AIR QUALITY TIPS FOR ALLERGY SUFFERERS HEADING INTO WINTER

If you have allergies that come with respiratory symptoms, each season of the year comes with its own challenges. Spring has flowering plants with plenty of pollen, and summer has grass pollen from neighborhood lawns, for example.

Winter brings dry indoor air, courtesy of heating your home with a furnace. Monitoring and improving your indoor air quality may help to reduce allergy symptoms. Here are some tips for allergy sufferers heading into the cool season.

1. Monitor Humidity Levels

Dry air can irritate your respiratory system whether you have allergies or not. If you do have allergies and a more sensitive respiratory tract, things can be even worse. This effect is exacerbated by the fact that dry air helps to dry out the dust in your home so it can become airborne more easily. Then the irritants in the dust can reach and irritate your respiratory tract.

While overall humidity levels may become very low when your furnace is turned on in the winter, that doesn't mean you have to live with low humidity. Use a hygrometer to help you monitor the humidity levels in your home, and make simple changes to increase humidity naturally (such as cooking on the stove without a lid on the pot, so steam can escape).

You can also consider using a humidifier for those times when your home's humidity drops too low. Whole-house humidifiers or smaller point-of-use humidifiers can both be purchased as standalone units, or you can have your HVAC contractor install a furnace humidifier.

Greater humidity in your home will lower the chances of allergy problems this winter.

2. Research and Change Furnace Filters

While dry air can more easily stir up irritants, a great furnace filter can counter that effect by removing these allergens from the air. You should choose the best furnace filter for allergy sufferers, but this can be a balancing act. The denser the filter is, the better it can catch tiny pollutants; but the density will simultaneously restrict furnace airflow, which can be bad for your furnace.

One solution to the problem of airflow is to use a filter that comes with an extra fan to help airflow through the filter better. Your furnace contractor can help you find a great filter without damaging your furnace. Frequently changing the filter is important for allergen removal as well, since a dirty filter blocks airflow and thus doesn't filter as much air.

3. Consider a UV Light Purifier

UV light air purifiers can provide benefits for anyone who wants cleaner air. As long as you choose a model that's proven to effectively neutralize air pollutants, you'll be able to use a UV light purifier to remove not only bacteria but also some allergens (mold, for example). This can help your indoor air become less irritating to your respiratory tract.

4. Don't Forget Ventilation

Although the outdoors can often be a source of allergens (such as pollen), airing out your house on occasion in the wintertime may actually help air quality. In the winter, outdoor air will likely have lower levels of irritants such as pollen because fewer plants are blooming. And outdoor air is often much less polluted than indoor air.

Of course, the trouble is that wintertime is so cold. But airing out the house every now and again on mild days may help flush some pollutants out of your indoor air, even if it does cause your heating to work harder.

These four tips can help you arm yourself for the battle against polluted air, allergens, and allergy symptoms throughout the winter.

For more information on how to control your air quality and how we can help, get in touch with Dick Kearsley Service Center today. Air quality and heating services are two of the things we do best, so we can help you with your furnace filters, furnace humidifier, UV air purifiers, or other air quality and heating issues.