Hot-CHOO! Three Reasons Why Your Heating Is Suddenly Making You Sneeze
When you turn your heating on for the first time late in fall or early winter, you only expect to feel toasty-warm. You do not expect to suddenly cough, sneeze, and have congestion and a runny nose. What exactly is going on with the heating and air in your home? If this happens to you every year, and you are tired of it, you need to know the probable reasons why.
Dirty Furnace Filters
When was the last time you changed the furnace filter? If you cannot remember at least the month, this home maintenance task is long overdue. Go downstairs to the basement (or wherever your furnace is located), pull the filter out of the slot, and take a good look at it. It is probably coated in a ton of gray to black particles of dust and even hair. Eww. Note the size of your furnace filter and then go get a new one to replace the dirty one.
Filthy Ventilation System
You may or may not regularly wipe down the vents in your home. If you do, that certainly helps decrease the dust, hair, fur, and skin particles that contribute to your symptoms. If you do not, you should go wipe them down right now. Go on.
Okay, now that you have that done, call an HVAC tech that specializes in clearing out and cleaning out ventilation systems. Everything you just cleaned off of the vents is in the air ducts, multiplied by ten, at least. The technician can get all the way down inside the ventilation system, clearing every last particle of dust and spider skeleton as he/she goes. You should notice a dramatic difference in air quality within an hour of turning the furnace back on after the cleaning.
Humidity Control
Pumping heat into your home does something to the air. It makes any moisture in the air evaporate and rise as hot air. It leaves the dry air at nose level, which causes your body to produce more mucus to keep nasal passages moist.
This is a simple fix, really. Use humidifiers in your home, or use a universal humidity control system that automatically pumps humidity into the heated air before it rises up through the ventilation system and up through the vents. You will breathe freer and easier because your body will not attempt to compensate for what the air in your home does not have.
For more information, contact a business such as Bryant Air Conditioning, Heating, Electrical & Plumbing.
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