Duct Cleaning Service: Tips For Maintaining Good Indoor Air Quality | Arlington, TX
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As nice as it is to have heating and cooling systems in your Arlington, TX, home, they can also cause a lot of problems when it comes to indoor air quality. Hiring a duct cleaning service is only the start of making sure your home has fresh air at all times. In addition to that, you need to have other heating and cooling maintenance done on a regular basis. If you want to make sure you have the best indoor air quality in your home at all times, here’s why you need to hire a service and what else you can do.
Why Is Indoor Air Quality Important?
Before you get into making sure the indoor air quality in your home is good, you need to understand what indoor air quality is and why it’s important. No matter what you do to keep your home free of contaminants, there are always things floating around in the air. Most of these contaminants are harmful things such as dust, but they can still cause irritation. In some cases, the air quality in your home could cause fairly serious issues for somebody with respiratory problems.
The difficult part about indoor air quality is that so much dust and grime tends to build up in homes. When you have multiple people living in a confined area, the air quality is going to suffer a bit. This becomes even more of a problem if you have a pet or several pets in your home. Since indoor air quality can affect your health, it’s important to make sure the air quality in your home is good. This means keeping your HVAC system clean with a duct cleaning service and doing what you can to improve indoor air quality otherwise.
The Importance of Duct Cleaning
If you really care about the air quality in your home, one of the best things you can do is hire a duct cleaning service. Most people don’t think about the ducts when it comes to air quality, but they can be one of the biggest problems. Ducts tend to collect a lot of dust, and all the cool and warm air that enters your home comes through those ducts.
A duct cleaning service professional can get all of the grime out of your ducts so you don’t have to worry about it passing through them and into your home. This may seem like a somewhat difficult process considering the location of the ducts, but a professional has the tools and knowledge to do a thorough cleaning in a short amount of time.
As far as how often you should hire a duct cleaning service, it depends on who you ask. According to most professionals, you should have your ducts cleaned every 3 to 5 years. If you want to keep your ducts extra clean for optimal indoor air quality, you should have it done every 3 years. At the very least, you should hire a duct cleaning service every 5 years.
Changing Your Air Filter
Aside from hiring a duct cleaning service every so often, you also need to make sure you’re keeping a fresh air filter in your HVAC system. Much like the ducts, everything that passes through your HVAC system goes through the air filter, so having a clean one is important. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t change their air filter as often as they should.
At the very least, you should change your air filter twice a year. If you have a family or multiple people living in your home, you should change your air filter every 3 months or so. Most experts recommend homeowners with pets change their air filter every month or so.
One thing to consider when you’re shopping for a new air filter is the MERV rating of the filter you’re buying. The MERV rating of an air filter tells you how well it filters out contaminants; the higher the MERV rating is, the smaller contaminants the filter is capable of removing from the air. If indoor air quality is a top priority for you, you might even consider investing in a HEPA filter that’s designed to provide the ultimate filtration for your HVAC system.
Air Cleaning Devices
Hiring a duct cleaning service and changing your air filter regularly goes a long way toward improving air quality, but there’s still more you can do. If you feel like the air quality in your Arlington, TX, home just isn’t quite up to par, there are lots of devices you can use to help improve it.
The most popular way to improve indoor air quality is to invest in an air purifier. These devices use the same HEPA filters that help keep the air from your HVAC system fresh, but they provide a little more filtration for around the house. If you do buy an air purifier, it’s important to change the filter regularly like you would with your HVAC system.
In some cases, adding a humidifier or dehumidifier to your home could make a serious difference in air quality. When it comes to killing viruses that may be floating around in your home, UV lamps are a good solution. However you want to keep the air in your home clean, there’s a solution that will work for you.
Call the Pros
As important as maintaining good indoor air quality is, it’s not easy. The best way to make sure the air in your home isn’t causing any problems is to consult with an HVAC technician.
If you’re looking for help improving the air quality in your home, Minuteman Heating and Air is here to help. Not only do we provide duct cleaning services, we can also do seasonal maintenance to keep your HVAC system in good shape. If you want to improve your indoor air quality and get your heating and cooling systems running right, give us a call at (817) 284-2569.