As your family spends more time indoors during the winter season, one thing you might not give a whole lot of thought to is your indoor air quality. From how frequently you get ill to persistent allergy symptoms, your indoor air quality has a big impact on your overall health. Below, we’ll discuss why indoor air quality tends to be worse in the winter and what you can do about it.
Why is Air Quality Worse in the Winter?
When you think about your habits in the wintertime, it’s easy to see that you’re in a home that’s tightly sealed. While this is great for conserving heat and reducing the runtime of your HVAC system, it can keep the air inside your home stale and polluted with unwanted allergens. There are several household-specific and some natural factors that contribute to indoor air quality being worse during the winter.
Reduced Ventilation
One of the biggest culprits behind poor indoor air quality in the winter is reduced ventilation. Without a constant supply of fresh air coming into your home, the allergens inside can’t dilute or disperse. You’ll notice that contaminants like mold spores, pet dander, dust, cooking fumes, and even VOCs will increase in concentration.
Increased Air Movement
While your home isn’t getting fresh air in the wintertime, it’s still getting a lot of air circulation due to running your heating system. Traditional forced-air heating systems and heat pumps all use blower fans to circulate air throughout ductwork. Any contaminants that are already in your home, like dust and pet dander, get picked up in the air and circulated throughout your home over and over again. Additionally, older HVAC systems can release particles and burn dust.
Dry Indoor Air
It’s important to realize that cold air holds less moisture than warm air. When the cold winter air gets warmed up by your heating system, it can further reduce the humidity inside your home. It’s very common for levels to drop below 30% in the wintertime. This can lead to an abundance of issues like dry skin, throat irritation, dry cough, and even more static electricity throughout your home. One thing to keep in mind is that when your nasal passages are dried out due to dry air, it reduces your body’s natural defense mechanisms against illness.
Increased Indoor Activity
With the days being shorter and colder, your family is spending a lot more time inside. This means more cooking, showering, cleaning, and having pets inside more often. All of these can introduce more airborne contaminants that can reduce your air quality. Even using a fireplace can introduce smoke particles into your indoor air.
Mold Growth
While mold growth is more common during the summer months when there’s high humidity, it can also happen during the wintertime. Mold growth is possible in your basement, crawlspace, or even at poorly insulated windows. All of these locations are known for trapping excess moisture, which creates a breeding ground for unwanted mold growth.
Key Signs of Poor Indoor Air Quality
One of the most important things you can do as a homeowner is understand the signs of poor indoor air quality. This will allow you to react promptly to enhance your air quality to make it safer for your entire family. On a physical level, some common symptoms include headaches, sinus congestion, fatigue, an itchy throat, and allergy flare-ups. Around your home, you’ll likely notice more static electricity, excessive dust buildup, lingering cooking odors, and musty, stale odors.
How to Enhance Indoor Air Quality
If you suspect that you have poor indoor air quality, it’s important to remedy that problem as soon as possible. There are a number of different IAQ solutions out there to choose from. Below, we’ll discuss some of the key things that you can do to better control your indoor air quality.
Control Humidity Levels
The ideal indoor humidity level is between 30 and 50%. This helps prevent toxic mold and mildew growth while enhancing your comfort and reducing the strain on your HVAC system. You can easily control the humidity in your home with a whole-home humidification system.
It gets installed directly in your return ducting to introduce more humidity into the air as needed. These systems connect to your smart thermostat that reads the indoor humidity level and tells your whole-home humidifier when to turn on and off based on its readings.
Whole-Home Air Purification System
Another helpful option is a whole-home air purification system. This works to remove unwanted pollutants from your indoor air. There are a few different types of air purification systems on the market to choose from. There are extended media filters that you could add to your existing ductwork that act as an extra layer of filtration. These are great to get with HEPA filtration and activated carbon filters to remove unwanted indoor odors and VOCs alike.
Another popular option is UV-C lighting that comes in both air sanitizing and coil sanitizing setups. This specialized germicidal lighting is great for reducing bacteria and viruses in your home. If you’re not sure what type of whole-home air purification system is best for you, one of our technicians can assess your home and make a knowledgeable recommendation.
Enhance Ventilation
Another strategic thing you can do is improve the ventilation in your home. Whenever you’re cooking on the stove, make sure that you’re turning on the rangehood to divert those harmful cooking fumes directly to the outdoors. Whenever you’re taking a shower, be sure to turn on the exhaust fan in your bathroom to get rid of that excess moisture and soap particles.
Keep Up With Air Filter Changes
Another must-do is keeping up with routine air filter changes for your HVAC system. We suggest checking the filter every month and replacing it whenever necessary. Most standard filters will last around one to two months, while high-efficiency filters may have a shorter lifespan.
Benefits of Boosting Your Indoor Air Quality During Winter
When you boost the indoor air quality in your home during the winter months, you’ll notice an immediate difference in your overall health. You’ll experience fewer allergy flare-ups and illnesses. You’ll be less likely to have dried-out nasal passages or any nasal discomfort. You’ll notice fewer indoor odors and a more comfortable living environment.
By keeping humidity in a safe range, you can greatly minimize mold growth. With fewer particles circulating in your home air, your HVAC system is likely to last longer. Furthermore, you can enjoy lower heating bills. This is because the right humidity level will let warm air linger in the air for longer, and your HVAC system will be able to operate efficiently.
Reliable IAQ Installation Service
Fox Heating, Cooling & Plumbing offers reliable IAQ installation service in the Wheat Ridge, CO community. We can also assist with all your IAQ replacement, repair, and maintenance needs. Phone our office today to book your next service appointment with one of our IAQ technicians.
