There are several factors that contribute to a home’s indoor air quality, including outdoor pollutants like pollen, and indoor pollutants like dust. It’s important to take steps to manage these sources and eliminate them, but it’s just as critical to assess the contribution from pollutants in your attached garage. They could be affecting your home’s indoor air quality, and sabotaging any efforts that you make to control it.
Your attached garage can contribute to polluted indoor air via the exhaust from your car, and any other home equipment you store in it, along with chemicals and household cleaners or solutions. The easiest way to eliminate pollution from chemicals and equipment is to store them elsewhere, like in a tool shed. However, dealing with your vehicle is a bit trickier.
Studies have shown that pollutants from vehicles stored in an attached garage indeed do contribute to poor indoor air, as whenever you turn on the car, it releases small amounts of carbon monoxide. However, it’s not practical, nor necessary, to stop parking your car in the garage. You can take the following steps to reduce, and perhaps eliminate, this source of pollution.
If there are air leaks that occur in the wall between your garage and home, it’s likely that pollution from the garage seeps into your home. If the garage side of the wall is unfinished, it will be easy to caulk air leaks that occur in gaps and cracks. If it’s a finished wall, have a professional assess the likelihood of leaks, and suggest low-cost ways to improve them.
Installing an exhaust fan in the garage, either on a wall or roof, will help to draw pollutants out of the garage, before they can enter your home.
Does your attached garage contribute to poor indoor air quality? Use air-sealing techniques and an exhaust fan to control pollutants, and give your indoor air quality a boost. For help with improving indoor air quality, and for all your heating and cooling needs, call the experts at Infinity Texas Air Conditioning & Heatingtoday. We proudly serve homeowners from Cedar Creek Lake to Plano.
Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about indoor air quality and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
Infinity Texas Air Conditioning & Heating services Kaufman, Texas and the surrounding areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!
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