Do you give your home’s air quality enough thought?
It can be difficult to tell whether or not your house has poor air quality, especially if you don’t really know what good air quality feels like. Having clean air in your home is important for keeping negative health effects at bay.
To ensure that you’re breathing in the cleanest possible air, you need to first understand how to recognize poor air quality and what it can do to you. In this post, we’re going to discuss some of the major signs that you’ve got poor air quality, and talk about what you can do to make it better. With good filtration in your home, you can breathe easily and feel safe in the place that you spend the most time.
The Importance of Good Indoor Air Quality
No matter where in the world you live, having good indoor air quality is crucial for health and safety. There are various types of indoor contaminants that can turn your air into a hazard. Common ones include dust, asbestos, mold, other bacterias, smog, tobacco smoke, and other gases, but there are countless more that can also affect air quality.
These contaminants are the direct result of what we do in our homes. If you’ve got moist areas in your bathroom or near the furnace, for instance, you’re likely going to get mold. If you let dust accumulate in the house, you could end up with dust mites in the carpets, fabric, and cushions.
Part of maintaining good air quality is preventative maintenance, but it’s also recognizing signs when they appear. You can’t correct your poor air quality if you can’t tell that it’s poor in the first place.
How to Tell You’ve Got Bad Air Quality
Some people are fortunate enough to recognize poor air quality before they start feeling the adverse health effects. Most of the time, however, it’s going to be that you don’t feel quite right that tips you off to your lack of clean air. Let’s look at some of the signs:
Cough, Sneeze, Congestion
When your home is inundated with airborne particles, they’re going to attack your throat, nose, and lungs. As your system is overwhelmed, you’ll start noticing unexplained congestion, accompanied by lots of sneezing and coughing. This will affect those who suffer from allergies and asthma to an even great degree.
If you’re experiencing these symptoms and you’re not sick with something else, it’s probably an air quality issue. This is the number one sign that you need to take steps to improve indoor air quality.
Dizziness and Tiredness
A big sign that there are potentially dangerous fumes in your home is sudden dizziness. If you’re dizzy and tired, it could be related to carbon monoxide, radon, or some other noxious gas, in which case, you should vacate the premises immediately.
This could also be a result of mold or asbestos on or behind your walls. Mold is especially difficult to deal with because it can lurk behind your walls or carpet without any visible signs. If it’s hidden and has spread enough, you may have to go to pretty drastic measures to get rid of it, like tearing through a wall or ripping up carpet.
Headaches
When you leave garbage out or have cleaning chemicals laying around the house, it’s going to contribute to poor air quality and eventually start to give you headaches. This is another tricky thing to diagnose because, of course, headaches happen.
Next time you’ve got an unexplained headache, take a look around. There may be fumes that are the direct cause of your issue.
An Uptick In Allergies
Those that experience seasonal allergies don’t need to be told when dust and fumes are triggering their symptoms, but an uptick in these symptoms could be a sign of poor air quality. Furthermore, if you’re experiencing allergic reactions during non-seasonal times, then it’s probably because your house is full of pollutants.
You Can’t Breathe
Having trouble breathing can be an alarming consequence of anything from allergies and dust to a bad case of mold. Long-term respiratory infections are possible, which can be really harmful for children, people with asthma, and anyone that’s immuno-compromised. If you are experiencing difficulty breathing, call in a professional to locate the cause of the issue.
Dry, Irritated Skin
Dry skin isn’t a life-threatening issue, but it can be irritating and even quite painful at times. You’ll notice dry skin simply by how it feels; it could be itchy and flaky, or it could actually result in flesh wounds.
If you get a shock from touching light switches or appliances in your home, it could be because of the air quality and the lack of humidity. Indoor humidity is more important than most people realize.
What Air Filtration Can Do For You
Now that you understand how to detect air quality issues by tuning into your environment and how you’re feeling, you need to know how to fix them. At Discount Filters, we understand better than anyone how important air and water quality is in your home, which is why we offer an affordable and simple solution to these needs.
Many of the problems we’ve discussed here can be quickly dealt with by installing a new air filter in your HVAC system or buying an air purifier. Within days, you’ll realize how important good air quality is versus what you’ve gotten used to. Visit our website to learn about all of the different filters that we have to offer. You’ll breathe easy with our high-quality products at affordable prices and start to feel more comfortable in your own home.
Don’t Let Bad Air Harm You
Using a high-quality air filter and regularly replacing it is a simple and cost-effective solution to improving the air quality in your home. Shop our selection of AIRx Filters to find the correct selection for your home and enjoy our customizable email reminders that let you know when it’s time to change them out. Together, we can make the air quality in your home great!
