Indoor Air Quality Tips for Winter

03/22/24

The air outside and inside your home can get very dry, especially during our cold winters. Cool air struggles to hold onto humidity. Heating systems can remove what little humidity is in the air, causing your home’s air to feel uncomfortably dry.

When your home’s air dries out, you can see an increase in dust and allergens in the air, leading to sneezing and sometimes serious respiratory issues. It’s vital to keep your home’s air humid enough to maintain everyone’s health and comfort.

Below, we’ll discuss a variety of ways to improve your indoor air quality during the winter.

DIY Steps To Boost Indoor Air Quality

You can do a lot on your own to improve your indoor air quality. Consider these tips to clean your air and potentially see great improvements in your air quality and comfort:

• Dust & vacuum regularly: Even when you don’t see much dust in the air, it’s likely around. Vacuuming regularly can remove dust from the area.
• Use your bathroom & kitchen exhaust fans to remove toxins: Exhaust fans are designed to pull debris out of the air, so be sure to use them whenever you cook or clean.
• Limit the use of wood fires & candles: Burning any materials in your home can add extra debris to the air, leading to lower air quality. Switch to a gas fireplace or only burn a single candle instead of many.
• Include house plants with your decor: Plants naturally consume microbes in the air and can help clean the air around you.
• Change your HVAC filters regularly & consider a HEPA filter: New air filters can help clean the air quickly. HEPA filters grab onto much smaller microbes and can improve the air quality even more.

Implementing even a few of these techniques could greatly reduce the amount of dust and allergens in your air. Apply any or all of these and see if your air quality improves.

Additional Steps To Improve Your Air Quality

If you’ve tried the above recommendations and you’re still dealing with allergies and respiratory stress, consider these tips:

• Install a whole-home humidifier: These systems add humidity throughout your entire home and can keep levels at a comfortable range of 35% to 50%.
• Add small humidifiers to problem areas: If certain rooms struggle to stay humid, a room-sized humidifier could do the trick.
• Keep your humidifier(s) clean: Over time, humidifiers can develop mold and cause more harm than good. Regular cleaning can prevent this.
• Clean your air ducts with help from an HVAC team: Your air ducts could be collecting dust and delivering it through your vents. A professional cleaning could remove the debris.

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