What Is Indoor Air Quality & Why Is It Important?

Mar 25, 2022 | Springboro, Blog, HVAC, IAQ, Indoor Air Quality, OH, Ohio | 0 comments

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) refers to the air quality within a home and how it relates to the health and comfort of your loved ones. HVAC systems preserve indoor temperatures and keep your home’s atmosphere comfortable through heating, cooling, ventilation, and the overall indoor air quality within your residence. At Springboro Heating & Cooling, we’d like to take a second to underline the significance of IAQ and how it could impact your well-being, and the actions to take to enrich the air within your home.

Why is Air Filtration and Ventilation Necessary for IAQ?

When examining ventilation and air filtration, we should consider three air quality pollutants: volatile organic compounds (VOC), particulate matter, and carbon dioxide (CO2). 

Volatile organic compounds are chemicals typically radiated by household by-products. We can enormously reduce the concentration of VOC by replacing particular products with low-emitting alternatives, such as opening up our windows and utilizing fans; however, the ventilation system is the most reliable approach to handle VOCs inside our homes. Fortunately, Springboro Heating & Cooling can help you and your home by promoting restored outdoor air supply and exhausting VOCs through return vents to weaken concentrations to safe levels!

Now, particulate matter pollution is an international concern! Unfortunately, 91% of us live in regions where air quality levels surpass the limits established by the World Health Organization (WHO). As your HVAC system draws outdoor air into your home, particulate matter can effortlessly contaminate the air indoors. Thankfully, we can aid you in vacating this particulate matter through filtration! After all, the ventilation system’s air filters are your home’s best source for protecting yourselves against particulate matter!

Lastly, let’s take a look at Carbon dioxide (CO2). While we don’t necessarily consider CO2 as an air pollutant, high indoor concentrations are still a cause for concern for the health and well-being of those living within the home. Like VOCs, we can use ventilation to destroy high CO2 levels and repair the fresh air within your home. I know this may feel overwhelming, but we hope you find reassurance in knowing that our experts at Springboro Heating & Cooling are here to help!

What is the Significance of IAQ?

As we navigate life daily, we experience things that we don’t inherently need to focus our attention on because they happen without much physical or mental effort. Breathing is one of those things that most don’t have to try hard to achieve, thanks to our human anatomy. But unfortunately, this doesn’t imply that we can go around breathing in everything without the possibility of damaging consequences. Because of this, we must take particular care of our bodies and do what we can in our power to avoid inhaling things that can and will harm us! When we reflect upon pollution, most of us focus more on the outer world, and while it is necessary, so is our household environment.

How Does Pollutant Exposure Immediately Affect Us?

Some symptoms that may arise directly after pollution exposure include irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, headaches, feeling faint, fatigue, and more. While these situations are typically treatable, the preferred treatment would be to eliminate exposure to pollution from the get-go. Additionally, if you or your loved ones are asthmatic, it is imperative to comprehend that some indoor air pollutants can irritate and worsen the symptoms associated with this disease.

How Does Pollutant Exposure Affect Us in the Long Run?

Long-term effects manage to be more harmful than the short-term, making the need for quality air indoors that much more critical. These effects can be unsettling and even deadly; respiratory disease, heart disease, and cancer are among those. Therefore, we must improve our household’s indoor air quality to the utmost degree, even if contact with pollution isn’t instantly evident. Nevertheless, there is still some hesitance about what concentrations or duration of exposure are responsible for these respective health problems. For this reason, our experts at Springboro Heating & Cooling can help you act now to improve your and your family’s health across the board!

How is Fresh Air Brought Into Our Homes?

While the explanation to this question may seem straightforward, there is more that we can do to improve our air quality than just opening our doors and windows. The movement of air associated with infiltration and natural ventilation stands to reason because of the wind and the temperature indoor and outdoor differences. Natural ventilation and infiltration are excellent, I’m not dismissing this fact, but mechanical ventilation is a concrete refinement at our disposal! When there is little to no infiltration, natural ventilation, or mechanical ventilation, the air exchange rate will drop, promoting pollutant levels.

Regardless, at Springboro Heating & Cooling, we hope you gained some further knowledge about indoor air quality and, impactfully, find peace in learning that we can and will help you breathe more comfortably. Please don’t forget we are a single phone call away from helping enhance your home’s indoor air quality for you, your home, and your loved ones! We look forward to hearing from you! Call us today at (937) 600-6834, or schedule an appointment online now by clicking here!