Posted by Raymond Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning on Wed, Jun 02, 2010
This spring has been particularly trying for allergy sufferers in Lorain County, Ohio. Since grass, flower and tree pollens first hit the air in early April, pollen levels have frequently peaked above 10 on a 12-point scale, according to Pollen.com. The website, which collects and distributes pollen data nationwide, shows Lorain County pollen counts hovering between 9 and 11 over much of the past 30 days. Predominant pollen offenders right now are mulberry and walnut tree pollens and a variety of grass pollens. Many trees and grasses are pollinated by the wind, releasing pollen from small greenish flower-like catkins that appear before the tree leafs.
Improve Your Indoor Air Quality This Summer With These Tips
Allergists are predicting higher than normal pollen counts in Lorain County into the fall. Allergy and asthma sufferers can take steps to allergy-proof their homes and minimize allergy symptoms:
- To keep pollen out of your Lorain County home, close windows and turn on the air conditioning. Running the fan will keep air circulating through the filter, removing pollen and contaminants from indoor air. Two-speed, energy-efficient Carrier air conditioners use 50% less energy while evenly distributing cool air throughout your home.
- Replace furnace filters with high-efficiency particulate air filters. These fine-screen filters remove tiny pollen granules and other allergy-aggravating particulate from indoor air as it circulates through your air conditioning system. Change air filters once a month or more frequently.
- Vacuum air ducts monthly and have ducts professionally cleaned annually if your allergies are severe.
- To prevent mold growth, keep indoor humidity below 50%. Carrier Performance Humidifiers provide adjustable whole-house humidification that allows you to increase humidity during dry winter months and decrease humidity during humid summer months for maximum comfort. Maintaining proper indoor humidity not only eases sinus irritation during allergy season, it alleviates over-dry sinuses during cold and flu season, improving your family’s health and comfort.
Your trusted Lorain County plumbing, heating and air conditioning contractor can perform an AirAdvice Indoor Air Analysis to measure and pinpoint the allergens in your Lorain County home.
Posted by Raymond Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning on Tue, May 18, 2010
In our last post we talked about indoor air pollution problems than can cause discomfort and unhealthy conditions inside Lorain County homes. Inadequate ventilation, poor humidity control, ineffective filtering and inefficient furnace or air conditioner operation are frequent causes of unhealthy indoor air pollution. Fortunately, your Lorain County plumbing, heating and air conditioning professional can perform and AirAdvice Indoor Air Analysis to pinpoint the source of indoor air quality problems and recommend effective solutions.
Here’s a quick rundown on typical indoor air quality equipment and the problems they solve:
Air cleaners
Trap polluting particles, pet dander, plant pollen, mold spores and other airborne contaminants in fine filters and keep them from circulating in the air. Standard fiber glass-mesh furnace filters trap only 15% of airborne pollutants, leaving 85% of these particles in the air you breathe. Mechanical Air Cleaners use a heavy-duty media filter capable of trapping up to 28 times more particles than a standard fiber glass filter. Electronic Air Cleaners are even more effective in cleaning indoor air, capturing up to 95% of all airborne particles, including smoke, grease, bacteria and many viruses.
Humidifiers
Control humidity levels inside your home, increasing comfort year round. Because humidity affects the way our bodies feel heat, using a humidifier to maintain optimum humidity inside your home will also save on utility bills. Increasing humidity in winter when the air is dry allows you to feel comfortable at lower temperatures. Decreasing humidity in the summer increases comfort and allows you to set your air conditioner to a slightly higher temperature.
Ventilators
Regularly exchange unhealthy indoor air with clean outdoor air to create a healthier indoor environment in your home. Ventilators remove from your home harmful accumulated carbon dioxide, cooking fumes and gases from building materials and furniture and replace that spent air with clean, fresh outdoor air.
Posted by Raymond Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning on Tue, Jan 05, 2010
Winter roared into Lorain County with a vengeance this weekend as temperatures plummeted into the single digits and wind chills fell well below zero. Indoors your furnace may be keeping you warm and toasty but forced air heat can take a toll on skin and sinuses, causing considerable discomfort. Itchy skin, stuffy noses, frequent nosebleeds and more frequent colds can all be signs that you need to improve the indoor air quality of your Lorain County home.
During Lorain County’s cold winters the air outdoors becomes extremely dry. Forced air heat makes it even drier, causing indoor air to suck moisture from our bodies. Your skin can become papery feeling and itchy from lack of moisture. Constant application of external moisturizers can help but are only a temporary stopgap and will not alleviate the problem. Just as dry air dries out the surface of your skin, it can dry out the sinus tissues inside your nose. As sinus passages become increasingly irritated, they swell, causing your nose to feel stuffy. Constant irritation can even cause frequent nosebleeds. Healthy sinus tissues require moisture. Dry indoor air makes your already struggling sinuses less able to fight off germs and more susceptible to winter colds.
Having your Lorain County heating professional install a humidifier on your furnace will immediately improve the indoor air quality of your Lorain County home. Humidifiers increase the amount of moisture in your home’s air by adding water to the air every time your furnace turns on. More effective and efficient than small room humidifiers, professionally-installed furnace humidifiers spread necessary moisture evenly throughout every room in your home. You can even save money on your monthly energy bills by installing a furnace humidifier. Humidity affects the way our bodies feel heat. The more humid the air, the warmer we feel which means you’ll be able to turn the thermostat down a notch or two and still feel comfortable.
Learn more about how to save on your energy bills this winter!
Posted by Raymond Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning on Mon, Dec 21, 2009
Humidity Inside Your Home?
Static electricity can make cold weather shocking in Lorain County, Ohio, and the rest of the northern tier of states. Children love to scuff their feet across the living room carpet in the winter, then reach out and give their siblings a jolt. Dry winter air makes it easy to create an electric charge, but when indoor air becomes too dry inadvertent static electricity can give you an uncomfortable shock when you least expect it; for instance, when you reach to flip on a light switch or sit down to give the dog a pat.
Static electricity is just one of the annoying consequences of Lorain County’s dry winter air. Our bodies don’t respond well to dry air. Our skin starts to flake and itch as the humidity in the air drops. Our noses feel uncomfortably stuffy as dry, irritated sinus passages swell. Allergy sufferers, asthmatics and those with pulmonary diseases find it harder to breathe comfortably. The lack of moisture in the air makes us more susceptible to sinusitis and bronchitis. We suffer unpredictable nose bleeds as sinus passages fissure from breathing in dry air. The lack of humidity inside our homes causes our hair to dry out and frizzy hair days become the norm.
The same thing happens to your furniture during Lorain County’s long winters. Dry air absorbs moisture from the structural and decorative wood in your furniture causing wood fibers to contract creating minute cracks. Over time, lack of humidity can cause finishes to crack and furniture to become brittle.
Humidifiers Provide Comfort
Fortunately, these problems can be easily solved by raising the humidity inside your home. Your Lorain County heating professional can install a furnace humidifier that will immediately increase indoor humidity and improve the air quality inside your home. Carrier humidifiers provide whole house humidification with advanced moisture control allowing you to raise or lower humidity levels inside your northeastern Ohio home to provide maximum winter comfort.