How Extreme Weather Could Be Affecting Your Home’s Air Quality

Extreme weather is becoming more and more normal, from more severe hurricanes to droughts, floods, heat waves, and serious cold spells. No matter where you live, chances are you are experiencing more extreme weather events, and they could be changing the quality of the air you and your family breathe in your home.

Pollen, Mold, Allergens

Changing weather events and an overall warming of the climate is affecting the level of certain allergens in the air. Higher temperatures mean more pollen outdoors and indoors. Certain types of weather also bring more moisture. If you are in a location that is seeing more rain, or even flooding, you may start to see mold growing in your HVAC system and in other locations in your home.

Weatherization Changes Air Quality

As the weather changes, many of us will take steps to weatherize our homes and make them more efficient: more insulation, attempts to seal air leaks, better windows. These steps are great for saving money on energy bills, but they also mean that you get no circulation from outside air. This means that any indoor allergens, mold, dust, even contaminants like radon or carbon monoxide gets trapped in the house with you.

Power Outages and Toxic Air

With extreme weather many of us are experiencing more power outages. More people are buying portable generators, but these produce a lot of carbon monoxide, an odorless toxic gas. Generators are never supposed to be used indoors, but not everyone knows that.

How to Keep Indoor Air Healthy

Extreme weather doesn’t have to reduce the quality of your indoor air or put your or your family at risk of allergies, mold, or toxic gases. There are things you can do to protect your home from extreme weather while keeping your air healthy.

Test Your Air Quality

With just a simple air quality test you can find out if you have any issues going on that need to be remedied to keep your family safe.

Use and Change Filters Regularly

Filters on your furnace and air conditioner are important for taking contaminants out of the air. They need to be changed regularly to ensure that they keep working.

Check for Moisture and Mold

Mold can be a serious health problem, so be aware of anywhere your home might be letting in moisture. Check the basement, foundations, windows, and the roof regularly and take care of any leaks.

Use a Carbon Monoxide Detector

This gas is sinister and deadly. You can’t see it or smell it, so protect your family by using a detector in one or more places throughout your home.

Let our professionals here at Cardinal heating and Air Conditioning help you figure out if your air quality is suffering from severe weather and come up with solutions to keep you and your family healthy.