Indoor Air Quality Evaluation — A Checklist For Your Home
As you’re working to improve the indoor air quality in your home, an indoor air quality evaluation can help. By identifying areas that may be affecting your home’s indoor, you can come up with a plan to fix or remove problems and gain cleaner air. This checklist will help you determine whether your indoor air quality is a problem for your family.
Does your household include high-risk residents — young children, seniors or asthma or allergy sufferers? If anyone in your home fits into one of these categories, they may be more susceptible to breathing issues if your indoor air quality is poor.
To perform your indoor air quality evaluation, consider the following:
- Is your home’s insulation made from asbestos or urea-formaldehyde? If your house was built between the 1930s and 1950s and still contains any of the original insulation, you may have asbestos. And if your home has foam insulation installed in the 1970s or 1980s, it may be made from urea-formaldehyde.
- Do you have high humidity or moisture collecting on your windows or other surfaces? This could indicate a lack of proper airflow.
- Does your gas stove burn with a yellow flame rather than blue? This can indicate a lack of oxygen.
- Do you notice that there’s a lack of air movement?
- Are your heating vents rusted or corroded?
- Do you notice lots of dust on your furniture, walls or ceilings?
- Do you have pets with fur indoors?
- Does anyone smoke in the house?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, your indoor air quality is probably not as good as you want it to be. Making sure that you have adequate ventilation by using ceiling and attic fans, that your insulation is made from proper materials and that your ducts are clean are steps that you can take to improve your home’s air quality.
For more information about getting an indoor air quality evaluation or any other HVAC matters, contact Sobieski Services.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Wilmington, Delaware and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC & plumbing systems).
Image Credit: Daniel*1977
