People spend an average of 80 percent of their non-working hours inside their home. Because no one wants to spend all that time breathing air that smells bad or contains harmful chemicals, maintaining a home’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system is vital to enjoying time spent at home. Here is a simple checklist homeowners can use to make sure they are getting all the important work done.
- Get an Energy Audit
When someone has been living in a place for a long time, it becomes easy to overlook deficiencies that can be taking their toll on indoor air quality. For example, a small gap in the weather stripping around the front door might be something residents don’t even notice any more, but in the meantime it is letting cold air and rain into the interior. In times such as these, a home energy audit is a crucial tool in reducing home heating and cooling costs. An energy professional can check air flow coming from the home’s duct work, the furnace’s efficiency at heating spaces, drafts from windows and doors, and many other key factors in energy consumption.
- Check Your Ducts
There are plenty of services that offer to clean ducts and improve home air quality. A whole-home cleaning might be important in some cases, but not always. Homeowners won’t know if they need a cleaning unless they hire a professional to inspect the ducts first. If there are animals living in there, or a huge accumulation of debris and dust inside the ducts, those are good signs a cleaning will be necessary. Mold growth is another warning sign. However, just a simple inspection will give owners a lot more information about the state of the ducts that deliver air to their homes.
- Maintain Current Machines
Most people have an air conditioner, furnace, or both in their homes, and those machines don’t tend to get a lot of attention until something goes wrong. Of course, that always happens at the worst time possible. By hiring a pro to perform regular maintenance on an HVAC system once per year – optimally in the spring or fall, when neither is being used much – residents can rest assured that these crucial systems will be operating properly when they are needed.
- Test Air Quality
Companies that do air control in Arizona can help in testing air quality in any home. Factors that affect a home’s interior air include things such as cigarette smoke, pets, excessive dust, and household cleaning products. That list doesn’t even get to toxic chemical concerns such as radon, carbon monoxide, or other gases that may be finding their way into a home. A professional air quality check can tell homeowners whether they should address something that might have a detrimental effect on indoor air. Also, if you have a dust collector system choose a reputable service technician to inspect, replace, or clean your dust collector cartridge, filters, or bags to ensure you are given accurate recommendations.
- Make Changes
Now that homeowners are armed with all this information about the atmosphere in their homes, they can evaluate whether any system upgrades are necessary. Improved air quality could be achieved by simply changing out furnace filters or opening a window to let fresh air in.
As with any system in a home, the HVAC equipment should be inspected and maintained regularly. The health of the house’s indoor air depends upon these five vital steps.
Article Submitted By Community writer
