Thompson Tips for Conquering Allergies: "Build it tight, ventilate right!"
- Housekeeping - before you spend any money, start with elbow grease. It isnt' sexy, but it's really effective. Vacuum religiously, dust, dust, dust, use mats at doors, don't keep towels longer than a few years.
- Reduce Allergy Catchers - Change pillows annually, change mattress every 10 yrs, eliminate carpet.
- Pleated furnace filter - These remove much smaller particulates out of the air (MERV), must change them as recommended, thicker filters last longer. Bath & Kitchen fans also remove concentrations of pollutants.
- HEPA Filtration - Units are pretty good. Whole house is better (but considerably more expensive).
- HEPA on an Air to Air Exchanger (ERV) - this is hospital quality, fresh & filtered air, right in your home.
Fresh, clean air is something you may not notice at first but once you experience it, you'll love it!
Definitions (http://www.furnacecompare.com/faq/definitions/hepa.html):
- The acronym HEPA stands for "High Efficiency Particulate Air" or "High Efficiency Particulate Absorbing" Technically speaking, the US Centers for Disease Control defines a HEPA filter as an air filter that removes more than 99.97% of particles 0.3 microns or larger at a specified flow rate of air.
- The acronym MERV stands for "Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value"
Want to learn more about IAQ? Visit: http://www.epa.gov/iaq/ia-intro.html
Topics: On the Radio
