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Staying at home can be hard when you’re dealing with home allergens. Here’s how to turn your home into an oasis of fresh air.

If you’ve been self-isolating at home, you’ve likely noticed a few areas around the house that could use some love and attention. If you’ve been sniffling or sneezing while spending so much time in your home, you may be dealing with home allergens.

You might perform regular home cleaning chores and use an air purifier but still struggle with in-home allergies. Fortunately, learning about common home allergens and how to remove them could help you experience some relief.

Common Home Allergens

Dozens of household allergens may be contributing to your pain and suffering. Frustratingly, allergens are typically minuscule particles that float through the air. You can breathe them in or track them indoors with you.

Some of the most common household allergens include:

• Dust

• Mold

• Pollen

• Pet Dander

Tiny, microscopic particles of these allergens can enter the home on clothing, hair, or skin. The act of opening your front door could cause some differential air pressure, resulting in an unavoidable intake of air.

So, while you might not be able to prevent allergens from altogether entering your home, you can recognize them and seek out their hiding places. In the case of dust, pollen, and dander, the collection locations tend to be fabrics and surfaces.

Mold can be more challenging to track down and eradicate, but most species flourish in damp, dark areas. Checking your bathroom, kitchen sinks, and basement areas could help you save time when attempting mold removal and remediation.

How to Reduce Home Allergens

Reducing home allergies is not a simple task. It requires constant vigilance. Taking a few days off from your regular cleaning schedule could result in a small build-up of in-home dust, dander, and pollen.

Before you know it, you could find yourself battling a seemingly endless parade of sneezes, sniffles, and watery eyes. To reduce the number of allergens in your home, you’ll need to perform some occasional and some daily maintenance.

Some simple steps you could take include:

1. Changing Your Air Filter

2. Vacuuming and Dusting Often

3. Investing in Indoor Plants

4. Hiring Professional HVAC Cleaners

To help you avoid any wasteful chores or tasks, we’ve decided to list these actions in order of their usefulness. For example, vacuuming and dusting is an effective solution to long-term home allergens.

But these cleaning tasks could be relatively pointless if your AC filter is filthy. As such, it’s crucial to follow these steps in the order that they’re listed.

1. Changing Your Air Filter

The very first thing you’ll want to do is check your home’s HVAC air filter. If you can’t remember the last time you changed your air filter, it’s probably overdue for cleaning or changing.

The majority of HVAC air filters are disposable and should be replaced at least every three months. Homes with smokers, dirtied ovens, and other interior pollution may require more consistent filter replacement.

If you notice that your air filter is brown, sooty, or covered in dust and lint, you should seek an appropriately-sized replacement as soon as possible. Allowing allergens to build on your filter contributes to home allergens.

A dirty filter can also cause your air conditioning system to work harder, resulting in higher utility bills. Even if you’ve gotten your zone control down, you might be paying an overly high electric bill if your air filter is dirty.

2. Vacuuming and Dusting

Daily vacuuming and dusting could help you get rid of home allergens. Many of the common allergens found inside of homes settle onto surfaces and into the carpeting.

By vacuuming your floors and wiping down your furniture, you’re ridding your home of a significant amount of allergens. These tasks only require to spend between ten and thirty minutes cleaning each day, and they could help you enjoy a cleaner home.

However, when vacuuming and dusting aren’t enough, it may be time to visit your local garden nursery.

3. Investing in Indoor Plants

There are several species of indoor plants that could help you enjoy clean, oxygenated air. While some of these could be toxic to your four-legged family members, many are pet-safe and exceptionally effective.

In general, ferns that grow well in partial-light or low-light environments tend to thrive indoors. These plants can absorb airborne toxins, including carbon monoxide, and replace them with fresh, breathable oxygen.

If you’re attempting to purify your home’s air without the use of expensive equipment or scent-masking sprays, investing in the right indoor plants could be the ideal solution.

4. Hiring Professionals

A team of professional HVAC technicians should be able to help you keep your HVAC system in excellent shape. This maintenance extends to your system’s cleanliness.

When all else fails, professional technicians will be able to help you improve your home’s air quality while reducing the number of airborne allergens. Besides, it’s vital to maintain your HVAC system to keep costs low and your household happy.

Enjoy Cleaner Air Today

Dust, mold, pollen, and pet dander can all contribute to interior allergies. Sadly, avoiding all of these allergens can be nearly impossible. But by recognizing and targeting them, you could help limit their spread throughout the home.

If you’ve been suffering from home allergens, you may want to change your AC air filter, vacuum/dust every day, invest in air-cleaning indoor plants, or hire a team of professionals to clean your HVAC system.

If you enjoyed this article and would like to learn more about HVAC maintenance and cleaning, please contact us today! We look forward to hearing from you.

As the weather turns colder here in Michigan, you become more dependent on your furnace. But that won’t be the case if your furnace can’t work the way it should. Have you turned on your furnace and end up getting cold air instead of heat? Why is your furnace blowing cold air instead of heating the house?

If you’re experiencing this problem, then there is no need to panic because you can diagnose most of the issues yourself. This article outlines seven reasons why your furnace is blowing cold air. We offer a few simple solutions to have your house warm in no time.

1. Check the Air Filters

Sometimes your furnace can overheat and start blowing cold air. This is because its safety control will shut off burners, but the fan still runs cold air to cool off the furnace.

You still need to know why your furnace is overheating in the first place. The overheating could occur because of restricted airflow, which mostly happens when the air filter gets dirty. Restricted airflow will cause the furnace to run harder to provide the needed heat, which endangers it.

Ensure you check your air filter and work on a replacement if you notice that it’s experiencing some issues. After replacing the air filter, check to see if the heater is blowing warm air as required and preventing future overheating problems.

2. Wrong Thermostat Setting

When your thermostat blows warm air but switches to cold air sometimes, check the fan’s setting. When the thermostat fan is set to ON, it means it will run 24/7.

When this happens, it will run, pushing air through the system both when the furnace ignites and generates warm air — and when the furnace shuts down because it has achieved the temperature you set on the thermostat.

If your thermostat fan setting is set to ON, you could turn it to AUTO. This means your blower will only be running when the furnace is heating the air. Alternatively, many people leave their thermostat to have the fan run continuously to keep air circulating throughout their house at all times. But understand that in the winter months, this could mean cold air will be flowing through the system.

3. Insufficient Supply of Gas Could Be Another Issue

Sometimes the reason for your furnace blowing cold air is because the gas supply is off. Or, it could be on, but the line doesn’t provide enough supply of gas that your furnace needs to run as required. When this happens, the furnace will lockdown to protect itself from damage.

You need to get a professional to help you solve this problem as soon as possible. Attempting to do it yourself could escalate the issue even further.

4. Your Condenser Could Be Clogged

Efficient furnaces come with condensate drain lines that remove water that forms during the heating process. But these drains can get clogged with time and won’t work efficiently anymore. The water will not drain as usual but instead go back to the furnace.

What’s worse, the lines almost activate the switch that prevents burners from lighting. The overflow kill switch will shut the furnace down to prevent damage. When this happens, the furnace will not blow the required warm air.

Another cause of the condensate overflow may be a broken pump. When you suspect that this is the cause, call a professional cooling and heating company to do the fixing right away. However, if the blockage is an ice problem, heat tape and pipe insulation can solve the problem.

5. Pilot Light or Ignition Problem

An ignition problem can also be the reason why your furnace is not blowing hot air. Your heater will not light the fuel; hence you won’t receive the required heat. If your pilot light is not working, try solving the problem by employing the following steps.

• Check how to ignite the ignition light of your brand, which is usually on the unit or the user manual.

• Follow the process carefully to relight it and wait a few minutes.

If it goes off, then you might be having a thermocouple problem.

This means you adjust or replace the components, which only a professional can do. It could also mean you need to upgrade your heating solution as some problems could be a sign of aging.

Another issue that may cause an ignition problem is the gas supply. Make sure your gas valve is on. If it’s on but still not working, then the pilot light could be dirty.

A simple job cleaning can solve the problem right away.

Lastly, if you have a propane system, the gas line could be damaged. If you suspect this is the case, call for immediate professional help.

6. Furnace Blowing Cold Air Caused by Major Duct Problems

Serious problems such as leaks and holes in the duct can cause your furnace to blow cool air. This is because cold air from your crawlspace or attic can enter the furnace through the holes. This problem is easy to solve by simply doing a thorough inspection of your ductwork, and you guessed it – employing some duct tape. If the damage to the ductwork is more substantial, don’t be afraid to give us a call.

7. Dirt in Your Flame Sensor

If there is dirt accumulation in your flame sensor, the furnace won’t work as intended. To determine if your flame sensor is dirty, you will notice problems such as the unit cycling on and off. This problem will switch off your gas burner, interfering with the flow of warm air.

Look for Professional Help for Other Issues

One of the problems mentioned above could be the reason why your furnace is blowing cold air. However, this always isn’t the case. What else can you do if all the above solutions don’t solve your furnace blowing cold air problem? At this point, you should probably seek professional help.

Davison Heating & Cooling will help you diagnose all your furnace issues and ensure you receive the desired heat during the chilly weather seasons. Contact us today, and let’s help you solve your heating and cooling problems for a warmer home.