Updated: September 12, 2024

Maintaining the air quality inside your home is a must to ensure a healthy and comfortable household. Poor air quality can lead to various health issues, such as allergic reactions, asthma, and sleeping difficulties. Some ailments may also be difficult to diagnose as related to your indoor air quality.

Assessing your indoor air quality and improving it are crucial for having a happy and healthy lifestyle. By following a few standard practices, homeowners can easily maintain a safe and comfortable standard of indoor air quality.

In this article, we explore various ways of assessing, improving, and maintaining healthy air quality inside your home.

Table of Contents

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6 Common Sources of Indoor Air Pollution

Air pollution inside the home degrades indoor air quality over time. Here are the most common sources that lead to indoor air pollution.

  1. Stoves & Fireplaces
  2. Chemical Products
  3. Cleaning Products
  4. Radon
  5. Mold & Mildew
  6. Outdoor Pollutants

 

1. Stoves & Fireplaces

Many homeowners use wooden stoves, fireplaces, and furnaces in their homes. These stoves and fireplaces are a common source of indoor air pollution. The reason behind this is that these stoves emit harmful gases into surrounding areas.

These harmful gases include, but are not limited to carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide. Exposure to these harmful gases degrades the air quality, and can result in several health issues including headaches and nausea.

 

2. Chemical Products

One of the most common causes behind air pollution in a home is the harmful organic compounds that chemical products emit. Wall paints and furniture finishes are two prevalent household products that often release pollutants and harmful chemicals. Inhaling these chemical pollutants impacts the immune system and can also lead to coughing, sleeping difficulties, and many more health issues.

 

3. Cleaning Products

Many homeowners rely on chemical cleaning products to keep their homes shiny and clean. However, these products often contain harmful ingredients, such as ammonia and bleach. When these products are used, the residents are exposed to these chemicals, which negatively impacts the air quality of the home.

 

4. Radon

Radon is one of the most harmful air pollution sources inside a house. It is a radioactive gas that typically enters the home from the cracks in the main foundation of the property. The reason why radon is usually considered to be the most dangerous is that it can lead to lung cancer.

Radon gas seeping through cracks of home foundation

 

5. Mold & Mildew

Growth of mold and mildew typically occurs from leaks, excess humidity, and water damage. The mildew particles or mold spores mix with the air in the home and contribute to poor air quality. This poor air quality results in health problems such as allergies, asthma, and nausea.

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6. Outdoor Pollutants

Dust, dirt, and debris can make their way inside your home through a wide range of paths, such as open windows, HVAC system vents, shoes, clothing, plants, and pets. HVAC systems can then distribute these pollutants with circulating air, thus reducing the air quality of the home. As a result, these air pollutants can have a severe impact on your health.

Messy home entrance area

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5 Reliable Ways to Assess Your Indoor Air Quality

Keeping a close eye on the air quality inside your home will help you to prevent and correct health issues. Here are five proven ways of assessing the quality of your indoor air.

  1. Self-Assessment Tests
  2. Air Quality Monitors
  3. Manual Inspections
  4. Radon Test Kits
  5. Professional Inspections

 

1. Self-Assessment Tests

Before making any decisions — such as hiring a contractor or buying any new air quality products — we recommend taking an initial self-assessment survey of your home’s current air quality state. This process can be conveniently conducted with a free online indoor air quality quiz.

Indoor air quality assessment survey question by That HVAC Guy

A walk-through survey of this kind can provide the following preliminary benefits:

  • Obtain a general understanding of how healthy or unhealthy your home may be in terms of indoor air quality
  • Identify potential sources of pollution, such as mold, VOCs, and allergens
  • Discover any questions or topics where you need a better understanding
  • Prioritize likely issues to address first with recommended options
  • Confirm components that are likely non-issues or low priorities

 

2. Air Quality Monitors

One of the best practices for assessing the indoor air quality of a home is to rely on air quality monitors. The purpose of these monitors or detectors is to check the levels or presence of harmful particles and pollutants in the air. Depending on the available features, a few devices can also detect temperature and humidity.

Airthings Indoor Air Quality Monitors - diagram of where to put monitors inside a large home

 

3. Manual Inspections

Manual inspections are a go-to method for quickly identifying obvious sources of air pollution in the home. Typically, this type of assessment method works well for detecting outdoor pollutants, growth of mold and mildew, water leaks, water damage, and more. You need to keep an eye on the air ducts, vents, and HVAC filters for the presence of contaminants such as dirt, dust, pet hair, and so on. Also look around the house for signs of damage caused by water and mold.

 

4. Radon Test Kits

Radon is one of the most harmful radioactive gases that degrades the air quality of the home. The radon test kits help to identify the presence of radon inside the home. These kits are typically available from hardware stores and websites. The device is placed in a certain position in the house for a few days or weeks and then analyzed in a laboratory for proper results.

 

5. Professional Inspections

Last, but not least, you can rely on an inspection conducted by HVAC experts and professionals. HVAC professionals have the proper tools to conduct a thorough air quality inspection. The experts can also guide you through options of further improving your indoor air quality to ensure better living conditions.

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6 Effective Ways to Improve Your Indoor Air Quality

Improving the air quality inside the house is crucial for a healthy living environment. Here are six easy ways to begin improving the air quality of your home without incurring significant expense.

  1. Ensure Proper Ventilation
  2. Clean the House Regularly
  3. Rely on Natural Products
  4. Remove Harmful Pollution Sources
  5. Refrain from Smoking Indoors
  6. Ensure Regular HVAC Maintenance

 

Ensure Proper Ventilation

Ensuring proper ventilation is one of the easiest ways of increasing the air quality in a home. Ventilation helps to get rid of several pollutants that accumulate inside the home and worsen the air quality. In order to ensure proper ventilation indoors, make sure to open the doors and windows of the house during the day. Allow fresh sunlight and air into the house for several hours a day.

Sunny open window with drapes blowing from a breeze

You can also rely on exhaust fans in the kitchen or bathroom to reduce air pollution. Not only that, you should also rely on air purifiers with advanced filters to capture contaminants.

 

Clean the House Regularly

Cleaning the house properly on a regular basis will not only make the home beautiful and appealing, but it will also improve the air quality. This cleaning will help to remove the dust, debris, pet dander, and so on, accumulated in the home. As a result, the appliances and surfaces will remain clean and reduce the amount of indoor air pollution.

 

Rely On Natural Products

Chemicals in cleaning products are harmful if exposed consistently for extended periods of time. However, there are several cleaning products available in the market that include safe natural ingredients. These ingredients are not known to cause any health problems and help to make your indoor air quality better.

 

Remove Harmful Pollution Sources

While wood stoves and fireplaces can increase the aesthetic of a home, they can also, unfortunately, contribute to poor air quality when in use. To avoid this, remove or reduce the usage of harmful pollution sources from the house. These include fireplaces, furnaces, and candles.

 

Refrain from Smoking Indoors

Smoking inside the home is a typical cause of poor air quality. Smoke particles mix with the indoor air and can lead to issues such as coughing, nausea, and lightheadedness. Make sure that you avoid smoking inside the home for the betterment of your loved ones.

 

Ensure Regular HVAC Maintenance

Last, but not least, maintaining your HVAC systems is a great way of ensuring better air quality. Regularly replacing air filters and cleaning vents and ducts, will ensure a well-functioning HVAC system. In turn your system will help to ensure proper airflow and improved air quality.

Woman cleaning an HVAC air vent with cleaning gloves.

 

Closing Thoughts

Maintaining good indoor air quality is necessary for a healthy life and the living condition of your loved ones. The first step towards improving the air quality of your home is to identify the sources of pollutants and assess the condition inside the house. With the help of professionals, radon test kits, and air quality monitors, you can easily assess the condition of your indoor air.

Be sure to take proper actions after assessing the air quality indoors. Always consider relying on reputable professional help when unable to identify or understand how to prevent the air quality from worsening.

 

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