The short answer is extremely. The long answer entails explanations about things like the overall breathability in your home, what kinds of pollutants could be inside, the health risks of unclean air, and even how easily you can sell your home when the time comes. We’re generally aware of the importance of the air quality outside, and most people try not to pollute it too much for fear of choking on smog when they leave the house. However, your indoor environment is just as important, if not more so if you’re a person who rarely leaves the house. This is a situation we all find ourselves in thanks to current COVID guidelines.
Here are just a few reasons why it’s important to maintain good indoor air quality and some things you can do if you find that yours is lacking.
Breathability
Who wants to have breathing troubles anywhere, let alone their own home? It’s possible that you could have poor indoor air without even knowing it. If you find that you commonly cough inside, your air may be tainted with contaminants like dust, pollen, or other allergens. Such things can make it difficult to breathe indoors. They can build up from various factors such as not cleaning out your air filter, tracking pollen inside, or even your HVAC system pulling in contaminants from the outside.
Professional HVAC installation and maintenance are crucial for the maximum breathability to your indoor environment. Poor ventilation helps contaminants build-up, and high temperatures and humidity contribute greatly as well. This means that you should be particularly careful during the summer months to ensure that your air conditioning unit is working properly, and you may even want to invest in a dehumidifier to combat mold and moisture-related contaminants.
Health Issues
Having poor indoor air quality doesn’t just make it harder to breathe; it creates plenty of health risks as well. The pollution of outside air can have long-term health consequences as drastic as the lungs’ rapid aging and an increased risk for lung cancer. There are also many health implications of poor indoor air, and hidden pollutants are all over.
One of the more surprising culprits of indoor pollution is the toaster, which emits a high volume of harmful particles every time it’s in use. Cleaning supplies, which are meant to help remove contaminants, can also negatively affect indoor air quality. Even painting the wall, a new color can have adverse effects. Naturally, things like tobacco smoke only exacerbate the situation even further.
Health effects of poor indoor air include frequent headaches, nausea, respiratory infections, higher susceptibility to viruses, dizziness, irritation of asthma, and more. If you’re looking for ways to purify your air beyond making sure your systems are in working order (be sure the regularly check your carbon monoxide alarm as well), you can be more judicious about your indoor activities and purchase some indoor plants to help clear the air of carbon dioxide and provide more oxygen.
House Selling
Naturally, having unfriendly odors in your home is one of the easiest ways to chase away buyers. Sellers need to be aware of. However, that air quality isn’t just about odors, and some prospective buyers may be able to tell when the air is polluted. Maintaining pure indoor air is one of the best ways to speed up the process of selling your home since it removes any complaints about air, and it’s likely to improve the interior design of your home on top of that.
For example, a home with greenery is often more attractive to buyers, and your real estate agent will thank you for embracing it. If you focus on giving your vents enough space and removing dust and other contaminants from the air, your house will naturally become tidier as well.
Your home’s air quality is crucial to your overall enjoyment of the home, and it continues to be important even after you decide to move out as well.