5 Ways to Keep Home Air Clean & Cold
Getting your air ducts cleaned can be costly. But the fact that it is costly, doesn’t by any stretch of imagination mean that you should let your air ducts stay dirty and contaminate the air that you breathe. Air duct cleaning through professional companies is one aspect of keeping your air vents clean of dust and debris. If you are unable to keep them clean, you will need repeated and regular air duct cleanings. Hence, there are some steps that you will need to take to keep your air home’s air clean, smelling fresh, and blowing cold. How to Keep Air Clean in Your Home Below are five of the most effective tips for keeping your air clean in your home. 1. Use a High Quality Air Filter First things first, where do the dust and debris in your home comes from? It is typically carried into your home through the air coming in. As the air comes in to the air duct and its velocity decreases, leaving the dust in the air duct, over time this can lead to an embankment. The best way to avoid it is to make use of a high quality filter to keep the dust and debris out of your air duct. The filter will act as a barrier and the better the quality of the filter the longer it can run efficiently. 2. Get Proper Duct Insulation Done Air ducts will typically have insulation done. This insulation is an important part of keeping your home cooler during the summers and hotter during the winters. But a faulty insulation around the air duct or one that deteriorates with time and is left to do so unchecked can both contaminate the duct. When you get insulation installed, make sure you get it done by professionals. Secondly, keep tabs on the state of the insulation, they typically have a set life and once that life has passed, they need to be replaced. 3. Get Professional Air Duct Installation What is the point of having an air duct installed if it isn’t placed properly? Air ducts are designed to let fresh air enter your home and to let the older air exit. If the air duct has been wrongly placed or installed negligently, this can hamper their performance and leave it to assemble dirt and dust. Hence, you should make sure that you get proper air duct installation done. 4. Conduct Periodic Checks Checking your air ducts everyday is impossible. So how do you keep them clean? You do that by ensuring periodic checks. These checks need to be after every set of few days or every two weeks etc. to ensure that your air duct is in pristine condition. Without periodic checks, you will be unable to catch any issue or dirt building up in the air duct, before it seriously starts to impair your breathing. 5. Get Ducts Cleaned Thoroughly As mentioned above, air duct cleaning is important. You may restrict the amount of dust that can come into the air duct by the above steps but once it is there, you will need to get it cleaned. For that, it is integral that you choose a top company in Arizona. Contact A-Z Air Duct Today! If you live in the Phoenix metropolitan area and are suffering from dirty air duct, take a moment to call (602) 466-2234 or email us for a fair and honest evaluation and quote to clean your vents. CONTACT US TODAY
How to Reduce Indoor Allergens For Cleaner Air
Air is one of the basic requirements for survival of living beings. There are countless health benefits of breathing in clean and fresh air. It is not only important to inhale fresh air outdoors but also to keep a regular eye on the ventilation of air in any enclosed environment. What’s more, even though there are countless health benefits of fresh air, it is very hard to find in the highly polluted world of today. There are also a lot of factors to consider when it comes to determining the quality and freshness of air in the atmosphere. Reduce Your Risk for Allergies With Clean Air Polluted air is very harmful and is responsible for numerous health conditions and diseases. Some specific triggers, such as the presence of pollen in the spring season can be very dangerous. It can not only increase the intensity of various diseases but also cause other viral illnesses. If you have suffered from allergies, you must be definitely aware of the risks and harms of pollen found in the air. Unfortunately, the implications of contaminated air are not only limited to outdoor settings but it can also substantially affect the indoor environment too. The best way to avoid this is with regular air duct cleaning. Substandard Indoor Settings and the Health Implications The indoor environment can be polluted by various factors including dust mites, household mold, allergens, bacteria, animal dander, smoke and carbon monoxide. The contaminants then circulate around the home or office or any other indoor space and cause serious health issues. In most of the cases, viral infections caused by contaminated air are contagious and affect multiple people in any given environmental setting. There are multiple ways you can protect yourself from the hazards of outdoor pollution. However, things get much more complicated when it comes to indoor contamination. In fact, the basic precautionary care is now, not just limited to not going outside and avoiding fresh air that might be contaminated with pollen. The Environmental Protection Agency lists indoor pollution as the fourth highest threat to the natural environment. Air contaminants enter the air duct system whenever a heater or air conditioner pushes air through it. The harmful contaminants eventually build inside the air ducts over a period of time. However, maintaining a healthy internal environment is not that difficult if proper measures are taken for air duct cleaning. Some useful tips include: Enhancing the Indoor Atmosphere For a fresher ambiance, it is very important to regularly change your air filters. Dirty and contaminated air filters can significantly affect the quality of air. It will also prove to be harmful for anyone with serious allergies or asthma. To help with this, it is recommended to use air purifiers and to opt for air duct cleaning frequently. The Effect of Clean Air Ducts on the Environment A regularly cleaned and well maintained air duct can substantially reduce your risk for allergies. More often than not, dirty ducts are not just limited to impurities, pollutants and filthiness. In most of the cases, they are also infected by various insects or rodents. The ducts can easily get clogged by excessive dust and bacteria and affect the indoor atmosphere negatively. CONTACT US TODAY
The Top Six Causes of House Fires in Arizona
Causes of House Fires in Arizona With help from the Phoenix Fire Department and the U.S. Fire Administration, we have tracked down the top six causes of house fires in Arizona. Some may surprise you and nearly all are preventable! Cigarettes Phoenix’s bravest say that cigarettes are a leading cause of house fires, not just in Arizona, but nationwide. A carelessly dropped lit cigarette can start a smoldering fire in upholstery or a mattress and hot ashes can set a carpet afire. If you cannot quit, at least smoke outside. Candles Second for the Phoenix Fire Department are candles, which will catch drapes or paper on fire quickly. Do not use improvised candle holders, keep candles away from combustible materials, and consider battery-operated or flameless candles instead. Overworked Electrical Cords Overloaded circuits, frayed wires, and misused extension cords are the third most common cause of Arizona house fires. All of these issues have simple remedies: 1. Discard, repair, or replace appliances with frayed wires. 2. Read warning labels on extension cords, and never gang them together. 3. Use power strips to help control loads. Clogged Dryer Vents Nationally, the U.S. Fire Administration reports 2,900 clothes dryer fires annually, causing approximately $35 million in property losses, 100 injuries, and five deaths. What is the most common cause for dryer fires? Failure to clean dryer vents! Air duct cleaning companies are also equipped to provide dryer vent cleaning. For superior dryer vent cleaning, Phoenix residents should turn to A-Z Air Duct Cleaning. Cooking The U.S. Fire Administration ranks cooking as the nation’s leading cause of house fires resulting in injuries, at 37.2 percent of all fires. Remember three ways to prevent cooking fires: Smother grease fires with a lid; never pour water on them. Install smoke detectors and a fire extinguisher in the kitchen, but away from the stove. Never leave food to cook on a stove unattended. Monitor children in the kitchen. Heating Arizona does not compare well to the nation as a whole; 83.3 percent of fire deaths were from residential fires, far higher than the national average of 74.7 percent. Part of the reason is heating (not including candles), which nationally was the cause of more than 12 percent of house fires. Call A-Z Air Duct to prevent Dryer Fires near Phoenix, AZ A-Z Air Duct can help with preventing dryer fires. The same technology we apply to air conditioning duct cleaning can save you from the anguish and terror of a dryer fire. Contact us today to learn more. CONTACT US TODAY
Is Cleaning Air Ducts Worth It?
Imagine a whole room in your Phoenix-area home that you have never dusted and never vacuumed, but that gets constant use. If you have a furnace, central air conditioner, and ductwork, you actually have such a room: it’s your home’s air ducts. The Importance of Cleaning Your Air Ducts The total volume of most Valley homes’ ductwork is equal to that of a small room in a typical house. Now consider this: If you have never had your ducts cleaned, every bit of air moving through your house first has to pass through that dirty, dusty “room” before you breathe it. What is in Your Ducts? Anything caught up in the return registers of your home’s ductwork can lodge in the ducts. These contaminants include: Mold Mildew Pet Dander Insect droppings Fungi Bacteria Tobacco byproducts Dust Human skin cells and hair Debris in the Ducts of New Homes The ductwork in new homes is, you might think, completely clean. It is installed that way, yes, but construction debris can get swept up into the ductwork during routine furnace and AC testing during construction. Older Homes Your existing home comes to you with a murky history. Did the previous owners have the ducts cleaned? A buildup of mold, mildew, pet dander, dust, and other organic and inorganic matter can accumulate in just a few months. Children Children’s immature and developing lungs are far more sensitive to allergens and contaminants than adults’ lungs. Children breathe more rapidly, are closer to the ground where contaminants settle and tend to suffer from asthma at higher rates than adults, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. HVAC Performance Dust and dirt in your ductwork are usually caught by your air filter, but it can easily become clogged. Any particles that land on the heating element of your furnace, or your AC’s coil, rob the system of energy efficiency. Recommendations for Air Duct Cleaning The Environmental Protection Agency recommends duct cleaning for several very good reasons: Substantial, visible mold growth; Ducts are home to vermin (rodents, insects); Ducts are visibly clogged with dust and debris; You see or feel particles released into the home from your supply registers. Air Duct Cleaning in Phoenix, AZ So, is air duct cleaning worth it? Only you can weigh the factors affecting your Phoenix home, so consider your family’s health and make the decision to take advantage of the benefits of air duct cleaning. Contact us at A-Z Air Duct today to schedule a visit. CONTACT US TODAY
