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Helping Clients Enhance Their Property’s Air Quality
Air Design Concept, Inc. helps homeowners and professionals install HVAC systems that will improve the indoor air quality of their home or business. On this page, we’ll highlight the different factors that affect air quality and what you could do to improve it.
Pollutant Sources
There are many sources of indoor air pollution in any home. These include:
The relative importance of any single source depends on how much of a given pollutant it emits and how hazardous those emissions are. In some cases, factors such as how old the source is and whether it is properly maintained are significant. For example, an improperly adjusted gas stove can emit significantly more carbon monoxide than one that is properly adjusted.
Some sources such as building materials, furnishings, and household products like air fresheners release pollutants more or less continuously. Other sources related to activities carried out in the home release pollutants intermittently. These include:
High pollutant concentrations can remain in the air for long periods after some of these activities.
Amount of Ventilation
If too little outdoor air enters a home, pollutants can accumulate to levels that can pose health and comfort problems. Unless they are built with special mechanical means of ventilation, homes that are designed to minimize the leaking of outdoor air into it may have higher pollutant levels.
However, because some weather conditions can drastically reduce the amount of outdoor air that enters a home, pollutants can build up even in homes that are normally considered "leaky."
How Does Outdoor Air Enter a House?
Outdoor air enters and leaves a house by infiltration, natural ventilation, and mechanical ventilation. In infiltration, outdoor air flows into the house through openings, joints, floors, ceilings, as well as around windows and doors. While In natural ventilation, air moves through opened windows and doors. Air movement associated with both of these is caused by air temperature differences between indoors and outdoors and by the wind.
Finally, there are several mechanical ventilation devices. These range from outdoor-vented fans that intermittently remove air from a single room to air handling systems that use fans and ductwork to continuously remove indoor air.
The rate at which outdoor air replaces indoor air is described as the air exchange rate. When there is little infiltration, natural ventilation, or mechanical ventilation, the air exchange rate is low and pollutant levels can increase.
What If You Live in an Apartment?
Apartments can have the same indoor air problems as single-family homes because many of the pollution sources are similar. Indoor air problems similar to those in offices are caused by sources such as contaminated ventilation systems, improperly placed outdoor air intakes, or maintenance activities.
Solutions to air quality problems in apartments, as in homes and offices, involve the following:
Often, a resident can take the appropriate action to improve the indoor air quality by removing a source, altering an activity, or opening a window. In other cases, however, only the building owner or manager is in a position to remedy the problem.
Get in Touch
For questions or concerns about any of our services, feel free to contact our team today. We look forward to hearing from you.