Central Air Humidifiers Can Solve Your Winter Dry Air Problem

Arizona’s dry air in winter can have serious effects on your overall health. Indoor pollutants circulating through your heating system combined with low humidity can result in irritated eyes, nose, and throat, and dry, scaly, itchy skin. Breathing in dry air can also cause or worsen the symptoms of people with conditions like asthma, bronchitis, and sinusitis. You can even get nosebleeds! Other dry air problems include static electricity (zap!), snoring, and chapped lips. If you or family members experience more frequent respiratory infections and illnesses from dry winter air, consider installing a central air humidifier.

Installing a Central Air Humidifier

Air circulating through your home furnace travels through a filter designed to trap dust and allergens in the air. Still, these filters can’t capture everything, and they don’t add moisture to the air. That’s why air pollution in our homes can be 2-5 times higher than outside! The main culprits?

• Fuel-Burning Appliances
• Tobacco Products
• Building Materials
• Household Cleaning Products
• HVAC Devices
• Moisture and/or Mold
• Outdoor Air Pollution Sources

It’s best to keep the indoor humidity measurement between 35-65 percent. Too much moisture in the air can create a breeding ground for bacteria, mold, and mildew. Installing a central air humidifier is an excellent alternative to using portable humidifiers. First, a central air humidifier is more efficient than using portable humidifiers. It’s designed to treat all the air in your home and can be calibrated to add just the right amount of moisture to your home’s air. 

Portable humidifiers only add moisture to the air in the immediate area around the mobile unit. Don’t forget, portable humidifiers can also become germ factories if they’re not cleaned often enough, and filters aren’t changed regularly. Yuck.

The most common type of central humidifier forces heated air from your furnace through a wet pad or disk to add moisture. Wet element humidifiers are typically installed on the warm-air plenum that’s connected to the ductwork. Other types of central humidifiers use a bypass pipe or attach to an air duct leading out of the plenum. Your HVAC professional can recommend the right model for your home.

Additional Options For Improving Dry Winter Air in Your Home

Adding humidity plants can help ease the effects of dry air in your home year-round. If you’re not sure what qualifies as a “humidity plant,” don’t worry. You can learn more about humidity plants by clicking the link above.

Now that you know how to fix dry winter air by having a central air humidifier installed let’s learn how to reduce the number of allergens floating around! While it’s impossible to eliminate all the allergens inside your home, you can reduce the exposure to them by making some simple changes. Here are some tips to improve the general air quality inside your home.

• Keep your home clean. A clean house is a healthier house with less pet dander, mold, dust, and other pollutants circulating in the air.
• Clear away any clutter that can trap and hold dust. 
• Vacuum carpets and area rugs once or twice a week with a vacuum cleaner equipped with a HEPA filter. 
• Regularly clean bedding, drapes, pillows, and other items that tend to attract allergens, especially if you have pets. 
• Use dust mite-proof covers on pillows, mattresses, and box springs.
• Changing your HVAC filters regularly can help ensure dust, dander, and other airborne irritants are trapped instead of recirculated throughout your home.
• Have your air ducts professionally cleaned at least every three years. 
• Ensure that all bathrooms are well ventilated. Scrub away any visible mold that collects in the shower, on fixtures, or walls.
• Let the fresh air in – open the windows whenever you can.
• Use ventilation fans in the kitchen to remove cooking fumes.
• Installing hard-surface flooring instead of carpeting can also help cut down on allergens in the home.
• Using an air purifier can also improve the quality of the air in your home, especially for those suffering from allergies. 

Does closing vents redirect air in your home to save energy?

If you’ve ever tried to reduce energy costs at home, you may have been told to close the air vents in rooms you are not using. On the surface, stopping airflow into empty rooms makes sense, but will closing vents redirect air and save you money? It might surprise you to learn that closing air vents wastes energy and can damage your HVAC system!

Ductwork Leaks

It’s not ideal to have leaks within your ducts, and no duct system is leak-proof. Closing vents in your home increases the pressure inside the HVAC system and causes more leaks. The higher pressure forces air from the unconditioned spaces to circulate through your home. It also makes your air conditioner work harder than necessary, which in turn uses more energy.

Variable-Speed Blower Motors

Higher pressure inside the duct system due to closed vents causes variable-speed blower motors to work much harder to maintain adequate airflow. This action completely negates your efforts to save energy in your home.

Single-Speed Blower Motors

Most HVAC systems have single-speed blower motors, which only operate at two settings: on and off. These systems are unable to compete with the high pressure in the ducts, which reduces airflow. As less air circulates through your home, it will become increasingly more uncomfortable. Even worse? The low airflow can also cause the AC evaporator coil to freeze, preventing your air conditioner from cooling your home and require a service call.

Wear and Tear

When there is less airflow, some refrigerant will make it back to your compressor as a liquid, damaging the equipment over time. This liquid refrigerant in the compressor will increase the chance of a cracked furnace heat exchanger, which would require immediate attention from a professional.

Effective Ways to Save Energy

Now that you know the damaging effects of closing air vents, how can you save energy? 

-Partially closed air vents can direct air where you want it without completely restricting the system airflow. 

-Install a zoning system with multiple thermostats, air handlers, and dampers in the ductwork, which lets you direct air where you want without the unintended consequences.

-Upgrade to a new, more energy-efficient HVAC system

If your system needs repairs or you’re considering upgrading to a new energy-efficient AC system, contact Donley to make sure the job is done right!

Combatting Phoenix Air Quality: Our Tips on How to Clean the Air In Your Home

Contrary to what you may think, our indoor air quality tends to be lower than our outdoor air quality. Due to limited ventilation and more, our homes can accumulate more dust and bacteria. As such, air pollution in our homes can be 2-5 times higher than outside. This, of course, isn’t a constant. When Arizona weather whips up a haboob, of course the Phoenix air quality is bound to be lower than indoor. With the air quality in Phoenix AZ fluctuating — more so in some parts than others — its important to know how to clean the air in your home so you are breathing easy even in the height of haboob season. Especially considering that pollution levels in Phoenix tend to exceed the federal health standard for air quality, the urgency is even greater. So, here are our top tips on how to clean the air in your home.

Know The Culprits

• Fuel-Burning Appliances
• Tobacco Products
• Building Materials
• Household Cleaning Products
• HVAC devices
• Moisture
• Outdoor Air Pollution Sources

A lot of these — such as fuel-burning appliances and tobacco products are pretty much common sense but let’s talk about cleaning products and HVAC devices.

CLEANING PRODUCTS

They are supposed to clean your home and indeed they do a great job scrubbing away and killing accumulated bacteria. But a lot of chemical cleaning solutions contain high levels of volatile organic compounds that — if your home is not properly ventilated, can get trapped for a long time. Some of the associated issues include breathing problems and even smaller finer particles can lead to various heart and/or lung diseases.

The Solution? 1. Opt for chemical alternatives. These can include DIY cleaning solutions or buying eco-friendly and organic cleaning solutions that won’t break the bank — but also won’t pose a threat to your home’s indoor air quality. 2. Open windows. Give the solution the chance to escape and maybe even have a fan blowing to lead air out.

HVAC

Wait… isn’t our HVAC unit supposed to clean our indoor air quality? Among other things, yes that’s the purpose of your HVAC unit. But just like any piece of technology, improper management of your HVAC unit can result in distributing more pollutants than it reduces. For instance, reusing air filters (especially trying to wash and reuse air filters) creates a breeding platform for pollutants to grow and spread. Punctures in your air ducts can create a place for pollutants to enter and/or escape, avoiding all filtering initiatives.

The Solution? If you’re looking for how to clean the air in your home, you need to engage in regular HVAC maintenance and cleaning. Here are ways to maintain your HVAC unit for summer and poor Phoenix air quality. One key thing to note is that your air filters are going to be the main source of scrubbing and cleaning in your HVAC system. When you opt to replace them, make sure to invest in HEPA as they are better able to catch smaller pollutants regular filters can’t otherwise get.

Increase Ventilation

In addition to your home ventilation, consider spot ventilations — which include localized exhaust fans to spout out poor air quality at their source. A lot of spot ventilations are centered around the kitchen area and bathrooms (as they tend to be more… pungent than other rooms in your room). Check to see if they are already part of your home. If not, see if they would be a good addition to your home.

Additionally, consider cracking open the windows when you can. Arizona does hit record high temperatures seemingly every year but at night (on a cool night) check to see if opening a window is an option. Even blowign a fan outwards with a slightly cracked window can do your home some good — not everyday per se but every once in a while.

Invest in House Plants

Plants breathe by inhaling CO2 and emitting H20. Okay, so maybe they don’t breathe the same we do, but that’s the main idea. There are a number of houseplants that are ideal for removing pollutants such as the dracaena, spider plant, and even bamboo palms, you can’t go wrong when it comes to buying a house plant.

Any Questions?

If your indoor air quality is still not what you’d like it to be — or if you feel something off about your indoor air quality, feel free to reach out to Donley! We fight comfort disasters before they arrive!