A clean air duct is one of the keys to clean indoor air. However, homeowners can further rid the home of allergens by adding indoor plants. Here are some of the best indoor plants for air purification and why they work as natural air improvers.

How Do Plants Purify Air?

Leaf surfaces contains pores that absorb gasses. This is part of the natural photosynthesis process. Researchers have long known plants absorb carbon dioxide. However, recent studies suggest they can absorb other gasses harmful to people. This includes many verified volatile organic compounds, such as benzene and formaldehyde. This process is known as phytoremediation, and more homeowners are exploring it as a means to natural air purification.

Best Plants for Indoor Air Purification

Let’s explore the top plants that double as air purifiers and exuberant décor. 

• Garden Mum: NASA highly recommended this plant as an air-purifying powerhouse. It’s also inexpensive and readily available at your local garden store. Garden mums remove indoor pollutants, such as benzene, ammonia, and xylene.
• Dracaena: With over 40 varieties, you’ll find one that is agreeable with your home or office. The dracaena plant helps eliminate pollutants such as formaldehyde and trichloroethylene. 
• Peace Lily: The peace lily has powerful purification abilities despite its relatively small size. While it removes harmful pollutants, it does emit pollen. You may want to avoid this one if you have allergies.
• Aloe Vera: This plant is renowned for its aloe, a natural gel-like substance with various medicinal properties. While mostly an outdoor plant, you can bring it inside for use as a purifier. 

We Restore Air Quality

For complete safe and breathable indoor air, contact Aurora Edmonds Furnace Cleaning. Components like the dryer vent and furnace all release contaminants if not cleaned. Plants that purify air keep the home’s interior clean but should not be a homeowner’s only resource.

Indoor Air Improvement

Serving Seattle, Tacoma, Everett, Bellevue, King Countyand South Snohomish County

Having a dirty air duct means that more dust, pollen, and other impure particles will be in the air you breathe. This certainly does your health no favors. How exactly does a dirty air duct affect your health? What kinds of illness can arise?

What’s in the Air Inside the Home?

First, let’s examine common indoor contaminants and their sources. Pollutants, after all, don’t just enter the house from the outdoors. 

• Pet dander
• Volatile organic compounds from paint
• Carbon monoxide and byproducts from gas stoves
• Phthalate emissions from electronic plastic casings
• Mercury fumes from broken compact fluorescent bulbs 

These can collect inside an air vent and later blow into the rooms when the AC or furnace comes on.

Common Illnesses from Dirty Air Vents

The most common illness is an allergic reaction. This includes all the mainstay symptoms, such as sneezing, wheezing, watery eyes, and respiratory-related problems. Sinus infections are also common. Particles in indoor air will come into contact with your nasal passage. This can cause inflamed sinuses from contact with even benign air particles. 

That’s not all; for those with sensitive skin, exposure to pollutants can cause rashes, hives, and eczema.

Prevention

Spring is not far off. This means the arrival of spring allergies. We suggest you make a head start on your spring cleaning by scheduling an air duct cleaning. This eliminates years of accumulated debris in your residential ductways. We also suggest investing in a dehumidifier. This prevents the spread of mold inside the ducts and in the air. Breathing mold-infested air is especially detrimental if you have a sensitive respiratory system.

Don’t Let Dirty Air Ducts Affect Your Health

End winter with an air duct cleaning from Aurora Edmonds Furnace Cleaning. We also suggest a dryer vent cleaning in the process as a safety measure. Dirty air ducts affect your health more than you realize; don’t ignore this part of home maintenance.

Residential and Commercial Air Duct Cleaning 

Serving Seattle, Tacoma, Everett, Bellevue, King Countyand South Snohomish County

While somewhat of a rarity, some laundry rooms are located on a home’s second floor. If this describes your home, then you will probably have a rooftop dryer vent. In this instance, cleaning the vent poses a challenge.

Rooftop Dryer Vent Inspections

Cleaning a dryer vent on a rooftop is no different than doing it when the unit is at ground level. However, greater safety precautions are in order. After all, the technician has to actually walk the roof. This is why we don’t recommend that homeowners attempt DIY cleaning. 

The technician climbs the roof and inspects the vent. This is done by running the unit on air-only and making sure all connections are secure. If obstructions are present, then the air exiting the rooftop vent is greatly diminished or nonexistent. 

The Cleaning Process

One of our cleaning methods includes the use of a reverse-blowing air ball that we insert into the duct. Using an air trigger, the air ball begins the process of cleaning the dryer vent interior, including the damper and hood. This removes the lint in hard-to-reach areas like the inner hood around the damper. The lint typically becomes stuck as it hardens upon exposure to temperature extremes.

As the lint loosens, expect heavy chunks of lint balls to discharge from the vent. Feel free to remove the lint as it drops to the floor. This is the only DIY part we recommend.

We must emphasize that a thorough cleaning requires rooftop access. Partial lint removal is only possible if you clean from the ground or the attic.

We Do Rooftop Dryer Vent Cleaning

With 2019 here, now is a good time for cleaning your entire home, including the air ducts and furnace. Contact Aurora Edmonds Furnace Cleaning to begin the process. Some Snohomish homes have rooftop dryer vents, and we have the equipment to handle such tasks.

Residential Dryer Vent Maintenance

Serving Seattle, Tacoma, Everett, Bellevue, King Countyand South Snohomish County

Most homeowners this winter are looking for affordable ways to keep the home cozy. One trick they are resorting to is closed heating vents in unoccupied rooms. Does closing heating vents actually work to improve home heating and circulation?

Why Closing Heating Vents Supposedly Works

The idea behind this DIY trick is that sealing vents in unused spaces redirects the airflow to the rooms in use. The belief is that when air hits a dead end, it reverses direction and spreads to rooms with open vents. Homeowners will actually tape cardboard over the vents to seal them. Unfortunately, the closed heating vent tactic doesn’t work, and might actually be counterproductive. 

The Truth About Sealed Vents

If your air vents are in top condition, then this method may have a small beneficial effect. However, most residential ductwork contains cracks and leaks. The heat from the furnace will just escape through these exposed openings. 

In fact, this might increase overall heat and air loss. How so? Even if you close off a vent, the room still has other openings, such as doors and other access points. The room will use these openings to draw air from rooms with unsealed vents.

The bottom line is that furnaces and ACs operate optimally when the airflow is evenly distributed. You cannot get more air to one room by cutting off heating vents in another. The air will naturally find a way to rebalance its distribution. A sealed vent results in air distribution through less efficient means, leading to hot and cold spots.

We Restore Air Flow Balance

If you suspect air flow is less than optimal, then call Aurora Edmonds Furnace Cleaning. This is the time of year for furnace and dryer vent maintenance. The takeaway lesson here is that closing a heating vent is never the way to improve air flow.

Air Vent and Ductwork Repair

Serving Seattle, Tacoma, Everett, Bellevue, King Countyand South Snohomish County

When buying a home, you need to perform your due diligence. During the tour of the place, you need to enquire about the condition of the foundation, roof, plumbing, etc. Most people, though, gloss over the HVAC system. An HVAC inspection for homebuyers is a must.

Inspect the HVAC

The AC and furnace components of the system are usually out of sight. You should request to see these units. Obviously, a visual inspection alone doesn’t tell you much. So ask if the homeowner is willing to agree to an inspection by a technician. The inspector will look for anomalies, such as rattling noises, that may indicate signs of trouble.

Know the System’s Age

Enquire about the age of the system. This gives you a ballpark idea about how much life the system has left. Typical systems last between 10 and 15 years. With that being said, an older HVAC system doesn’t have to be an instant deal breaker. If the homeowner has maintained the system over the years, then it should still have plenty of juice. This takes us to our next point. Continue Reading →

Fall is here. This means the autumn chill is also fast approaching. Within the coming weeks, expect to turn up your furnace to keep your home cozy. Now is the time of year for a maintenance. Learn why a fall furnace cleaning is a must for optimum energy efficiency.

Why Fall Furnace Cleaning Matters

Mid to late fall is when households usually begin using their furnaces again after a long hiatus. Over the spring and summer, dust can accumulate in the air ducts that the heat travels through. This is also true of other materials, such as pollen, mold, and insect parts.

You also probably used the AC a lot between June and August. This causes airborne particulates to accumulate in the same ducts.

Early fall is the transition period between the summer heat and autumn chills. We believe this is the best timeframe in which to schedule a cleaning. Continue Reading →

A house naturally collects dust. All you can really do in response is wipe the table surfaces and upholstery. Where exactly is all this dust coming from anyway? We’ll explain what causes a dusty home and what you can do to minimize it.

Dirty Air Ducts

The air ducts collect dust, not to mention a host of other debris, such as insect remains and droppings. When the HVAC switches on, all that stuff blows into the rooms through the vents. This is precisely why you need to schedule an air duct cleaning at least once a year. Dust from air vents is especially problematic for carpeted homes. The carpet fibers can hold onto buckets full of dust. Vacuuming only removes the surface layer.

On the subject of air ducts, punctures in the ducts are another problem. When the HVAC comes on, the suction can pull air and accompanying pollutants from the outdoors and blow them indoors. Continue Reading →

We don’t need to tell you that smoking is bad for your health. However, not many people are aware of the possibility of third-hand smoke from a neighbor in an apartment or condo. Yes, the residual fumes do spread from one living unit to another. Residents need to be aware of the connection between cigarette smoke and HVAC systems.

How HVAC Systems Cause Cigarette Smoke to Spread

We highly advise against smoking indoors if you live with other people. Even if you’re home alone, the residual smoke lingers for a long time. The carcinogens and other chemicals remain in the air and on furniture surfaces for hours.

You can minimize residual chemicals with regular dusting and vacuuming. However, some of the chemicals still remain in the inaccessible parts of the air vents. Every time you switch on the AC or furnace, the air just blows the chemicals back into the interior. Continue Reading →

Some homeowners who buy a new dryer don’t know how to hook it up to the vent. Instead of calling in an installer, they just use the dryer like normal without ever attaching the hose. Is this acceptable? No. There are hazards to operating a dryer without a vent.

Dryer Operation Without Vent Attachment; Yay or Nay?

In spite of what some people may say, the answer is an emphatic “no.” Operation in this manner can cause premature damage to the dryer; it is also creates safety hazards.

When the dryer is in operation, it emits moist air. The air has to go somewhere. Without a vent attachment, the air circulates into the home interior. Humid air combined with hot summers is the perfect recipe for mold growth. The air also contains microscopic lint particles, which you don’t want to breathe in. Continue Reading →

Summer is when homeowners really turn up the air conditioning. Before use, though, we recommend cleaning the air ducts and furnace. This also includes a thorough wipe-down of the A-coil—also known as the evaporator coil. Most homeowners overlook this component. A-Coil cleaning is necessary as part of routine HVAC maintenance.

What Is the A-Coil?

The A-coil/evaporator coil, is a triangular-shaped tube located above the furnace. Air passes over this component before exiting the vents and into the living space. The air flows across this coil whether you’re using the AC or heater.

Due to the constant shuttling of air, the coil surface is susceptible to contaminant buildup. It can accumulate dust mites, pet hair, insect parts, and microscopic allergens.

Does the A-Coil Require Cleaning?

You can perform a visual inspection if the coil is accessible and not encased. You can easily spot signs of debris buildup and grime. A dirty A-coil is usually also a sign that the filter is equally dirty. A clogged filter enables larger debris to slip through and cling to the coil. If the A-coil is filthy, then you need to schedule a professional cleaning. Continue Reading →