How to Keep Your Indoor Air Healthy

September 10, 2020

Unprecedented, unpredictable, and undesirable are just a few of the words homeowners might use to describe living through a pandemic here in California. With shutdowns affecting work, school, and just about everything else, how are you spending this increased time at home?

As families are staying inside more often this year, and updates on our nationwide health make the news daily and even hourly, you may find yourself wondering, “How can I keep my family healthy here at home?” Of course, one of the number one concerns when it comes to keeping a home healthy here in Alameda, Contra Costa and Marin Counties is the quality of your indoor air. Here are some of the ways you can breathe healthier in your home this year, and how Hassler can help.

Maintain Your Heating and Cooling System

Your heating and cooling system is a trap for indoor contaminants. In fact, once a contaminant enters a home, it will continue to recirculate in the air and the lungs of you and your family until it is actively removed. Dust and dirt, mold and mildew, and viruses and other bacteria all can become lodged in your ductwork, fans, and even the condenser coils of your furnace or air conditioner. This is one of the primary reasons the EPA estimates that indoor air is actually up to five times more contaminated than outdoor air.

Proper maintenance of your heating and air conditioning systems will ensure your equipment is clean as a whistle, and also indicate when it might be time to schedule duct repair to resolve any problematic leaks in your ductwork.

Regularly Replace All Air Filters

This falls under the regular “maintenance” tasks, but is something you can do yourself or have Hassler do as part of a preventive maintenance visit . The air filters of your HVAC system are supposed to catch the harmful contaminants that can recirculate in your breathing air, but are usually only good for a specified amount of time before they become clogged and dirty. Plus, the more clogged your filters, the harder your HVAC system will need to work in order to pull air through its intake. This will do nothing for your indoor air quality, all while costing you more in energy bills and the potential for early equipment failure! It is recommended that you replace the air filters at least once a year if not twice.

Air Purification and Filtration

For some homes, and some occupants, having a clean home comfort system isn’t enough to remove the contaminants necessary for a healthy home. For these situations, air purification and whole home filtration or ventilation may be required. At Hassler we offer a variety of systems that can improve your home’s air quality, depending on your needs - such as:

Air Purifiers

Regularly rated as the top air purifier, the IQ Air Purifier takes the incoming dirty air and cleans it through 170 square feet of media filter to remove 95% of airborne particles above 0.3 microns as well as an 85% reduction in airborne particles above 0.003 microns. This is all done without adding any noise, and can even remove unwanted odors from circulating your indoor air.

UV Light Purification: The Air Scrubber

The effects of UV light on certain bacteria and viruses have made news recently, and though UV light can’t eliminate bacteria from our bodies, there is a very effective way to use UV light in a HVAC system. The Air Scrubber is a UV light sterilizer that is installed safely behind the walls of your central ductwork system, and subjects the incoming air to UVC light which scrambles the RNA of harmful contaminants. This reduces the contaminants in your air, as well as on the surfaces of your home.

Heat Recovery Ventilators

It could be that your air is relatively clean, but it’s stale and does not properly ventilate. Ensuring your home receives a steady supply of fresh air will keep your home healthier and even more comfortable. This is the goal of a heat recovery ventilator, which actively replaces the air in your home with fresh and filtered outside air, while also using the heat (or lack of heat) from your “old” air to precondition the incoming breathing air. This provides energy savings, while keeping your home comfortable and your air fresh and clean.

Take the Hassle Out of Breathing Clean Air

If you are looking to take this time at home to increase the health of your indoor air, ask the Hassler team how we can help. Through our comprehensive energy audit, we can evaluate the air leakage in your home, seal up any leaks, and provide you with the purification and filtration tools you need to avoid excess allergies and unwanted health symptoms.