According to weather experts, Ontario is shaping up to be a real overachiever this winter.
In fact, certain regions in Ontario are breaking cold temperature records set as far back as 1968! This means the furnace or whatever heat source you have is running almost nonstop.
Stagnant, dry winter air can trap more toxins and pollutants down near the surface of our planet than even hot, humid summer air. As these pollutants get pulled into our indoor air supply, we can start to feel worse without being any the wiser as to why.
But while we can’t do anything about the current impact climate change is having on our local weather, we can do a lot to prevent what is going on outside from affecting how we feel and how healthy we are this winter season.
The Impact of Cold Air on Respiratory Health
Sometimes it can seem like plunging temperatures can make air pollution worse. Along with the moisture-filled clouds and morning fog, exhaust fumes and combustion by-products drift upward to form a dense, grey smog that sits just above the horizon.
Where is all that grey coming from? And why does it sometimes feel so hard to get a good deep breath of clean air?
According to the Fort Air Partnership, a nonprofit air monitoring organization in Alberta, there is a “perfect storm” build-up of particulate matter in winter that interacts with temperature and air flow in a way that happens at no other time of year.
This winter phenomenon is known as “temperature inversion.” Simply put, temperature inversion occurs when the air near the Earth’s surface is cold, but the air just above this surface air layer is warm. The warm air layer is called the “inversion layer,” and it sits like the filling in a sandwich in between two layers of colder air, one below and one above.
When the cold air gets trapped near ground-level, it doesn’t rise, so the toxins, pollutants, particulate matter, and off-gassing from thousands of vehicles, factories, wood stoves, and fireplaces gets trapped there as well. To make matters worse, the warm air that could carry these toxins away is also trapped beneath the two layers of colder air.
So there it sits. And all those toxins are not only ripe for the breathing whenever you set foot outdoors, but they readily enter your indoor spaces at every opportunity, forcing your immune system to work even harder to keep you healthy.
What is the solution? Read on to see!
Indoor Air Quality Helps to Give Your Immune System a Break
You are probably wondering how outside air toxins can affect you once you move indoors at home or at the office. If you are living in new, airtight construction that is equipped with the newest Energy Star-efficient heating and cooling systems and the highest filtration ratings, perhaps you are safe from the toxic smog outside. But that can also mean trapped indoor air that is less than fresh.
Often, in older homes, the heating and cooling appliances aren’t up to the job of filtering out small airborne particulate matter and other allergens. As well, in most cases, the inside air duct system has not been cleaned in years, if ever, resulting in masses of built-up irritants that keep getting pushed out of the air registers with each cycle.
Here is what we recommend for keeping your indoor air squeaky clean even during extreme cold weather:
1. Professional air duct cleaning
This service is literally like hitting the “reset” button on your entire network of air ducts. In less than one day, our industrial-strength self-enclosed vacuum system pulls out every speck of dust, dirt, debris, and irritants trapped inside your air ducts. This leaves your air ducts as clean as when they were brand-new!
For the finishing touches, we deodorize and sanitize your air ducts. Clients say their indoor air is so fresh and clean they can actually smell the difference!
2. HEPA filtration
The addition of a whole-home HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) system can filter out airborne irritants as small as one one-hundredth of a single human hair!
Since older-model air conditioning and heating units typically cannot accommodate high-efficiency HEPA or MERV filters, the addition of a standalone HEPA filtration unit can effectively turn your entire heating and cooling system into a high-efficiency air purifier.
3. Ultraviolet air purifier
U.V. light from the sun is still the best purification system on the planet. The whole-home U.V. air purifier in essence brings all that is good about the sun’s U.V. light indoors to neutralize any airborne irritant, pollutant, allergen, or toxin unlucky enough to float past it.
The U.V. purifier works seamlessly with your heating and cooling system, neutralizing and purifying the air you breathe before it ever enters your air duct system.
Typically, clients choose to install either a HEPA filtration system or an ultraviolet purification system (both accomplish essentially the same task) to clean their indoor air.
Here, it is easy to see how first cleaning out your air duct network and then installing either a HEPA filtration system or U.V. air purifier system can protect you against the worst that the outside environment can cook up!
Save $50 on Air Duct Cleaning and 20 Percent on Air Quality Aids
Right now through the end of February, you can save $50 on any professional indoor air duct cleaning and 20 percent on any whole-home indoor air quality aid, including heat/energy recovery exchangers, HEPA systems, UV filters, and humidification systems.
We have three air duct cleaning packages (Bronze, Silver, Gold) to suit every need and budget.
To claim your savings, simply fill out this easy online form or give us a call at 905-544-2470!
