Our personal and professional lives have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of these changes have been positive (more time to make sourdough bread), but most of these transitions have been difficult and often suffocating. During this time, I have written, with the help of my writing partner Claire Holahan, blogs explaining how Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) impacts our homes, health, and family life. The one subject I omitted, because it deserves an entire blog, is how your comfort and quality of Indoor Air Quality can impact your productivity while you work from home.
The Secret to Productivity: Indoor Air Quality
Most office workers don’t know that commercial office buildings have built-in HVAC modifications that help fight poor Indoor Air Quality. (Which is one of the reasons why when your least favorite coworker heats up leftover salmon and brussels sprouts, you can’t smell them the next day!) Some of these hidden elements include, but are not limited to the following:
- Increased Ventilation
- UV Lights
- Filters
Ever notice how air comes rushing out when you enter most commercial buildings? That’s positive building pressure pushing bad air out of the building. Unless you have a Bill Gates-style residence, you don’t want to install a commercial HVAC system into a residential home. Regardless, there are steps you can take to achieve that same level of positive Indoor Air Quality!
I will use the 3 Phases of IAQ to illustrate how your current system may not be performing in a way that optimizes home productivity.
PHASE 1: Particles and Allergens
The presence of excess particles and allergens is the easiest IAQ issue to fix, but the wrong HVAC installation can cost you by way of energy consumption or air compressor damage. Particles and allergens are the small, floating specks you see dancing in the sunbeam through your window. These particles are little pieces of dust, skin flakes, pet dander, smoke, hair, and dust mite feces that you, your family, and your air conditioner breathe every day. These yucky particles can cause the following unpleasant symptoms:
- Runny Nose
- Coughing
- Sneezing
- Congestion
- Sore Throat
- Asthma Symptoms
- Wheezing
None of these symptoms are ones anyone wants to be dealing with during COVID-times! And you certainly don’t want to be working from home while inhaling pieces of dander and dust mite.
How to Eliminate Phase 1 Particles and Allergens
Let’s start with what not to do. Do not buy Allergy filters from the Big Box or Hardware stores. These filters restrict airflow and can kill your compressor. If you’re still budgeting for a decent filtration system, we urge you to at least start with pleated filters.
Help!! Recommended Filter: Our top filter recommendation is always the Air Ranger Polarized Filters. These filters are among the best in the industry and will trap particles down to .03 microns, without restricting airflow. (For reference, .03 microns is the size of the point on a sharpened #2 pencil tip! If you’d like more information, please feel free to email me at koreyk3@helpserviceco.com and I’ll send you some helpful resources at no charge!
PHASE 2: Germs and Infections Agents
These Indoor Air Quality issues can be just as scary as they sound. Germs and infectious agents refer to the following:
- Viruses
- Bacteria
- Mold
- Flu Virus
- Pollen Growth
Aside from the typical coughing and sneezing, these Indoor Air Quality nightmares can also cause:
- Respiratory Infections
- Throat and Ear Infections
- Bronchitis
- Pneumonia
- Sinusitis
In addition to making you and your family sick, germs can also make your AC system sick as well! This particular ailment is called Dirty Sock Syndrome, meaning your indoor cooling coil is turned into a breeding ground for mold growth. Fortunately, there are several simple solutions you can implement to reduce dangerous germs and infectious agents.
How to Eliminate Phase 2 Germs and Infectious Agents
Phase 2 is controlled by UVC Germicidal Lights. These lights, when placed in the right location by an HVAC expert, can not only sterilize and kill these germs but they can also keep your indoor coils clean, which will help your air conditioner continue to perform at its best. Most importantly, the installation of UVC germicidal lights will make you feel better physically and help keep you mentally sharp, so you can keep impressing your boss by proving you can still complete assignments from home! Send me an email at koreyk3@helpserviceco.com and I can always send you some great information regarding UVC lights!
PHASE 3: Chemical Gases and Odors
No, we’re not in a science fiction simulation, but it sure sounds like one, doesn’t it? You’ve reached the final phase on your journey to maximizing your Indoor Air Quality. The primary difference between Phases 1 and 3, and Phase 3, is the fact that you cannot see chemical gases and odors. But sometimes you can smell them.
Consider this example:
- You were all excited to buy a new chair and desk for your fancy Work at Home Den. Naturally, you had to use certain paints and adhesives to achieve that perfect, productive “look” you were going for! Building materials such as glue and varnish contain chemicals and gases that can cause as much harm as Phase 1 and Phase 2 combined! Furniture, cabinets, and anything that requires building materials introduces Phase 3 elements into your home.
But it’s not just furniture. Everything we use is made, in some shape or form, from materials that use some type of chemical. These include the following examples:
- Pesticides
- Cleaning Solvents
- Plywood that is glued together with Formaldehyde
- Benzene
- Other Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)
Phase 3 contains the most sinister Indoor Air Quality threats because they can be nearly undetectable, and can cause serious side effects including, but not limited to:
- Headaches
- Nausea
- Dizziness
- Blurred Vision
- Lethargy
- Memory Lapse
- Lung Problems
How to Eliminate Phase 3 Chemical Gases and Odors
These items can potentially corrode coils and shorten the life of your equipment, creating the need for costly repairs if you don’t have a warranty. The solution for chemicals and odors comes in many forms. You can invest in an air purifying system, which can help reduce some of the invisible Indoor Air Quality threats. You can also talk to your HVAC technician about Ventilation Maintenance to ensure your airflow is not restricted. (See? We’ve come full circle to selecting the right filters!
Recreating Mother Nature Inside Your Own Home
There are many ways to handle all of these phases, but there’s a secret! Let Mother Nature help you! Think of it this way, Mother Nature has been taking care of the earth forever, and she has done a pretty darn good job, considering we keep making it hard for her. Mother Nature washes pollutants out of the air with rain and sterilizes pathogens with UV light. We may not be able to start a rain shower inside your home, but we can install quality filters. The sun can’t always reach every nook and cranny, but that’s why we have UVC Germicidal lights!
Have you ever noticed how clean and fresh the outside air feels after a strong lightning storm and rain shower? That’s Mother Nature creating low levels of ozone to help clean these pollutants we keep dumping into the air. We can’t have lightning storms inside our house, but we can create low levels of oxidizing agents to help freshen the air and rid ourselves of the chemicals we introduce into our confined living and workspaces. Remember when I said this sounds like science fiction? It’s close! Like a science fiction novel, we have to use science to create our own, personalized Mother Nature system inside our homes.
Protect Your Indoor Air Quality with Help!! Air Conditioning
The experts at Help!! Air Conditioning know everything there is to know about defending your Indoor Air Quality for a productive workspace. You can choose to take care of each phase at a time, or you can plan to eliminate all three at once! The key is to choose the right setup for your situation. I’ve been involved in IAQ for over 25 years, and I’ve had the pleasure of helping thousands of families improve their IAQ for a higher quality of living. I know which products really work and which products give us the best chance at duplicating what mother nature has successfully achieved for years. I know this entire situation is overwhelming and scary. Please feel free to reach out to koreyk3@helpserviceco.com if you just want some no-charge information clarifying what I wrote about today. And to schedule a free estimate, call Help!! at 504-733-5888.
I hope you and your family are doing well during these bizarre times.
Sincerely,
Korey Knobloch
