Los Angeles IAQ: 5 Ways to Improve Indoor Air Quality for Allergy Season

Los Angeles IAQ: 5 Ways to Improve Indoor Air Quality for Allergy Season

Los Angeles IAQ: 5 Ways to Improve Indoor Air Quality for Allergy SeasonAny season can offer up allergy triggers, but spring is typically pollen season, and if you’re not already allergic to a particular type of pollen in our region, you may be in time. Unfortunately, pollen doesn’t always stay outdoors; often, it travels indoors on your clothes or shoes, or just wafts in when you open doors or windows. Fortunately, there are ways to control it and improve indoor air quality. Here are five of them.

  1. Use a good quality air filter. Cheap fiberglass filters won’t do the job; you need a quality filter to improve indoor air. Choose a pleated one made of cotton or polyester, rated at least 5 on the minimum efficiency reporting value (MERV) scale. Most pollen particles that might be drawn into your HVAC system and re-circulated into your home can be captured by a better quality air filter.
  2. Use a high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter when you vacuum. Vacuuming your carpet and rugs frequently with a vacuum cleaner that has an agitator (that’s the rotating brush underneath the vacuum) will yield the best results. Vacuum upholstered surfaces as well. This will help get rid of pollen as well as dust, dust mites, pet dander and other allergens. Turn the HVAC fan to “on” so that it will draw in pollutants you’ve stirred up while vacuuming.
  3. Wash linens frequently. Washing linens often in hot water will help control dust and dust mites, as well as pollen that may have settled on your linens or that you’ve brought to bed with you.
  4. Dry clothes indoors in the dryer. It’s lovely to hang clothes on the line to dry, but unfortunately, that’s where they’ll collect pollen.
  5. Use an air cleaner. There are many types, and while whole-house air cleaners do the best job, you may find a portable model is satisfactory for cleaning up pollen, room by room. Electrostatic or electronic models, which attract by means of static electricity, should yield good results.

To learn more about how to improve indoor air quality, contact Air-Tro, Inc. We’ve served the Los Angeles community since 1969.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the greater Los Angeles, California area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).

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