How to Conduct an Indoor Air Quality Assessment

You’ve just bustled through the door after a busy day, hang your coat on the hook, and inhale the inviting scent of home! But have you ever wondered about the purity of that familiar air? No matter how clean you keep your home sweet home, there’s the potential that harmful particles, fumes and gasses are circulating inside undetected. If you’re worried about that, an indoor air quality assessment may help put you at ease.

Why Is Indoor Air Quality Important?

Maintaining quality indoor air is important for both immediate and long-term health. In the short term, exposure to a pollutant can result in headaches, fatigue, nausea, and irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat. More extended exposure to pollutants could result in more serious health problems such as respiratory disease, heart disease, and cancer.

Perhaps the most common ailment of poor air quality is asthma, which, according to the EPA, affects up to 25 million people in a given year.

How to Conduct an Indoor Air Quality Assessment By Yourself

The most thorough way to assess the quality of air in a home is to have a professional assessment completed. However, there are some measures and mechanisms that the average homeowner can install to monitor their air quality.

Let’s look at a few:

• Home Indoor Air Quality Monitor
  Whether purchased online or in-store, an indoor air quality (IAQ) monitor can be a helpful device to install. Able to detect common pollutants and air conditions within the home, an IAQ monitor is an easy way to keep an eye on your indoor air quality.
• Carbon Monoxide Detector
  Even if air quality is not your primary concern, every house should have a carbon monoxide detector. This device alerts a home’s occupants about dangerously elevated levels of CO, which is an odorless, tasteless, colorless, and potentially deadly gas that can escape from malfunctioning furnaces, water heaters, stoves and any gas-powered appliance or tool, or a car accidentally left idling in the garage.
• Mold Inspection
  Doing a self-check for mold in the dwelling can prevent future health problems down the road. Homeowners commonly find mold hidden in dark, damp areas such as windowsills, under sinks, and in the basement/laundry rooms.
• Radon Testing
  Radon is another colorless, odorless gas that naturally occurs in soil due to radioactive decay. Although present in nearly all soil, in elevated amounts, long-term exposure can cause lung cancer. A home—and the basement specifically—should be tested with short- and long-term test tests, which are then mailed to a lab for results.

Choose Professional IAQ Services from Your Local Aire Serv^®

These methods are great ways to make an initial assessment of a home’s air quality. But for a truly comprehensive evaluation and remediation of a home or building’s air quality, nothing compares to professional IAQ testing and improvement services.

Surveying the entire dwelling, an air quality assessment service professional will test for mold, pollutants, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and more. Unsure about the air quality in your home? Call Aire Serv today at (855) 679-0011 or request an appointment online and breathe easy!