Tips to Improve Indoor Air Quality

Between school, work and home, most of us spend the majority of our days indoors. Unfortunately, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that household air can contain two to five times the amount of pollutants found in outdoor air. Poor indoor air quality (IAQ) can increase your risk of many health concerns, including respiratory issues, allergies, asthma, headaches and other illnesses.

Purifying and enhancing indoor air quality can help improve the overall health of your home, and your HVAC system plays an important role.

Help your family breath easier with these tips to improve HVAC indoor air quality:

Stop dust, dirt and other irritants from entering your home. Simple changes, such as removing your shoes when entering the home and maintaining a weekly dusting schedule, can have a major impact on airborne particle levels. Choosing better air filters also helps. Return air filters have come a long way since the days of the typical 1" filter. 4" filters are designed to last longer and remove smaller particles from the air. This means less maintenance and better air quality at the same time. Not only does this benefit your family's well-being, it also helps to protect the system by keeping critical components clean and operating efficiently.

Tightly sealed homes help keep heat and cold out, but a lack of fresh air can cause irritants and pollutants to build up in your home. Introducing fresh air into your home – and releasing stale, contaminated air – is an excellent way to improve household air quality. However, opening windows and doors may not always be an option, especially when outdoor conditions are particularly warm or cold. Integrating a ventilator in your home comfort system ensures a source of fresh air year-round and a path to remove stale air from your home. Plus, adding a ventilator can improve the efficiency of your HVAC system by recovering warm or cool exhaust air to heat or cool your home.

The temperature and resulting comfort level in your home is directly affected by the amount of humidity in the air. Higher humidity levels can cause a room to feel too hot, and humidity levels that are too low can make a room feel too cool. Plus, an imbalance in humidity provides an ideal environment for irritants, including mold, bacteria and viruses to grow and travel throughout your home. Humidifiers and dehumidifers built into your HVAC system provide a quiet, continuous adjustment of indoor humidity levels. Maintaining optimal humidity levels not only improves the health of your home, but also provides increased comfort to help reduce energy costs.

Even the tidiest home can house dirty air. Whole-home air purification can seamlessly integrate with your HVAC system to remove up to 98% of irritating airborne particles, including pollen, pet dander, dust, mold, bacteria and some viruses. The results can dramatically improve indoor air quality and help alleviate allergy and asthma triggers. This is an ideal add-on product for pet owners and those who suffer from seasonal allergies.  

The indoor coil of an HVAC system is the part that keeps you cool in the summer. Due to condensation in this area, it can also be a breeding ground for mold and bacteria. Ultraviolet germicidal lights can be installed in the ductwork of your system to destroy the DNA of mold and bacteria. Keeping this area clean also improves the efficiency of the system, saving you money while making your air more healthy.

Improving  indoor air quality directly affects the health and comfort of your home. Integrating IAQ products into your household HVAC system provides continuous improvements throughout your entire home, as opposed to stand-alone units that only impact a single room. Plus, many IAQ products improve the efficiency of your HVAC system, contributing to lower energy bills.

• Energy or heat recovery ventilator
• Humidifier
• Dehumidifier
• Germicidal UVC Lights
• Air cleaner

Further enhance the performance of these IAQ products with the YORK® Affinity™ Hx™3 Touch-screen Thermostat. Smart home integrations include preselected settings and advanced monitoring capabilities specifically designed to optimize indoor air quality.

Learn more about indoor air quality products and customize a YORK® home comfort system to meet the needs of your family and home. Contact a YORK® dealer using our Dealer Locator for more details.

Reduced irritants including pollen, pet dander, mold, bacteria and viruses

Whole-house improvements versus stand-alone units that only affect a single room

Improved system efficiency and lowered energy costs