Home Air Filter Can Save Your Health - And Maybe Your Life

As more people become environmentally conscious - and as our indoor environment grows increasingly polluted - installing a home air filter just makes good sense. Unless you live by a freeway, the air inside where you live or work can be up to one hundred times more polluted than the air outdoors! Kind of shocking, isn't it?

Poor Indoor Air Quality Can Make You Sick

We don't normally think of air as something over which we have any control. Yet the typical American spends up to fourteen hours a day in the home, often completely unaware that poor indoor air quality may be directly affecting his or her health. That's why buying a home air filter can make breathing easier.

An Air Filter Can Relieve Symptoms You Thought Were "Normal"

When you buy a home air filter, you can say goodbye to dust, dander, mold, pollen, household cleaner residues, bacteria, and other microscopic particles that can lodge in your eyes, nose, throat, and lungs and cause misery. If you've been congested, tired or otherwise reactive at home and feel better outdoors, it's a good bet you can benefit from an air filter.

Keep Those Heating and Air Conditioning Filters Clean

It's also vital that you clean the filters in your home's heating and air conditioning systems regularly. Mold builds up in moist, damp places and can cause respiratory difficulties, allergies, and illness. For instance, if you have a humidifier, it's especially important to keep it clean and mold-free, and to check the filter regularly.

Baby Your Home Air Filter: Change It When It Needs Changing

How frequently you'll need to change your home air filter depends on how much you use it, and on the manufacturer's guidelines for your specific brand and model. Many manufacturers offer a wide range of air filters, including filter media for electronic air cleaners, furnace replacement pads, a furnace air filter, a humidifier filter and a dehumidifier filter.

Extreme Makeover Filtered A Sick Home And Saved A Teen's Health

One way to gauge an idea whose time has come is by its appearance in the popular media. The television show, "Extreme Makeover" did a home makeover for a moldy house in southern California, which was torturing a teenager who has a rare cell disorder compounded by asthma and allergies. In addition to ripping out the carpeting (one of the worst offenders for all manner of allergens), the contractor added an air filter to the home's heating and air conditioning unit, which had been one of the major mold culprits.

The results have been literally life altering. The 16-year-old hasn't had an asthma attack since the renovations, and his wheezing has ceased. This is a rather dramatic example of what a home air filter can accomplish.

Whatever Your Needs, There's A Home Air Filter to Fit Them

But why wait until you're in dire straits, when buying a little preventive medicine is so easy? You can buy a room-sized air filter to clean the air in a small space, or purchase a whole-house filtration system. Soon, like the family featured in Extreme Makeover, you'll feel so much improved you'll be amazed that you waited this long to bring healthier air into your home.