How Do Pets Affect Indoor Air Quality in Springboro?
It has been estimated that more than 70 percent of all households in the United States have a dog or a cat. While owning a pet can provide a wide range of health advantages, unfortunately, animals can also adversely have an effect on your home’s indoor air quality. A pet can introduce airborne irritants into your home and trigger allergy symptoms, even if your family isn’t allergic to your pet. Fall is the air, temperatures are changing and soon Springboro, OH AC units will be turned off and they will start preparing to turn on their furnace, both of which can be affected by pet dander. If you are a pet owner, it’s important to know that not only can your furry family member’s fur have an effect on the indoor air quality, but on the entire air conditioning and heating system, so here are a few tips on how to improve the air quality in your home.
What Exactly is Pet Dander?
First, it’s important to note that while pet dander and pet hair can generally create similar problems, they are not the same thing. Pet dander is microscopic flakes of skin that are produced by dogs, cats, and other animals. Although it is possible to be allergic to pet hair, it is actually the pet dander that most people are allergic. It’s also possible for people to be allergic to the proteins that are typically found in pet feces, urine and saliva-the salvia can flake off of your pet’s fur, become airborne and eventually get circulated through your heating and air conditioning system.
Pet Hair and the Heating/Air System
Pet dander becomes airborne, so it can accumulate on surfaces throughout your home, resulting in watery eyes, sneezing, rashes and other respiratory problems (even if you aren’t allergic to pets). When your AC unit or furnace kicks on, pet dander eventually blows through the system and redistributes in other areas throughout your home, resulting in allergy symptoms and difficulty breathing. In addition to pet dander causing a problem, pet hair can create a unique challenge to your heating and air conditioning system. Stale air in your home is sucked up through the air conditioning and furnace system so it can be conditioned for later use, which means that the pet hair/fur gets sucked up right along with the stale air. A buildup of hair and fur eventually clogs the air filter; ultimately causing the system to work harder than needs to.
The good news is, there are several things that you can do to improve your home’s indoor air quality and prevent excessive amounts of pet dander and hair from circulating through your home. One of the easiest things to do is to regularly change the air filter; if you have pets, it’s best to change the filter once a month. Using a whole-home air purifier can help to reduce the airborne allergens in your home and it can also help your system run more efficiently. Along with regularly changing the air filter, another important thing to do is schedule routine heating and AC maintenance. During scheduled AC maintenance the technician will clean and inspect all major components of the system, which means there will be less risk of a breakdown due to hair and dander buildup in the system.
Contact Butler Heating & Air Conditioning to learn more information about how we can help the residents of Springboro, OH improve their indoor air quality.
