8 Ways to Improve Your Indoor Air Quality

Nadir Chaudhry30/5/19

Your indoor air quality has a massive impact on your health, hygiene, and the state of your home. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, our indoor air is even more polluted than outside air. Two to five times more polluted to be exact. Polluted air in your home can trigger allergies and asthma, contribute to long term lung problems, and more. It is in your best interest to take the necessary steps to keep the air in your home clean and breathable.

Using high-quality furnace filters is essential to improving your indoor air quality — but only if you are diligent about changing your filter. Furnace filters effectively collect all the pesky allergens and materials in your home like dust and pet dander, but once these things start to build up it puts your filter at risk of a clog. Once your furnace filter gets clogged, it stops doing its job effectively and instead of keeping your air clean, it ends up being a hazard to you and your home. Changing your filter may seem like a hassle, but it doesn’t have to be.

When you shop with PureFilters, not only do you get your new filter sent to your door, but we offer hassle free returns if you change your mind or need to do an exchange. When you shop with us, we make it impossible to forget to change your filter. A few months after your first purchase, we will send you a reminder email to notify you that it’s probably time to replace your filter! We make repurchasing your furnace filter that much easier by including a one-click re-purchase button in our reminder email. Changing your filter has never been so easy; call us to learn more about our services that even include custom made filters! A functioning filter is essential to maintaining your indoor air quality but is most effective when combining it with additional practices! These are the best ways to improve your indoor air quality:

Change Your Filter Regularly

As mentioned, a furnace filter can help trap pesky particles that you shouldn’t be breathing in. It can trap things like pet dander and dust, but when the filter is not changed, these materials can clog it. For optimal results, you should be changing your filter consistently. How often you need to change your filter depends on its quality and additional factors like if you have pets in the house, smoke in the house etc. On average, however, your furnace filter should be changed every three months.

Find the Filter that Best Suits You

It’s important to find a filter that suits your home. When choosing your filter, there are a few factors to keep in mind:
  • Who lives in your home?
  • What are their habits?
  • Is your home carpeted?
  • Do you have pets at home?
These factors don’t only impact how often you should change your filter, but what kind of filter you need. There are a wide variety of filters out there made out of different materials and have varying capabilities. Furnace filters are rated using the MERV rating system (minimum efficiency reporting value). The system developed by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers ranks every filter on a scale of 1 to 16, with the highest being the most resistant and capable of keeping your air clean of particular materials.

Keep Allergens Out

Common indoor allergens include cockroach droppings, pet dander, mold and dust mites. There are a variety of ways that you can keep your indoor air clean of these allergens. For one, you can opt for a more resistant furnace filter that will trap these allergens. Of course, it’s always beneficial to use a combination of systems. Dusting often will also help keep allergens at bay. According to EverydayHealth, it’s best to use a damp cloth to dust surfaces. This way, the dust will be collected instead of scattered. Remember, the less clutter in your home the less dust will appear!

Clean Regularly

As mentioned, it’s best to combine your furnace filter with some personal cleaning practices.  Consistently doing your laundry and wiping down surfaces are both good habits that will benefit your air quality. By lessening the amount of dust and other particles by cleaning regularly, you can help your furnace filter do its job effectively. 

Keep the Door Open

Let the fresh air in! According to Health Canada, keeping your doors open — when it’s not smoggy outside — can help your air circulation. It’s important to remember that it’s not just doors to the outside that should be open. Keeping the doors in your home (bedroom doors, etc.) open also helps keep air circulating, and improves heat flow.

Indoor Plants

It’s heavily debated if indoor plants can actually help improve your home’s air quality. According to the David Suzuki Foundation, indoor plants are able to absorb pollutants like formaldehyde and benzene, which helps to keep them from becoming airborne. Additionally, rooms with these kinds of air filtering plants have 50 to 60 percent fewer microbes like bacteria and mold contaminating in the air. It’s important to note that it’s only real plants that serve this purpose — fake plants collect dust and have the opposite effect on your indoor quality.

Clean up After Your Pets                

There is no denying the love and comfort you can get from a pet, but it’s important to manage the hair and dander that they leave around a home. Pet dander — a combination of tiny flecks of skin and hair shed by pets — is one of the most common indoor allergens. According to WebMD, 90% of U.S. households have notable levels of cat and dog allergens.

Improve Your Air Quality with PureFilters

PureFilters is an online brand dedicated to keeping your indoor air clean. We make it easy for you to replace your old furnace filter with a shiny new one. We are a Canadian owned company with three distribution centres. Our locality helps make it possible for us to get your new filter to your doorstep within three to five days of you ordering it. Call us to learn more about our services that even include custom made filters. You can shop our selection of filters today to find the one that fits your furnace and best suits your home. We are here to make replacing and repurchasing your furnace filter as seamless as possible. Don’t forget that when you purchase a furnace filter from us, we will follow up with an email notifying you when it’s time to change your filter. You’ll be able to effortlessly re-purchase your filter thanks to our one-click re-purchase button in our reminder email. Get in touch with us today to learn how our furnace filters can help you improve your home environment.

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