The ongoing pandemic has, for obvious reasons, reinvigorated peoples’ interest in staying and healthy and maintaining good cleanliness/sanitization practices.

Washing our hands frequently, coughing and sneezing away from people into our elbows, wiping down and sanitizing surfaces, and applying hand sanitizer when soap isn’t available all occur much more frequently.

It’s excellent to see people keeping themselves so clean, but hygiene doesn’t stop at the personal level.

The air we breathe plays a significant role in our health as well, even if we often take clean air for granted. After all, we have to breathe — so the air we inhale should be clean of germs, allergens, and so on.

And what’s responsible for that?

Your home’s heating and cooling systems.

Guarding Your Home Against Allergens and Germs

As mentioned, your heating and cooling systems are substantially responsible for maintaining good air quality in your home. They constantly circulate air throughout your house.

However, bad things can sneak into this air and potentially decrease air quality. Any time you open your door or window, things from the outside world can make it into your home and circulate through the air.

Of course, that’s what your system’s air filter is for. Your air filter accumulates this stuff, though, which makes your system less efficient. Thus, you want to replace your air filter regularly.

Similarly, your ducts build up this junk. Cleaning your ducts regularly keeps your air as clean as possible.

For further cleaning of the air, you can buy various air quality products, such as air purifiers or items that use UV light to kill germs.

What About the Pandemic?

Air filters can trap plenty of particles, but the current pandemic is quite small and may be able to squeeze through these filters. Even the finest of filters might not stop it.

That’s where UV products can come in handy. Studies have shown that lamps or other devices that emit UV-C light can be effective at killing this specific virus.

Of course, you don’t want to rely on these products alone. It’s best to continue wiping down and sanitizing surfaces and keeping all your filters and ducts clean for good airflow. This is especially important for rooms where people gather, as close contact is one of the most common methods of respiratory illness spread.

Along with these, continuing to wash your hands and cough/sneeze into your elbow will help minimize the spread of illness.

In these times, you’re likely a bit more on guard about who comes into your house. Don’t worry — at Barner Murphy, your safety is of the utmost importance to us. All of our professionals wear masks when at your home and maintain a distance of at least six feet whenever possible. We can fix up your central heating and cooling and make sure it’s keeping your air nice and clean — and, by extension, keeping you healthy. Contact us today to learn more.