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Posted on March 18, 2016 by

Prepare Your Home For Spring Allergens

Many Ft. Lauderdale homeowners view spring as the initiation period for summer. During spring, flowers begin to bloom, and the trees finally start to grow leaves again. The problem is that spring is also a time when allergens start to fill the air.

For allergy sufferers, spring is one of the worst times of the year. Indoor air pollution is one of the top triggers for allergy sufferers. Most homeowners have no way to know when indoor air pollution rises.

Ft. Lauderdale, FL Home-AllergiesStudies show that the air inside of a typical home is significantly more polluted than the air outside of the home.

The air pollution inside of your home can be caused by many different things. A top cause of air pollution is allergens, and three of the worst allergens are pollen, mold and dust mites.

More Common Allergens:

  • Cockroach droppings
  • Pet skin flakes
  • Mold
  • House dust
  • Fabrics
  • Dog dander
  • Cat dander
  • Houseplants
  • Pet rodents
  • Horsehair

Once these particles are airborne and floating around in your home, they have the potential to be inhaled. If you inhale any of these allergens, you can suffer an allergic reaction.

The HVAC system inside of your home can harbor all of these different allergens, and once activated, it can spread these allergens throughout your home.

Fight Back With Regular HVAC Care

Making sure your Ft. Lauderdale home HVAC machine receives regular care is one of the best ways to fight back against spring allergens. By keeping your HVAC system clean, you’ll be able to control your allergy symptoms better. It’s important to make sure your HVAC system is optimized.

This is something that can only be handled by professionals, so you’ll want to give us a call. The filter inside a typical HVAC system isn’t given enough recognition for what it does. Your system’s filter is like the mote for a castle. It helps to stock allergens before they ever have a chance to enter your home.

A clean filter will make it very difficult for allergens to get into the rest of your HVAC system. Depending on the type of system you own, there might even be filters built into your home’s air ducts, which also need to be changed. All homeowners should understand that filters aren’t created equally.

All HVAC filters are rated using something called MERVs, which stands for the minimum efficiency recording value. The MERV rating on a filter can be anywhere between 1 and 20. The greatest level of particle filtration is achieved by a filter with a MERV rating of 20.

Filters Aren’t Created Equally

Currently, there are several different types of filters for HVAC systems. Flat panel filters are typically used by furnaces, and most have a MERV rating between one and four. These filters are created to protect your furnace, so they’re not very good at improving indoor air quality.

Medium efficiency filters are also furnace filters, and they have a higher surface area, which means they’re able to filter a larger number of unwanted particles from the air inside of your home. The MERV rating for these filters can be as high as 13.

High-efficiency filters are better and can have a MERV rating as high as 16. They can remove many particles that pleated filters miss. For the optimal level of filtration, many homeowners consider getting a HEPA filter. Also called high-efficiency particulate air filters, HEPA filters have a MERV rating as high as 20. However, the problem is that most HEPA filters aren’t made for central HVAC system.

If you want your system to use a HEPA filter, then you’ll want to consider making a major upgrade to your system, which can cost a lot of money. The reason why most HVAC systems don’t use a HEPA filter is because the filter is so efficient at removing particles that it can restrict airflow.

As a result, your Ft. Lauderdale home HVAC system would need to use more energy and work much harder to circulate air throughout your home. Due to the amount of strain placed on an HVAC system by a HEPA filter, we recommend equipping your system with a medium efficiency filter. This type of filter is very good at removing small and large particles.

Prepare Your Home with Regular Maintenance

If you want to prepare your home for spring allergens, regular HVAC maintenance is crucial. It allows you to control indoor allergens and improve indoor air quality. An important part of regular maintenance is filter changing.

In most cases, we recommend letting us change your filter every two months, but depending on what system you own, we might recommend a different frequency. There are also important maintenance tasks suggested by the manufacturer of your HVAC system, and it’s a good idea to let us handle all of your HVAC maintenance needs.

Ft. Lauderdale, FL Home-Allergy-TipsIt’s not uncommon for mold to grow inside air ducts, so you’ll also want to have us inspect your ductwork. We can make sure there is no mold growth, and if we find any, we can remove it for you. For allergy sufferers, increased ventilation is very important.

You want an HVAC system that draws air from the outside and circulates it throughout your home, but the system should be properly filtering the air before passing it into your ductwork. To maintain indoor air quality, your ductwork should be cleaned regularly.

We can handle all of your HVAC system’s maintenance needs and make sure your home is prepared for spring allergens. During spring, we might recommend changing your filter more often than you normally would because your system will have to work harder to filter out all of those irritating allergens.

If you want to avoid allergy problems, you need to keep your home cool and dry. A warm home and excessive moisture creates an environment that mold thrives in. As long as you maintain it, your HVAC system will eliminate these conditions, improve the quality of air inside of your home and keep allergens out.

For quality services in your Ft. Lauderdale, FL home, call AAA Modern Air at (954) 241-2523.