Smart Home Air Quality Sensors Remind Homeowners To Call Our Duct Cleaning Service | Azle, TX
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It’s not quite that direct a cause and effect, but if you’re keeping up with smart home technology you’ve probably noticed a trend as air quality sensors are becoming popular. Indoor air quality is typically worse than outdoors, even in areas with air quality problems near cities. Recirculating air is part of the problem, and when your ducts are dirty, the dirt, dust, allergens, and other particles travel in circles as well. At One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating of Fort Worth, our duct cleaning service and other indoor air quality offerings in Azle, TX can make a big difference in how you feel, as well as the numbers your smart air quality sensor reports. In some cases, we can even expand the air capacity of your ducts by removing layers of felt-like debris buildup that occurs over time when duct cleaning service is not performed.
Smart Air Quality Sensors Give You Detailed Information
Air quality monitoring devices detect particles such as dust and allergens that are airborne but invisible in your home, except sometimes when they appear in layers on your furniture and shelves, settling out of the air. They also may detect air quality issues like CO2 levels, radon, and particulates below 2.5 microns, even volatile organic compounds or VOCs, which are chemicals in your air. Our Azle, TX duct cleaning service helps relieve the burden of particulate matter and contaminants from the air you breathe. Our indoor air quality services provide HEPA filtration, humidity control, even germicidal UV lights that can help keep contaminants from the air from the beginning. Many smart air quality monitors also provide convenient atmospheric information including humidity, air pressure, and temperature.
Benefits of Healthier Indoor Air
Allergies, respiratory issues, even asthma can be affected by indoor air quality problems that develop as contaminants circulate. With the benefits of heating and air conditioning, many homeowners keep their windows closed to save energy and create a closed environment where additional problems like chemicals “outgassing” into the air build up the unhealthy qualities of their indoor air. In commercial buildings, medical facilities, and other locations where indoor air is closely monitored, duct cleaning services, filtration, and humidity control, even UV lights to reduce airborne pathogens are all considered essential to create a healthy environment for those who spend long periods of time there or have sensitivities to air quality issues.
Airflow Issues and Duct Cleaning Service
Over the years, dust, tiny airborne skin particles, insect components, pet dander, and other materials gather into a thickening carpet of contaminants that adheres to the walls of your home’s HVAC ducts along with airborne grease and chemicals, and it can actually get thick enough to restrict airflow and reduce the effectiveness of your air handling system, much as the larger airborne matter gathered on your system’s standard air filter eventually clogs your system and even brings airflow to a minimal level. Restricted airflow also has an effect on the reliability of your heating and cooling system, since the air handling system has to work increasingly harder to keep air circulating. Motors and fan belts can wear out prematurely, and damper doors and other mechanisms that regulate airflow can become dirty and possibly malfunction, further restricting airflow if dampers don’t open when needed. Duct cleaning service resets the condition of the ducts and automated airflow control components in your duct system, increasing airflow, sometimes significantly, and allowing your system to operate without so much resistance that causes wear and damage.
How Duct Cleaning Service Reduces Airborne Particulates
Airflow issues can develop in ways similar to drain clogs, with grease, airborne chemicals, and excessive humidity or the opposite, dry staticky air. These factors cause particles in the air to cling to the walls of your ducts and gather other particles as they function as a kind of filter, but one that both traps material and eventually releases it back into the air. Duct cleaning service removes these multi-component “clogs” and also the layers of grease and other substances that begin the process of duct lining with dust and particulates. Without material present in your ducts, air flows through without gathering contaminants and comes out of your vents in your living room, bedrooms, and other living spaces with much better breathability. Better airflow also reduces the opportunities for material to line your ducts since it’s passing through under better pressure levels. You’ll likely notice less dust accumulating on surfaces as well, and the effect where dust shimmers in strong sunlight as it floats in your home’s indoor air will not be so noticeable.
Indoor Air Quality Additions to Your HVAC System
Duct cleaning service is part of a combined approach to indoor air quality that includes your heating and air conditioning system’s standard air filter, plus components that many homeowners have added to their system including humidity management, HEPA filtration that handles extremely fine particulates and is commonly used in medical and commercial facilities as well as single-room portable filter systems, and germicidal UV light to neutralize hitchhiking pathogens in the air. Together with duct cleaning service to keep the air transport components at their best, these systems can make a big difference in the breathability of indoor air that shows up on smart home air quality monitors.
Changing Your Air Filter for Better Heating
An essential part of every duct-based heating and cooling system is regular standard air filter changes. Just as duct cleaning service often uncovers ducts clogging with dust and other materials, changing the air filter during routine maintenance often reveals thick layers of dust, pollen, pet dander, and larger matter like “dust bunnies,” hair, fabric materials, and other matter that routinely becomes airborne in your home and is drawn into your air intakes. Depending on where the air intakes are located, for example in rooms where pets are commonly present, your duct system can be serving as a kind of light-duty vacuum and the main air filter replacing your vacuum’s filter as the place where debris accumulates. When the air filter gets clogged, no matter how hard your heating system works, the reduced airflow will keep the heat from circulating properly and keep your family warm. In many cases, replacing your air filter and having duct cleaning service performed can be the solution to your heating problems and reduce your energy costs, as well as improve your air’s breathability.
Protecting Your Air Conditioning with Air Filter Maintenance
Air conditioning systems also respond well to air filter replacement and increased air circulation with a fresh air filter, along with a duct cleaning service. Like your heating system, your air conditioning system relies on proper airflow to get the cool air where it needs to be. There’s another concern with air conditioning systems that’s worth noting, and that’s the effect on your evaporator coil, where the air is cooled. Without a steady flow of warm air to be cooled, the evaporator cools the air in place, removing moisture as part of the way air conditioning works, but without the standard draining of moisture through the condensate path. Instead, the moisture remains as ice on the evaporator coils, eventually blocking airflow and requiring a service call to de-ice the coils, which are sensitive to damage and need to be serviced by a professional HVAC technician to avoid costly repairs. That’s one reason that technicians focus so much on replacing your main air filter at least monthly, more if the inspection reveals that they’re clogging faster. And don’t forget, they’re only collecting the larger material in your air, if they’re clogging quickly there’s likely to be a lot of smaller material still circulating, and lining your ducts where duct cleaning service will be needed more often.
Results You’ll Feel as Well as See On Smart Air Quality Sensors
Great indoor air quality affects everyone, including people with respiratory issues, allergies, and related challenges. Our lungs have to deal with airborne material that the filters aren’t catching, and if your filters are getting dirty quickly, your lungs are dealing with a lot as well. Combined with humidity management, your skin will appreciate the better air quality and comfort level, since it won’t have as many irritating particles to deal with as well, and humidity plays an important role in your comfort along with temperature. Keeping irritants, allergens, and pathogens from your air can also help your body receive fewer challenges from airborne material that could lead to an increased chance of illness. It may not be as direct an effect as clearing the air for your lungs to breathe, but chances are you and your family in Azle, TX will generally feel better.
Humidity Control and Your Indoor Air Quality
People who add humidity control to their heating and cooling system receive comfort benefits as well as air quality improvement. Heating and cooling tend to make the air feel dryer, but not by a controlled amount, so having proper humidity sensors in your thermostats and a humidity management system added to your home’s heating and cooling can help a lot. Because you’ll feel better at the right humidity level, which the EPA suggests is 30-50 percent for most people, you’ll probably be able to reduce your energy usage and still feel comfortable. Humidity also affects the way that particles and contaminants travel in your air and attach to surfaces, with dry airflow through your ducts resulting in more frequent duct cleaning service needs because of “static cling” which develops as they move through the air passageways. On the other side, high humidity allows the moisture to accumulate along duct walls and gather particles and contaminants as well. Great humidity control has quite a few benefits in your home, from less skincare needed to maintain healthy skin to happier plants, even books, fabric, hairstyles, and other moisture-sensitive items.
Controlling Your Home’s Heating and Cooling with Smart Home Thermostats
If you’re thinking about smart home air quality monitors, you’re probably aware of smart home thermostats, which go beyond even intelligent thermostats that save energy and improve comfort by learning what settings work best and following them automatically. Smart home thermostats can provide intelligent control of temperature and humidity along with resulting energy savings, but they can also exchange information and receive instructions from smart home systems to coordinate comfort and energy-saving functions in your home. They can be adjusted automatically to correspond with changing weather reports, varying room occupancy as sensed by the smart home system, temperature changes throughout the home, and even the use of smart shades to block or let in the Azle, TX sunshine. Of course, there’s nothing like using your voice-controlled smart home system to call for a bit more cooling from your easy chair!
Single and Multiple Zone Smart Home Thermostat Control
Smart home systems and zoned duct systems go naturally together, since dividing your home’s ducts into zones where you have different heating and cooling needs provides greater control and energy efficiency. For example, your bedroom zone can let that area warm a bit during the day when the rooms aren’t in use, and cool them at night while your living room and family area aren’t occupied. Smart home technology helps to manage it all while you relax, and of course, regular duct cleaning service keeps the whole system working more effectively.
Your Indoor Air Quality Experts with Complete Duct Cleaning Service in Azle, TX
Whether your home needs frequent duct cleaning service or only every couple of years, One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating of Fort Worth can clean your ducts and inspect their condition for cleaner heating and air conditioning in Azle, TX. Our indoor air quality experts take a system-wide approach to HVAC, considering factors from filtration to proper air pressure within your duct system, adding efficiency and effectiveness so you can get the most from your heating and air conditioning system investment. Ask us about all that we can do, and call us today to schedule your duct cleaning service!