline in the air quality inside a home is more likely to happen during the winter, as we’ll explain.

Fresh air… or the lack of it

During the cold of winter, you’ll want to have your home as closed off as possible from the outside. The better the insulation and heat sealing around doors and windows, the less heat can escape from your house. The trapped heat makes it easier to stay warm and prevent excessive use of the heating system, leading to inflated bills.

There’s a downside to this seal against the outside, however. Fresh air doesn’t get much chance to circulate through your home. There are many pollutants that originate from inside the house, rather than pollens and dust from outside. These irritants include household chemicals, volatile organic compounds found in everything from carpet fibers to paint, formaldehyde, pet dander, and dust mites. With a house effectively closed off to fresh air circulation, the concentration of these indoor pollutants increases to pose a major health and comfort concern for everyone in the household.

Combating winter air quality woes

To make your indoor air cleaner without opening up the house to the outside chill, you can call on professionals to fit the HVAC system with air filters and air purifiers. Air filters use mesh to trap unwanted larger particles (dust mites, dander, carpet fibers) and electronic air purifiers will eliminate the smaller contaminants (VOCs, chemicals, smoke). The right combo can take care of more than 99% of the irritants moving through your home.

Contact Bud Matthews Services in Durham, NC for all your home service needs—including improvements for your indoor air quality.