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How Can I Improve My Indoor Air Quality? · Shafer Heating and Cooling Service Repair Podcast

• 0:00
  Check A Pro Joe here on the Check A Pro
• 0:03
  radio show talking to Nathan Shafer
• 0:07
  Hey Nathan how are you hey good how are you I am living the dream I love what
• 0:12
  i do I love helping homeowners live a healthy safe life speaking of healthy
• 0:18
  let's talk about indoor air quality people ask me all the time how they can
• 0:23
  improve their indoor air quality I'll tell you years ago go,
• 0:26
  we didn't use the air conditioning and heating the way we do today.
• 0:31
  We often opened our windows more frequently and the fresh air came in,
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  but a lot of us are in more of a newer sealed home.
• 0:39
  So talk about indoor air quality and how important that is.
• 0:44
  Oh yeah, it's extremely important. This is a topic that I love and unfortunately, it's kind of sad.
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  It's really really not talked about near enough within the industry as far as
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  from other heating and cooling companies as a whole, right, across the nation.
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  And so this is something that's becoming more and more important in the health
• 1:03
  of our homes and the health of our families.
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  And you mentioned these houses are being built tighter and tighter,
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  meaning they're insulated better, they're more airtight, they're more efficient, which is awesome.
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  That's great on the economical side of things and heating and cooling that home.
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  However, that does require certain things to make sure that the home still stays healthy. healthy.
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  And so there's lots of things to take into consideration as we go into this
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  time of year. One of the top of mind things that comes up is humidity.
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  As we start heating the home with these systems, the air starts to become drier
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  and we start to feel that.
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  And it creates a difference in the comfort too.
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  The colder it gets, the more that heating system runs, you kind of find yourself
• 1:45
  having to turn the thermostat a couple more degrees, a couple more more degrees.
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  You're like, man, it's weird.
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  Like used to 70 felt comfortable. Now it feels cold and I'm up to 72 or 73 to
• 1:54
  still feel comfortable.
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  When the fact, the reality is it's not the temperature, but it's the way that it feels.
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  It's actually the humidity in the home. As that air gets drier and drier for
• 2:02
  every 5% change in that relative humidity, it feels like one degree in temperature.
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  And so if we take it from 45% to 40%, that 70 now feels like 69.
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  Go another 5%, Now it feels like 68. And so, um, some things to remember on
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  that, and there's ways that we can take and control that and keep the house
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  at those optimum humidity levels, which is going to keep you healthier,
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  keep you comfortable, you know, our internal filters and us personally,
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  you know, back here, don't start drying out. We're getting all those germs and stuff coming in.
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  Uh, when it comes to germs, you know, there's things that we can,
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  can, um, uh, install to help with that as as well to remove the germs and bacteria in the home.
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  So lots of different things that can be done for the indoor air quality of the home.
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  So the humidity is a good point. You want to make sure in the wintertime when
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  the heat is on that the humidity is somehow increased because it naturally will
• 2:57
  evaporate. It'll dry up, unlike in the summertime.
• 3:01
  And having proper filtration, it might not just be those air filters that came with your system.
• 3:08
  You might be more sensitive and you may want to put in a better air filtration system.
• 3:14
  Absolutely. Yeah, there's all kinds of different types of filtration systems
• 3:17
  and levels of those, depending on what you're wanting to accomplish with that.
• 3:23
  You want to keep that system, that investment clean and lasting a long time.
• 3:27
  You want to keep the air clean in your home. You want to dust less often to
• 3:30
  keep all the air in that home that's coming through that system.
• 3:33
  We're breathing it in. And so we want to protect ourselves and our families
• 3:37
  to keep us healthier. here.
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  So definitely filtration options are something to be looking at.
• 3:42
  Like I said, there's the air purifiers where it brings the technology of the outdoors, right?
• 3:47
  Of mother nature that God's provided for us and brings that into the home inside the duct work.
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  So control the germ side of things and bacteria and things like that.
• 3:58
  Odors, we can control that. There's things as far as bringing fresh air into the home.
• 4:02
  So we talked about those airtight homes at the beginning, which is great,
• 4:06
  but sometimes we need to introduce some fresh air into the home and put the
• 4:08
  house under a positive pressure instead of a negative pressure.
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  And so there's things that can tie into that as well.
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  And then of course, like we mentioned, the humidifier. So those are some of
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  your, there's more, but those are some of your, probably your three or four
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  most common things that have the biggest impact on keeping that home comfortable as well as healthy.
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  And for more information, you can go to Nathan's website.
• 4:31
  There's a link in the show notes of this podcast. As always,
• 4:35
  my friend, thank you so much for educating us. Hey, thank you,
• 4:38
  Jim. Thanks for having me.