It’s officially pollen season. The azaleas are in full bloom, the dogwoods are simply beautiful… and that dreaded yellow pollen cloud is everywhere. Your car is covered, your home is covered, and with these great tips and tricks to deal with all that pollen, your friends at Holtkamp Heating & Air have you covered!
1) Follow these Simple Tips for Dealing with Pollen
- Check the pollen count in your area daily, using online tools like this one from The Weather Channel.
- Keep your doors and windows closed, especially when pollen counts are high. The comfortable temperatures might be tempting, but closing those doors and windows allows you to use your filtered air conditioning system instead.
- Set the A/C in your car to recirculate, rather than bringing in fresh air full of pollen.
- Most plants pollinate between 5AM-9PM. If you like going for a walk with your family or pet, be sure to do it in the evening.
- Your pets become pollen vehicles this time of year, transporting it into your home. When they’ve been outside, use a damp towel or dish cloth to wipe them down.
- Dry, windy days stir up more pollen. The best time to enjoy outdoor activities in spring is after a heavy rainfall.
- Avoid line-drying your clothes and bed linens as they’re basically soaking up all that pollen and bringing it into your home.
- Sunglasses can play a role in protecting your eyes from pollen.
- If you’re doing spring yard work to get your yard in shape, consider wearing a mask from a home improvement store.
- After spending time outside, change your clothes and wash your hands and face. And if you have long hair, consider rinsing it.
- If you take allergy medicines this time of year for runny nose, watery eyes, coughing or congestion, take them before you feel miserable. You’ll stay ahead of the symptoms!
2) Don’t Fall for Duct Cleaning Scams
Your mailbox is full of ads telling you it’s “duct cleaning time.” But we like to provide you with the latest facts, not recycled HVAC industry habits.
Let’s break it down: Airborne allergies are caused by actual irritants, whether that be pollen, mold, dust, dander or animal hair. It seems logical that cleaning your HVAC ducts would eliminate this from your home. But have you eliminated the source?
Until you have pinpointed where the irritants are coming from and then devised a sound plan to limit or eliminate them, cleaning your ducts will simply be temporarily addressing the symptom and not the disease. Don’t dump your dollars down the duct cleaning drain!
3) Duct Sealing Can Improve Indoor Air Quality
Have you had your duct system inspected and had your house tested for outside air infiltration? Leaky ducts are not only wasteful (dumping conditioned air into attics and basements) but can also suck in irritants like insulation, wood dust, mold spores and pest droppings from attics and basements, recirculating them throughout your home.
Secondly, if you have outside air infiltrating your house through cracks around windows and doors, leaky fireplaces and ceiling gaps, this causes heating losses in winter and cooling losses in summer. So along with throwing away money to heat or cool the outside, you’re also drawing in pollen and other airborne allergens.
Sealing ducts and plugging outside air holes is not rocket science, you simply need to know exactly where the leaks are and professionally plug them. When we do your duct sealing, we test before and after, and guarantee the results. This can also reduce your utility bills up to 40% while also increasing your indoor health and comfort.
Bonus Tip:
A properly sealed duct system will regularly clean itself, every time your HVAC system kicks on. It fully eliminates the need for duct cleaning because your filter can now properly remove particulates from your indoor air. If you are highly sensitive to allergens and want an added layer of protection, we also recommend the very affordable whole house filtration system like the Aprilaire 5000™.
If you’re ready to improve your indoor air quality and kick pollen and other allergens to the curb, give us a call 770.271.7511 or drop us a line.