Do you have family members with seasonal allergies or breathing-related sensitivities? If so, then you’re intimately familiar with respiratory illnesses and diseases. Keeping your home breathable and healthy is often one of your top priorities.
However, something that’s becoming more and more apparent is that outside allergens, pollution, and other contaminants in the air affect even those who don’t deal with ongoing respiratory illnesses and diseases. That’s why we’re focusing on this topic today with several insights on how this can affect everyone and what you can do to keep your family safe.
The importance of ventilation
Let’s start with the importance of ventilation. Unless you work in the HVAC industry, you probably don’t think much about this word.
So first, why does ventilation matter? Let’s continue with the HVAC analogy for a moment. Airflow is critically necessary for your air conditioning unit to function properly. If there is a blockage — say, from a dirty air filter — your system works harder to keep your home cool.
Now let’s turn that on its head: your body is a system. Your body also has methods in place to try and keep allergens from affecting it. This is called your histamine response. Whenever a pathogen enters your body, your natural air filter known as your immune system generates this response. It’s why allergy sufferers feel so bad whenever they have a flare-up.
Of course, today we’re focused on your home and why keeping the air around it breathable and healthy is important.
So tip #1, change your air filter
If it isn’t obvious, your HVAC air filter plays a role in keeping the air in your home breathable and healthy. Retailers often offer several different options of air filters. Each of these has an increasing level of protection, which can help prevent respiratory illnesses and diseases. A good place to start is with one that has a filtration level of 1500 or a MERV 12 rating. This helps to eliminate many of the airborne pathogens, including lint, dust, pollen, mold spores, pet dander, smoke, bacteria, and viruses.
However, you should also change your air filters at a minimum, every three months. Much beyond that and the filter will look excessively dirty and be unable to perform its intended purpose: keeping the air that cycles through your home breathable and healthy.
How air in your home can affect respiratory illnesses and diseases
But why does this matter exactly? You’re inside, so why does the outside air matter?
That loops back to our original concept of ventilation. Even if your home is relatively sealed up, it’s still going to pull in outside contaminants. This means that the things you or others do outside can affect how you feel inside.
Respiratory illnesses and diseases are on the rise, especially after the past couple of years. We’re more aware of the importance of keeping our air breathable and healthy. However, we would be remiss if we didn’t address what the pandemic taught us.
Breathable air
With much of the global pandemic in our collective rear-view mirror, it means that this is a great time to reflect on what we learned from it. Forgetting all of the baggage that came with it, there’s one key detail we all can hold on to.
And that is that breathable air will continue to be a focus in the coming years. Businesses quickly tried to adapt to updated air filtration systems. Cleaning companies focused on heavy-duty processes to eliminate pathogens.
Imagine, if you will, what a person who has asthma deals with whenever they have an attack. If you’d like a quick example, grab a straw. Close your nose, and breathe in and out through the straw. After a minute or two, you’ll start to feel pretty winded.
That’s because our body needs clean air, and lots of it. Updated filtration systems and MERV-rated air filters are only the first step. The next has to do with what we can all do to make the air outside even cleaner.
Switch to electric lawn care equipment
Changing air pollution — one of the primary adversaries of keeping our air clean and breathable — is a collective action. It will take time to make the transition to alternative fuel sources for our vehicles. EVs are making a dent for sure, but there’s still a ton of smoke and smog in the air across the country.
One way to minimize your individual contribution to that is to switch to electric lawn care equipment. Let’s focus on two specific pieces of equipment: your lawn mower and your trimmers.
Switching to electric lawnmowers
Did you know that the pollution output of using a gas-powered mower for one hour is the equivalent of driving 100 miles in a sedan? That’s a ton of CO2, and much of that is coming straight up into your lungs as you mow.
Beyond that, gas-powered mowers release nitrous oxides, which contribute to smog and acid rain — not to mention the impact they have on the air in and around your home.
By switching to electric mowers, not only will you have a much more quiet mowing experience, but you won’t have to deal with the headache of smelling like a gas station after mowing your yard. In addition, they’re less disruptive for local wildlife and those sleeping during the day because of a third shift schedule. Plus, they serve the vital goal of keeping your home breathable and healthy!
Switching to electric trimmers
On a lesser note, gas-powered trimmers still contribute to air as well as other types of pollution. Electric alternatives in this category provide many of the same benefits as electric lawnmowers. They’re quieter, they don’t smell as bad, they run cooler, and they’re better for the environment. They come in both wired and battery-powered options, depending on your needs.
Hire a complete lawn service that uses electric equipment
Of course, many Gainesville homeowners need lawn care services due to their exceptionally busy schedules. Therefore, they will hire a lawn care company to take care of their weekly mowing and trimming.
If this is something you do, or are considering hiring for, then one way you can minimize the impact of pollution on those who suffer from respiratory illnesses and diseases is to hire an electric lawn care company. And that’s where our team comes in: we’re 100% electric and have been so since the beginning. We offer multiple lawn care packages to meet your needs and would love to give you a free quote for services.
Keep your home breathable and healthy — hire Sun Power Lawn Care for your complete lawn service today!
Here are some great resources to help your lawn look its best:
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