8 Signs of Poor Indoor Air Quality & How to Fix it

Indoor air quality can have a tremendous impact on your overall health and well-being. In some cases, as with mold, it can even affect the structure and safety of your home. From allergy symptoms to headaches, poor indoor air quality can affect you in many ways. Let’s take a look at some of the common signs of indoor air quality issues and what you can do to rectify the problem moving forward. Monkey Wrench Plumbing, Heating, Air & Electric offers a number of solutions.

Different Types of Indoor Contaminants

There are several different contaminants that can plague your indoor air quality. Particulate matter types will vary depending on your household. For example, you can experience high concentrations of things like pollen, dust, dust mites, mold spores, pet dander, and volatile organic compounds in your air at any time. Volatile organic compounds come from chemical-based products that off-gas over time. This includes new building materials like carpet, countertops, cupboards, and paint. VOCs also come from cleaning products, beauty products, air fresheners, detergents, drain cleaners, and more.

Increase in Allergy Symptoms

Allergy symptoms can include itchy skin, itchy eyes, a sore throat, sneezing, coughing, and more. People with allergies are often prone to asthma, which can be exacerbated by poor indoor air quality. If you notice that you’re experiencing an increase in these symptoms when you’re home for long periods of time, then your indoor air quality may be to blame. Your furnace has a filter that will remove some of the particulate matter from the air that circulates through your HVAC system. Make sure you’re replacing this filter once every 30 to 90 days for optimal results. However, this system isn’t efficient enough to remove everything.

Discovering Mold Growth

Mold is a major problem that needs to be dealt with immediately. Many homeowners don’t discover mold for a long period of time, which allows spores to spread and circulate in your indoor air. You may find mold in areas under sinks, around pipes, or in your basement. Areas with high levels of humidity are typically the most common location for mold growth.

Make sure that you work with a mold remediation company to have the mold properly removed. Otherwise, you could be spreading the mold or inhaling it, which can cause serious health effects.

Bad Odors

When you walk into your house, do you notice that your residence smells musty, moldy, or stale? This can indicate that there are contaminants affecting the quality of your air. If you often experience lingering odors caused by cooking, utilize an exhaust fan in your kitchen to remove smells while you’re preparing meals.

Dusty Surfaces at Home

Do you feel like you must constantly dust and clean the surfaces in your home because they get dirty frequently? Your HVAC system may be circulating a lot of particles in your air. You may need to change your filter in your furnace or air purifier if you have one. If you don’t have any kind of air filtration equipment, it could be time to consider investing in such a unit.

Other Physical Symptoms

Exposure to unhealthy indoor air doesn’t always result in allergy symptoms. There are plenty of other health issues you can experience from poor IAQ. For example, many people get frequent headaches when their indoor air quality isn’t ideal. You may also experience fatigue, nausea, dizziness, joint pain, or changes in your mood. Exposure to dangerous volatile organic compounds can lead to respiratory issues like shortness of breath and wheezing.

Pets Heading Outdoors

If you have small pets in your home, they may notice poor indoor air quality before you do. They may even be signaling that they want to go outside more frequently than normal. Watch for changes in their respiratory health or overall well-being to see if they may be affected by something in their environment.

Uncomfortable Indoor Air

If you have high levels of humidity in your house or stagnant air that’s affecting your indoor air quality, you may notice comfort issues. You may not feel like your indoor temperature is comfortable enough. You also may feel like your indoor environment is very oppressive or difficult to breathe in.

Fixing Indoor Air Quality Issues

There are several ways that you can improve the quality of air inside of your home. We mentioned replacing your furnace filter once every 30 to 90 days. To remove more particulate matter, we can install a whole-house air purification device onto your HVAC system. Using upgraded and enhanced filtration, you can remove as much as 99.97% of the particulate matter in your air. High-efficiency particulate air filters, or HEPA for short, do an excellent job of removing allergens and other contaminants.

If you’ve experienced mold issues, it’s imperative that you focus on always maintaining a healthy level of relative humidity in your house. It’s recommended that your indoor humidity level always remain between 30% and 50%. You can reduce humidity by having a whole-house dehumidifier installed on your HVAC system. Moisture will be removed from the air as the equipment cools the air and condenses the moisture that’s present. That moisture is quickly removed from your home through a dedicated drain line that we install. This is a beneficial piece of equipment that makes a tremendous impact on your indoor air quality. It doesn’t require much maintenance, either. We do recommend ensuring that the drain line is clear of any debris or mineral deposits to prevent ample flow.

Pay close attention to your energy bill. If you notice that you’re experiencing an increase in energy consumption, you may have several gaps and cracks around your house that are allowing outdoor air to come inside. This can be very contaminated air. Problems in the area can include pollution and wildfire smoke during certain times of the year. Your HVAC system may run more frequently because of an ongoing shift in interior temperature caused by these cracks and gaps. Go around your home and look for drafty areas that can be sealed up. Use materials like caulk, expanding spray foam, or weather stripping to fix these areas. You should see an almost immediate change in your energy consumption.

If you’d like to have an indoor air quality assessment performed in your Los Angeles, CA home, reach out to our team at Monkey Wrench Plumbing, Heating, Air & Electric. We can help you determine what kind of contaminants are in your indoor air. Then, we’ll use this information to make a recommendation for what type of equipment and improvements can be used to increase the quality of your indoor air. We also install, repair, and maintain different types of heating and cooling equipment. We even offer plumbing services like filtration equipment installation, water heater service, drain repair, sump pump repair, and much more. We can also handle electrical repair, panel expansion, wiring, generator installation, and surge protection. Contact Monkey Wrench Plumbing, Heating, Air & Electric in Los Angeles today to schedule an HVAC appointment.