quality Archives - Easco Air Conditioning and Heating

Protect Air Quality During the Holidays

Tips to Keep the Air Clean Inside the Home

The holidays are coming, and everything has to be perfect. The Thanksgiving turkey has to be a beautiful golden brown, and the home has to be ready to receive holiday guests. With all preparations in place, the holiday can be a huge success.

One of the aspects of a clean home that is often overlooked is the indoor air quality. With guests coming over for the holidays, the air has to be clean to keep them safe from lung problems, and the home must be dust-free and clean. But how is one supposed to go about cleaning up the air in the home? Here is a quick guide to help owners finish their homes just in time for guests to arrive.

Install New Air Filters

Air filters are an important part of home hygiene. Although they are primarily intended to protect heating and cooling machinery, they also greatly reduce dust in the home. Controlling dust is essential to keeping surfaces clean and presentable for guests. To start, always install new air filters every three months. This ensures that clean air filters are always in service to remove the maximum amount of dust.

In addition to keeping AC equipment running properly and reducing dust in the home, fresh air filters also help protect people from lung problems during flu season. Some of the issues that cleaner air can help alleviate are:

Allergies
Asthma
COPD
Chronic sinus infections
Dry cough
Nasal irritation

Schedule Evaporator Coil Cleaning

The answer for those who have ever wondered how an air conditioner removes humidity from the air is the evaporator coil. During the summer, the evaporator coil is rapidly cooled by refrigerant. The moisture condenses and drains away as warm, humid air flows across it. While this process is natural, one of the consequences is that the combination of moisture and small dust particles that make it through the filter creates the perfect breeding ground for mold and pathogens.

To prevent this problem, have the evaporator coil cleaned once a year. Removing grime from the coil improves indoor air quality and allows the air conditioner to run more efficiently. Schedule spring and fall AC maintenance to ensure a professional does coil cleaning.

Have an Indoor Air Quality Assessment Done

There are all kinds of contaminants in indoor air that people don’t even realize are there. Some of the most common pollutants that are in every home are:

Dust and dust mites
VOCs
Volatilized cooking oils
Aerosols from cleaning agents
Bacteria
Mold
Poisonous gasses like carbon monoxide and radon

Improving indoor air quality can be done by treating specific contaminants. Having an expert perform an indoor air quality assessment can help owners develop a strategy to clean up their air. Find a local expert and do an indoor air assessment before the holidays so guests can enjoy their time in pure air.

About Easco Air Conditioning and Heating

Easco Air Conditioning and Heating offers comprehensive indoor air quality solutions. Their experts provide fast service and are available for emergencies. Call today for excellent HVAC service in Conroe, TX.

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Professional Tips for Improving Indoor Air Quality

Improve Indoor Air Quality for National Wellness Month

This August is National Wellness Month! Homeowners can improve their health and wellness by improving their home’s indoor air quality. Indoor air quality can have major health effects on the respiratory system. Regular HVAC maintenance and air purifiers are two ways homeowners can have cleaner air at home.

Air quality is measured by the number of air pollutants present, humidity, and other factors impacting human health. People with asthma, children, and the elderly are especially susceptible to poor indoor air quality effects. In this blog post, our HVAC experts discuss how poor air quality affects health and what homeowners can do about it.

Poor Air Quality Can Have Long-Term Health Effects

Too much or too little humidity in the air can make it difficult to breathe. Air conditioning tends to dry out the air by removing some moisture in the cooling process. During the summer, indoor air conditioning can irritate respiratory systems by drying out the air. Adding a humidifier can help to prevent the negative side effects of air conditioning.

Some of the health effects of indoor air quality can have long-term consequences for homeowners. Poor air quality can aggravate asthma symptoms and cause allergy attacks which could be life-threatening. Long-term exposure to air pollutants can damage the eyes, nose, throat, and lungs.

Examples of air pollutants include pollen, dust, dander, mold, and pet hair. The smaller the airborne particle is, the more damaging it is for human health. Small particles of contaminants are easily inhaled into the lungs, wreaking havoc on the body’s systems. Airborne contaminants can also include germs, bacteria, and viruses.

Chronic exposure to mold, asbestos and other airborne pollutants can result in heart disease, cancer, and respiratory illnesses. Improving indoor air quality at home can help homeowners to live longer, healthier lives.

Remove Indoor Air Pollutants with Air Filters

Almost all HVAC units use air filters to remove airborne pollutants from the air before it gets sucked into the air intake. Ventilation is an important part of having good indoor air quality. As the air ventilates through the system, the air filter catches particles of dust and hair to prevent them from recirculating.

It is recommended that homeowners change air filters every one to three months. Some air filters are better than others at filtering out minuscule particles of pollutants. Homeowners may consider investing in high-quality air filters to prevent allergies. Changing the air filter more often can also improve air quality.

Doing HVAC maintenance can help to promote good indoor air quality by preventing dust and other debris from being circulated in the air via the HVAC system. During maintenance appointments, a professional HVAC technician can assess the home’s indoor air quality and make recommendations for the homeowner.

Air Purifiers and Air Sanitizers

Homeowners can use portable air cleaners to improve their air quality beyond what the regular HVAC system is capable of with air filters. Air purifiers are portable filtration systems that remove particles of contaminants from the air that regular air filters may miss. The best air purifiers remove the tiniest airborne particles, including dust and pollen.

Air sanitizers are different from air purifiers in that they do not filter out particles of contaminants, but rather they use UV light to kill germs and bacteria in the air. During cold and flu season, air sanitizers are a powerful tool for stopping the spread of illness via the air. Air sanitizers can even kill viruses.

About Easco Air Conditioning and Heating

The experienced HVAC technicians at Easco Air Conditioning and Heating are proud to provide prompt and professional service at every appointment. Since 1982, they have delivered a high standard of service for all of their customers. Homeowners can rely on the Easco Air Conditioning and Heating team for fair and up-front pricing on all HVAC services. Call Easco Air Conditioning and Heating today to schedule an appointment for HVAC maintenance in Conroe, TX!

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The Best Ever Solutions to Maintain Air Quality at Home

Simple Tips for Improved Your Home’s Air Quality

There is no way to overestimate the importance of having clean air in the home. Indoor air quality can impact everyone in the home’s health in a variety of ways, causing things like frequent headaches, allergic reactions, worsening asthma, and fatigue. However, there are ways that homeowners can work to maintain air quality, which will be discussed today.

How Clean Floors Help Maintain Air Quality

When homeowners think about air quality in their homes, they tend to look up and not down. However, cleaning floors and how it is done at home plays an important part in the ability to consistently maintain air quality indoors.

A large part of this is the material the floors are made out of. Usually, these fall into one of two categories - carpet and non-carpet. Carpeted floors can make it harder to maintain air quality as they act as a trap for dirt, dust, and other allergens in the home.

While this impacts everyone, it is especially problematic for younger children who spend most of their day closest to the ground. Regular vacuuming using a HEPA filter can help control many of those issues.

In general, non-carpeted floors are a better option for air quality. Hardwood floors are the most common option. There are very few cons to hardwood from an air quality standpoint, but they do require regular maintenance as dirt and dust become far more visible. There are other non-hardwood options available as well, like laminate, tile, and vinyl.

To Maintain Air Quality In The Home, Open The Windows!

Ventilation also has an important part to play in good indoor air quality. Often, the easiest way to do this is by opening up the windows. Open windows encourage natural air circulation in the home, which benefits air quality in two ways.

Proper ventilation helps to maintain air quality by reducing the level of humidity in the home. High humidity levels can lead to the growth of mold, which is a major source of asthma and allergic health issues. The optimal level for a healthy home should be between 30 and 60%. Opening the windows is a natural way to maintain that balance.

Open windows also allow for the dissipation of indoor contaminants. Many homeowners don’t realize that these are a big deal while looking at how to maintain air quality. However, any chemicals used in the home, as well as those created by various appliances, can build up in the air and affect its quality.

In addition to helping maintain air quality by opening windows, other forms of ventilation should be used. This includes properly installed exterior exhaust fans for the kitchen and all bathrooms.

Find The Underlying Problems To Maintain Air Quality

Sometimes, no matter what steps homeowners take to properly ventilate and monitor their home for indoor air quality, issues continue to occur. In this case, there may be an underlying problem causing these issues.

One commonly overlooked yet simple way to maintain air quality is by regular replacement of air filters. A clean, properly installed air filter filters out the vast majority of contaminants in the home - things like dust, dirt, pet hair, smoke, etc.

If the air filter is too dirty, the contaminants that would normally be trapped inside will just continue to recirculate around the home. For a normal home, they should be changed every 3 months. Homes with pets or smokers should be changed every 2 months.

If problems persist, homeowners should look into a full air duct cleaning. In rare cases, mold may have built up in the ducts. This will need to be thoroughly cleaned by a professional, and used in combination with other attempts to lower the home’s humidity level.

About Easco Air Conditioning and Heating

Located in Willis, Texas, Easco Air Conditioning and Heating has been offering full, reliable, 24/7 service since 1982. Their staff provides multiple HVAC options including air conditioning, heating, and furnace installation, replacement, and repair as well as air duct cleaning and other indoor air quality services.