Each of us breathes over 2,000 gallons of air every day, most of it indoors, and most of that inside our homes. With that much air flowing through our lungs every day, it’s no wonder that clean indoor air is critical for our health, especially for the youngest and oldest among us.
How can we improve indoor air?
Keep it fresh
Keep it dry (but not too dry!)
Keep it filtered
Keep an eye on it!
Keep it fresh: This is called “ventilation.” This means intentionally bringing in filtered air from the outdoors in order to dilute pollutants indoors.
Keep it dry (but not too dry!): In our central Virginia climate, we can have high outdoor humidity in up to 10 months out of the year….and high outdoor humidity can lead to high indoor humidity, a contributing factor to indoor allergens (dust mites, for example) and toxins (such as mold, bacteria and viruses). In the winter, too low humidity is a contributing factor to dry skin, eyes, nose and throat, and can increase virus transmission. We design systems to keep your home in the humidity “sweet spot.”
Keep it filtered: Both outdoor and indoor air is typically filled with small particles (not visible to the naked eye) that are damaging to our hearts, lungs, and brains. Filtering your indoor air requires sufficient airflow and high performance filters. We include these as standard practice for every system we design.
Keep an eye on it: Over the last decade, lower cost sensor technology has enabled reasonably priced, continuous monitoring of key indoor air quality metrics. Monitoring indoor air quality allows you (and our team!) to verify goals are met, make tweaks to improve performance, and provide alerts if something goes wrong.