Our homes are full of pollutants from dust, cooking, smoke, chemicals from hardwood and paint, cleaning products, personal hygiene products, exhaust, mold, pet dander, smoke and more. Modern houses might do a great job of keeping certain pollutants out of the house but they also keep many of these pollutants inside, too.
Poor home air quality levels often result from ignoring basic tasks like cleaning and maintaining proper humidity levels along with overuse of chemicals and lack of airflow. Choosing the highest rated furnace air filter and regular cleaning are the cheapest ways to purify the air in your home.
How do I purify the air in my home?
The biggest contributors to poor home air quality are often things we can completely avoid, at least reduce by dealing with it, or perhaps replace with something less polluting. The things we need to concern ourselves with includes:
- Dust and debris
- Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from paint, hardwood floors, chemicals
- Cooking fumes
- Chemicals from deodorants and other hygiene products
- Fireplaces and chimneys
- Excessive moisture and humidity
- Mold and mildew
- Dry air and lack of moisture
- Pet fur and dander
- Outdoor air pollution that makes its way inside the home
- Exhaust fumes from the garage
- Cigarette smoke
- and more.
While some of these aspects of air quality can’t be completely avoided, some can be reduced and we can further purify the air in our home through a series of relatively easy to do and cost effective options that will benefit us for the long term.
Cost effective ways to improve home air quality
Upgrade your furnace filter
Upgrade your air furnace filter to one with a higher MERV rating, the maximum one allowed by your furnace manufacturer and replace it regularly, typically every 3 months. It should be done anyways but this is one of the easier and cheaper ways to clean your air. If you have allergies, you may spend a bit more on a higher MERV-rated filter that filters out certain allergens that you have trouble with.
If you have allergies or know that you could benefit from cleaner air – you’re asthmatic – stay away from washable, reusable filters as they tend to be on the lower MERV rating scale. At least with disposable ones you use them and start fresh again every 3 months.
Use your kitchen fan
Food odors and contaminants from cooking add up. Don’t believe me? Take a peak under your kitchen range if you’ve never washed the filter and see how dirty it is. This is especially true if you frequently cook greasy or spicy foods. Your furnace air filter will eventually take out some of the contaminants but using your range fan each time you cook helps to get rid of the smell and contaminants at the source.
Research
has shown that high temperature cooking often causes us to exceed the desired maximum levels of exposure to various particles as well as nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, and carbon monoxide among other contaminants.
Consider opening your kitchen window when cooking and when done, close off the kitchen door if you have one to avoid spreading the odor throughout the house.
Keep your house clean
Vacuum your home once per week at least, more if necessary. Robot vacuums can be run around the house on a schedule or as needed so you don’t have to do the work yourself. Don’t forget to vacuum sofas and in between cushions. Wash blankets, cushions and drapes which are often overlooked.
This is even more important if you have pets like a cart or dog. The fur and dander that they produce eventually makes its way into the air filter but can remain on the furniture, floor and carpets and be moved around in the air, aggravating allergies.
Regularly clean and replace your vacuum cleaner filter(s) too as they get very dirty quickly.
Use a quality air purifier
A air purifier with HEPA filter (High Efficiency Particulate Filter) is one that pulls contaminants out of the air and stores them to be removed when you replace or clean the filter. Studies have shown that a quality HEPA filter may reduce contaminants in the house by 30% – 50% in some cases.
Consider a HEPA air purifier(s) in any room you spend significant time in such as the bedroom and living room.
Measure your indoor humidity
Buy an indoor thermometer that measures humidity. Indoor humidity is important to keep in check both at the high end and low end. If humidity is too low, the air will be dry and hard on your throat and skin. If it’s too high the air will be too moist which leads to mold and mildew.
Try to keep humidity between 40% – 60% and a room temperature of 18° C – 22° C (64° F – 72° F) to keep things comfortable.
Get a dehumidifier for the summer
If you live in an area that gets humid and sticky during the summer, you probably also know what it’s like to go to your basement in the hottest months and feel the humidity. A dehumidifier will help to suck excess moisture out of the air so you can manually remove it from your home. Basements are typically the areas you’ll notice the humidity the most.
You can help to keep your house temperature down and save on your AC bills by closing drapes or shades during the hottest hours of the day to keep the home cool which can also keep humidity down. Keep windows and doors shut as much as possible, too.
Get a humidifier for the winter
As hot and sticky your summer can get, you might conversely find that your winters get very dry. If you have a forced air system, you will probably find in the coldest winter months when the furnace runs most frequently that the air becomes very dry. If you find yourself waking up with a dry, sore throat or are getting frequent nose bleeds, your air is probably too dry. Again, your home humidity monitor will help keep an eye on this but don’t be surprised if humidity plummets in the middle of winter.
If you have a humidifier attached to your furnace double check it once per week to ensure it is working. In my experience, water lines can get clogged, the filter can get blocked and they quickly stop working even if you think they are operating. The solenoid often wears out and requires you to replace the entire system.
Make sure that your humidifier is cleaned and that the filter is replaced as needed particularly if you have hard water in the home.
Have your ducts cleaned
Consider having your air ducts cleaned if you experience any of the factors outlined in my article called Is Duct Cleaning Necessary? If you have never had your ducts cleaned and live in an older house, it might make sense. If you’ve had construction done within the home – work involving wood being cut, hardwood floors added, drywall installed – it may have created significant dust that is in the ducts and should be cleaned out.
Don’t smoke
If you smoke, go outside the house to avoid leaving the smoke in the home. Smoke fumes are one of the contaminants that prematurely wear out furnace filters.
Where you live affects air quality
Where you live can also heavily impact your air quality.
Some areas have more pollution and worse air quality than others. If you live in a construction zone, near a highway, in a heavily polluted city, etc these factors all help to make air worse.
Higher temperatures can also increase the reaction of chemicals in the air which is why you often hear about smog alerts on very hot days.
How to manually add humidity to your home
If you don’t have a humidifier, you can add moisture to your air by:
- Turning down the furnace and putting warmer clothes on.
- Only heating rooms in the house you’re using and shutting doors and closing off vents on rooms not in use. It’ll lower your heating bill too.
- Not running the bathroom fan when you shower and leaving the door open to let the steam out.
- Using a steamer to add humidity.
- Boil water on your kettle to make tea, etc.
- Let your clothes air dry rather than using the dryer.
- Cooking on your stovetop with water, steaming vegetables and other foods, etc.
- If you have a bath, leave the hot water in until it has cooled off rather than draining it. Don’t do this if you have small children in the house though as it can be a drowning hazard.
Note: Opening your windows in winter to let cold air inside generally reduces humidity further rather than raising it.
Considerations for maintaining high air quality inside the home
There are a number of things to think about in terms of your usage of various items in your home that may make your life easier but can also add contaminants to the air.
Self-cleaning oven
If you have a self-cleaning oven, remember that it heats and effectively burns food particles at a very high temperature. This creates contaminants that can enter your kitchen and thus the air you breathe. Consider only using this option when necessary and when you’re the only person in the house. Close your kitchen door if you have one and open the kitchen window to let air in.
During the cleaning phase, gas-powered self-cleaning ovens and oven cleaning in electric stoves produce by far the highest level of pollutant levels. Source: California Environmental Protection Agency.
Use your microwave
Microwave foods when possible as the microwave is a contained unit that can be quickly opened and closed and tends not to produce fumes and odors like regularly cooking does. While many foods can’t be cooked in a microwave and really need to be cooked in the oven to taste right – fries, frozen pizza and meat to name but three – many foods can be reheated in microwaves quickly and easily the next day.
The FDA additionally suggests using your microwave when possible since they tend to cook foods quicker and don’t reduce the nutritional value of foods. They also tend to be more energy efficient than regular cooking.
Don’t overcook foods
Don’t put food in the oven or stove and then walk away and forget about it. Use your timers and keep an eye on food being cooked! Once it starts to burn, you’re releasing contaminants into the air that you breathe. Clean up spills and wipe burners as soon as possible.
What are the symptoms of poor air quality?
People can react to poor air quality in different ways. You generally feel the effects of poor air quality within the home when you experience some of the following symptoms:
Personal symptoms
- Eye, nose and throat irritation.
- Sinus congestion.
- Headaches, dizziness or fatigue.
- Difficulty breathing and shortness of breath especially if you are asthmatic.
- Dry, scratchy throat especially when you wake up.
- Frequent nose bleeds particularly in winter which is also a common symptom of low humidity.
Symptoms within the home
- Mold and mildew growth as well as dampness particularly in bathrooms and around window sills.
- Piles of dust and debris near air return vents.
- Unexplained odors within the house.
- None of the symptoms you experience occur when you are away from home for an extended time.
Longer term health effects of consistently poor air quality can include respiratory problems, heart disease, cancer and other serious illnesses. One of the difficulties with poor air quality is determining exactly how much exposure is needed to cause these longer term issues. Your best bet is to fix the problem as soon as possible.
How do I purify the air in my house in the winter?
In the winter you generally want to keep your doors and windows closed to retain the heat especially if you live in a winter environment and have your furnace or fireplace running.
Having said that you will undoubtedly open the door of your house every so often and certainly some fresh air will come in. But over time your house will get kind of stuffy in winter with the all the windows and doors closed especially if you have modern windows and doors which tend to be energy efficient and fairly airtight.
If you have a basement window you can open for a few minutes or even a window upstairs to let air in is not a bad idea. Make sure you run bathroom fans when showering to reduce the steam and make crack a window open at the same to let some air in.
Balance this with what we mentioned above though: If you have low humidity, letting cold air in and running your bathroom fan can further lower humidity.
If you live in a particularly dry area and don’t get much humidity some steam from the shower can help to moisten the air a bit so you might want to skip using the bathroom fan full stop.
Improving the air in your house with plants
I’ve read plenty of articles online listing the best plants for improving house air quality and have to admit I was immediately skeptical. I’ve bought my share of things in life that were purported to work but didn’t.
I’ve bought smelling candles only to realize after lighting them that they have only have a nice smell when they’re inside the package and aren’t strong enough to make a difference in a large room. Same goes with some cheap plug in air refreshers and things of that nature.
Can a plant(s) actually be placed in a room of your house to make a positive difference in the air quality?
In a word, no. The research shows that house plants don’t produce tangible benefits in terms of purifying the air inside your house particularly in the area of indoor ozone removal. They just don’t work for that purpose.
In fact, indoor live plants may have the opposite effect and not a healthy one: They can attract mold growth which is problematic if you have allergies.
If you’re looking to improve air quality and purify the air in your home, stick with the suggestions above.