There is often a lot of talk about air quality during the winter due to the fact that we tend to keep the windows and doors closed all season (aside from the occasional and rare warm spell). During the summer, air quality tends to surround topics like smog, pollution, haze and humidity.
What is not mentioned all that often is that more and more Toronto residents are keeping their windows closed and the air conditioning running throughout the summer. We may be experiencing another ‘polar vortex’ at the moment, which has dropped temperatures quite a bit, but that doesn’t mean everyone is opening their windows.
When you don’t have fresh air moving through your home, it’s going to directly impact air quality, bringing it down and potentially increasing health risks to you and your loved ones.
In order to maintain high air quality this summer when you are using the air conditioning a lot, you should do two things: clean the filters in the air conditioning system and open your windows and doors to allow fresh air in every so often.
If you don’t know where the filters are for your air conditioning system, contact an HVAC specialist. They can come to your home, show you where the filter is, change it, and check the system to ensure that it’s operating at maximum efficiency and keeping your family as healthy as possible.
Opening the windows throughout your house for at least one evening a week is a great way to boost the air quality. If you don’t get any cross breezes, such as when you live in an apartment building with windows on only one wall, use a clean, dust-free window fan to draw the outside air into the apartment.
Doing this for at least three to four hours will help to circulate the air in your home, improving the air quality for you and the rest of your family.