Keeping Your Air and AC Clean During Fire Season
During wildfire season health and safety experts encourage everyone to stay indoors as much as possible, but how do you know if the air in your home is safe? At Maki Heating and Air, we not only provide heat and air conditioning maintenance for HVAC units, but also place importance on educating our clients about how to keep themselves safe when the air outside is anything but.?
Adjust Your HVAC System to Keep Out Hazardous Air
While heat and air conditioning units do have filters that should be replaced every few months (and even more frequently during wildfire season), there are several other, lesser-known ways to adjust your air conditioner system to keep toxic smoke particles out. Simply follow this guide to reduce indoor smoke exposure or call our HVAC company and an AC repairman can come and make the adjustments for you!
The first thing you can do is check to see if you have an AC unit with fresh air intake. If you do, close the outdoor intake vents and set the system to recirculate mode. You can also make sure your filter is clean and that it fits tightly in place so that there isn’t air seeping past the filter into the home. If your air conditioner system is rated for one, consider purchasing a MERV 13 filter which is stronger and captures more toxic particles.
Invest in a High-Quality Air Purifier
An air purifier with a HEPA filter is one of the most efficient ways to keep the air inside your home clean and healthy as it recirculates. There are a wide variety of models to choose from, but you want to make sure the purifier has a HEPA filter, can filter 99.9% of smoke, dust, and mold particles down to 0.1 microns, and is the appropriate size to cover the square feet of your home. It is a good idea to invest in one or two larger purifiers for your main living spaces, and smaller ones for sleeping areas or anywhere you’ll be spending a lot of time such as a home office.
Standard, high-quality air purifiers need their filters replaced several times a year in smoky conditions, and can be lifesaving in terms of preventing dangerous health impacts from breathing unhealthy air.
Seal Up The Cracks and Keep The Toxins Out?
While it might seem like common sense, keep windows and doors closed even as it cools down at night, unless you can verify that the Air Quality Index (AQI) has dropped into the healthy range.?
If you have an evaporative cooler or portable air conditioner with a single hose vented out a window, you’ll want to avoid using these during wildfire season since they can actually pull more smoke from outside and create a toxic indoor environment. Consider other options to stay cool such as fans or even mini-split ac systems. These are smaller heating and air units that work as a standard air conditioner system but can easily cool only certain rooms in your home. By cooling only the rooms you and your family use most, you can have clean, cold air in your living spaces without a high energy bill caused by cooling rooms you aren’t using.
Let Us Make Your Life Easier!
If you simply search the internet for ?heating and air near me,? your search will come back with a cascade of AC companies, but sifting through them to find a professional, experienced, ethical company can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. At Maki Heating and Air in Sacramento, we offer extensive options in both heat and cooling services and employ only certified HVAC inspectors, so if repairing your air conditioner is not something you want on your to-do list, we are here for you! Whether you’re looking for a simple HVAC inspection, an air conditioning tune-up, furnace replacement, duct clean, or a complete HVAC replacement, we can do it all.
Call our office at (530) 885-3449 or (916) 782-9242. Maki Electrical, Heating, and Air, is the best, most reliable Sacramento HVAC company, and your comfort is our responsibility!
