What is it?

Quality indoor air has been an industry catch phrase since the Legionnaire’s Disease episodes of the 1970’s. The phrase itself entails how clean, fresh and healthy you demand your home and office air to be. While some people are blessed not to suffer from allergies at all, many others are not so fortunate. According to an article in Forbes.com, “typically, 35 million to 45 million Americans experience seasonal allergies. Patients sought relief from their symptoms at a doctor’s office more than 12 million times in 2006, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Treating the nation’s allergies is costly: The bill was $11.2 billion in 2005, the last year for which data was available.” Now, that’s a lot of money to try to slow down allergy symptoms.

Mostly indoors

We spend over 90% of our time indoors and need clean air to breathe. But what are our typical remedies? Upgrading from a one dollar “home store” filter to a five dollar version. Or purchasing an electrostatic filter that starts out decent only to clog up more and more after each cleaning. Next was the craze over ionizers stuck in the corner of the living room or the whole house “HEPA filter” perched on top of the mantle. Alas, these devices usually wind up in the attic where they belong. After all, how can you treat all the air in your house from just one corner?

The lungs of your home

On our page about ductwork we mentioned that your ductwork under the house or up in the attic is the “lungs of your home”. Any treatment for air purification must start here because you have ducts running to and from every room. Initially you must insure your have clean vents and ducts. And today’s innovative technologies help us remove dust, dirt, airborne particulates, pet dander, hair, skin cells (everyone of us shed about four pounds of this dreadful stuff every year) and other debris floating in our home air. For example, when you draw back the blinds to let in some sunshine you notice the rays of the sun are loaded with particulates. And this is just what we can see with the naked eye.
For ideas on how to improve your home indoor air quality in Fort Worth and other air quality information see the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) site.