3 Strategies to Improve Indoor Air Quality

Another approach to lowering the concentrations of indoor air pollutants in your building is to increase the amount of outdoor air coming indoors. Opening windows and doors and operating windows or attic fans, when the weather permits, are some ways to increase necessary air flow. Local bathroom or kitchen fans that exhaust outdoors remove contaminants directly from the room where the fan is located and improve the outdoor air ventilation rate. It is particularly important to take as many of these steps as possible while you are involved in short-term activities that can generate high levels of pollutants. Painting, paint stripping, heating with kerosene heaters, cooking, welding, soldering, and sanding all consistently demand airflow. Finally, advanced designs in new homes are starting to feature mechanical systems that bring outdoor air into the house.

Lastly, localized air cleaners can be useful in improving a building’s indoor air quality. There are many types and sizes of air cleaners on the market, ranging from relatively inexpensive table-top models to sophisticated and expensive whole-house systems. Some air cleaners are highly effective at particle removal. The effectiveness of an air cleaner depends on how well it collects pollutants from indoor air and how much air it draws through the cleaning or filtering element. Another critical factor in determining the effectiveness of an air cleaner is the strength of the pollutant source. Table-top air cleaners may not remove adequate amounts of pollutants from strong nearby sources. People with a sensitivity to sources may find that air cleaners are helpful only in conjunction with concerted efforts to remove the cause. Finally, the long-term performance of any air cleaner depends on maintaining it according to the manufacturer’s directions.