How to Test Air Quality in Your Home

Indoor air quality is more important to your health, and the health of your family, than you may realize. Short-term exposure to poor indoor air quality can have negative effects on the health of otherwise hardy individuals. Those who suffer from health conditions, like allergies, asthma, or some immune disorders, may experience more severe symptoms from early exposure. Long-term exposure, though, can have more devastating effects on health and may even cause death.

How do You Know if the Air Quality in Your Home is Bad?
Air quality isn’t something you can see. It doesn’t come with an expiration date. Most people aren’t attuned to the particulates lingering in the air inside your home. That doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to determine if the air in your home is bad or not.

But first, consider looking for signs or symptoms that the air inside your home might not be the best for your family. These symptoms include things like:

Lingering respiratory illnesses
Frequent asthma attacks
Allergy symptoms outside of typical allergy seasons
Itchy, dry eyes, skin, throat, etc.
Frequent headaches
Excessive fatigue
Dizziness

These symptoms are also signs of allergies, colds, and even the flu. Which is why they are often dismissed or overlooked and attributed to anything other than the exposure to poor air quality they happen to be.

However, if they seem to be longer lasting than the average cold or flu or constantly recurring themes among family members, perhaps it’s time to suspect that the air quality inside your home might be public enemy number one.

Home Testing Kits
Once upon a time, there weren’t many options available to those who suspected poor indoor air quality. Today, there are home testing kits, like the test kits available from Home Air Check. They have two tests, one test for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and the other tests for formaldehyde (commonly found in homes that are new or newly remodeled). The tests aren’t exactly inexpensive and only check for very specific air quality issues, however.

Whole House Fans
Rather than, or in addition to, testing the air quality inside your home, you could take action that would greatly improve the air quality for the better by installing and using a whole house fan in your home.

Whole house fans draw fresh, clean air into your home through open windows on the home’s lower level. At the same time, they vent the toxic air out of your home through rooftop vents, leaving behind breathable air that is healthier for everyone who calls your house home.

Give us a call today at 1-888-229-5757 to learn more about the air quality benefits of a whole house fan in your home.