Is your indoor air suitable for seniors at home?

While you as a young adult could be excited as the Winter is coming, people who are senior get a little worried when the cold weather begins to get colder and colder. That is because they know Winter will bring back their hardly healed pains and they will have a hard time keeping themselves warm. There are some other health issues involved too that necessitate they spend the colder climate in the indoors and avoid unnecessary outdoor activities. But the question is; when they spend time in the indoors, are they really safe? The answer lies in the level of indoor warmth of course, but it also lies in the quality of the indoor air. Old age people spend almost 90% of their Winters in the indoors and that stay could be disadvantageous instead of being advantageous if there's poor indoor air quality. The immune system gets weaker as the age increases so the seniors relative to the young adults have a weaker immune system that makes them vulnerable to catch sickness easily. With a poor indoor air quality, the sickness can take the form of asthma, lungs problems and even heart diseases etc since an unhealthy air can lead to several devastating consequences. So here go our 10 tips list; Consider these tips if you've seniors at home.

- It is important for you to have your heating appliances diagnosed by a professional before the season begins especially if they were installed when your seniors were young; too old appliances. This is important because for old appliances you never know when they might give up or start leaking gases and become an open threat. Whether or not you are at home, the seniors will be so make sure the home is a safe abode for them and no chemicals or gases are contaminating the indoor air.

- Draperies, curtain and upholsteries accumulate dust that could or could not be visible but is, nonetheless, present and contribute to reducing indoor air quality. Wash or dry-clean them at least once a year

- Change Furnace filters on a regular basis to ensure the system works with supreme efficiency and the dust does not keep circulating in the indoor

- You might get into the delusion that Duct Cleaning is a hoax but it is not. Ducts do accumulate bucks of dirt when not cleaned. And that dirt does not remain in the ductwork, it somehow finds a way out whether it is at the opening time of vents or as a result of inefficient filters. And when it comes out, it becomes an extremely disturbing stuff for the seniors at home. So go for Duct Cleaning!

- Carpets and not only harder to clean, they are also harder to maintain. In addition to that, they are among the havens where the dust and debris hide. If you're making or renovating your home, consider wooden flooring in place of carpeted flooring. That would reduce another source of air contamination

- Clean fans and exhaust fans but more importantly, use them wisely, especially the exhaust fans. Anytime an indoor activity is done that has the potential to contaminate the indoor air, exhaust the air out to avoid its circulation in the indoor

- Natural things are natural. And no matter how efficient Air Cleaner or air purifier you use, nothing can suffice for the natural air. While your seniors might find it uncomfortable to go out even when it's a sunny day, consider opening the windows at the hours of less cold blows and let the fresh air seep in

- With seniors at home that are facing breathing problems, it is always suggested to install an Air Cleaner and also a UV Light to combat the germs and bacteria in the indoor that get harder to combat in Winter as they keep floating in the dry air

- Installation of a Humidifier is another wise investment that you can make for the ease and comfort of the seniors since Humidifiers maintain humidity and relieve us of the consequences of low humidity including skin and eye irritation, static electricity, breathing unease and others

- And last but not the least. Have an inspection of your home's indoor air quality to know what safety measures are you required to take and consider professional help for annual maintenance or repairs of HVAC appliances especially the ones used for indoor air quality improvement  

Optimise your Air Ducts, here's how

There are chances that what is about to be said would be a shocking revelation for you or you could yourself be among those whose mention is going to be made here: There are homeowners that never explore Air Ducts can be optimised or that they can actually close the dampers partially when less heating/cooling is required, just like some homeowners never know how to optimise the Thermostat settings and continue to use them on a default setting throughout. Air Duct Optimization can help a great deal in creating a comfortable and balanced indoor temperature throughout the house and optimisation doesn't require much of a rocket science.

Here’s what you will need

Here's what you'll need in order to perform the Air Duct Optimization:

1. Tabletop Thermometers (as many as the rooms you need to optimise)

2. Permanent Marker

Here’s how to optimise?

In order to Optimise the Air Ducts in every room, start with one room. Let's say it is Summer and you wish to make the Optimisation for the cool air of the Air Conditioner. Open all the ducts and registers of the in use rooms. Next, turn the Air Conditioner ON and set the Thermostat to somewhere between 74 to 78 Fahrenheit. Let the rooms cool. After half an hour, check the Thermometer's reading, visit every room and partially close the dampers of the rooms that are excessively cold. Proper optimisation will take some time, a few days or maybe a week. Try this Damper tweaking until the desired temperature is achieved throughout the home. And yes, why did we have that permanent marker? Use the marker in order to mark the final handle position that you finalise for each damper.

Summer Tweaking vs Winter Tweaking

There's not much difference between the Summer and Winter Air Duct Optimisation. The only difference is that in Winters, the Furnace needs to be turned on with Thermostat temperature somewhere around 68 degrees Fahrenheit. When marking the handle positions, use 'S' for Summer, and ''W'' for Winters so that you could know which position was for which season since the damper settings would be different for Summers and different for Winters.

Why do Air Duct optimisation?

Alright so here begins the question answer session. Did you ask why is it important to do Air Duct Optimization? Okay, here's the answer:

A ductwork is used in order to circulate Air (cool/hot) throughout the home. Although the Duct network reaches every room, there are times when the conditioned Air that reaches to different parts of the home is not the same. Since a single Thermostat operates the Air Conditioner, one temperature is used for the whole home but as the flow of air is different for different parts, the temperature there is different too. This is the primary reason why many homeowners suffer from temperature difference throughout the home which is sometimes very disturbing. Optimisation of the Air Ducts is a very simple way to beat this problem. Although a careful and a little tough practice is required in the beginning, once the dampers are set, you too are all set to enjoy an even temperature throughout the home no matter what the season is.

Isn't it simple? And cool too? Your turn to try out!