How Your HVAC System Helps with Your Seasonal Allergies
Are you someone who suffers from seasonal allergies? Just know that you’re not alone. According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, allergies are one of the most common chronic diseases. Allergies cause people to experience inconvenient and frustrating symptoms, such as runny noses, watery eyes, and even painful headaches. While these symptoms may hit at any time of the year, they usually increase whenever more pollen is present in the air, like at the beginning of spring or summer. So if it’s about the pollen, why do we still experience allergy symptoms when we get inside and wash our faces? Do people have HVAC allergies?
Dust and pollen can easily find their way inside your home. When your allergies are at their worst, it may seem like there’s no place that offers refuge. But your home should be a place that gives you relief from your allergy symptoms. What can you do to help get rid of your allergies and enjoy the warmer seasons?
One of the primary reasons you could be experiencing allergy symptoms inside your home is your heating, ventilation, and air cooling (HVAC) unit. In this blog post, you’ll discover how your HVAC unit impacts your seasonal allergies and what you can do to avoid these insistent, frustrating symptoms.
Don’t be afraid to turn on your HVAC unit
You won’t want to keep your windows closed all summer. It’s important for fresh air to circulate throughout your house, even though dust and pollen may float in from outside. But when it gets too hot in your home, you’ll have to close your windows and turn on your HVAC unit.
It’s important to feel comfortable turning on your unit and to not be afraid of these “HVAC allergies” that may arise because of it. First, you’ll want to invest in the right HVAC system for you. The Vancouver, Washington, area is filled with professional HVAC specialists like Entek, who are happy to provide information for people looking to buy, service, and maintain HVAC systems and steer clear of allergies.
What is causing your HVAC allergies?
Unfortunately, in the spring and summer months, your air conditioner can contribute to more than just cooling your house down. Many people think that the air conditioner is just pumping cool air into the room, but it also moves the air around, potentially triggering more allergies.
These indoor air contaminants are one major thing that could be causing you to have seasonal allergy symptoms. Even if your house looks clean, there may still be contaminants in the air that aren’t visible to the human eye. Pet dander, mold, and pollen are a few of the most common contaminants in a home that get constantly pushed around by your HVAC unit. If you’re starting to realize that your allergies are returning or you know you don’t want this season to be the same as the last, you may want to take action.
Duct cleaning and sealing will improve your air quality
Even ductwork in new residential homes leaks. Leaks in ductwork can pull contaminants, such as dust, insulation, and rodent debris from attics and crawl spaces into the ductwork. It’s then dispersed throughout your home. But professional duct cleaning and AeroSeal duct sealing can clear out contaminants and keep them out.
And having your ducts cleaned and sealed won’t just improve the air quality in your home, it’ll increase the efficiency of your HVAC system and lower your energy use bills.
How your HVAC unit’s filter can cause your allergies to get worse
Keeping the filter in your HVAC unit clean and free of debris is a great way to continue keeping your allergy symptoms at bay. As the HVAC system grabs the pollutants from the air and catches them in the filter, the filter can start to clog. Thus, your filter is one of the most important components of the system.
Luckily, your filter is also the easiest to maintain. When you clean or change your filter and keep it well maintained, air can pass through it easily. When there are dust and debris on your unit’s filter, the filter can’t do its job. It can actually be the main cause of why you’re experiencing these HVAC allergies. With a dirty filter, the air that flows through the filter becomes contaminated, and the system will push that air throughout your home.
Additional solutions to prevent HVAC allergies
Having a clean filter is imperative no matter what filter you’re using, but there are some HVAC system filters that can be more helpful than others when it comes to steering clear of allergy symptoms. A high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter is a filter created by the Department of Energy. It was used in the 1940s to help facilities containing radioactive particles. These filters thrive when it comes to keeping out dust particles and pollen. Though HEPA filters can be a better filter to use, they’re not compatible with all HVAC systems. Call a professional to see if a HEPA filter is right for your system.
Another way to make sure your HVAC system is in proper condition to help your seasonal allergies is to check your system for mold and moisture. Depending on the temperature, your HVAC system can be introduced to water, which can make the filter damp. If the filter isn’t completely dried off after you’ve cleaned it and put it back, your system could be introduced to unnecessary moisture. Mold loves a hot and wet environment, and an unmaintained HVAC system is the perfect home for it.
Keep an eye on your unit and inspect it for mold occasionally because, that way, you can stay clear of those frustrating allergies. Fail to look out for mold and you can increase your allergy symptoms, as well as contribute to other serious health issues.
But the best way to make sure your HVAC system is doing all that it can to help with your seasonal allergies is to have it maintained regularly. Just like you service your car on a regular basis, HVAC systems work longer and better when they are well-maintained. Harsh temperatures place additional stress on the systems so having a professional give it a look right after a harsh winter and before allergy season is a very good idea. When these systems are thriving in your home, it won’t be long until your body adapts to the difference.
Now it’s time to put down your tissues and take a closer look at your HVAC unit.
