World Senior Citizen’s Day is NOT for your HVAC System

August 21 is World Senior Citizen’s Day. The celebration, which is the result of a United Nations’ proclamation, aims to raise awareness about issues affecting older adults, to recognize, and celebrate the contributions that senior citizens make. It’s an important day and one that highlights noteworthy issues.

Yet, you don’t want your HVAC system to be among those honored on World Senior Citizen’s Day. Today we’ll focus on ways that you can keep your system working like it’s a new heating and air conditioning system and we’ll help you to know when it’s time to replace it with a new HVAC system.

Regularly Replace Air Filters

If you look at your air filters and see a layer of dust, it’s time to replace them. When your air filters are dirty, they aren’t effective. Plus, if they’re really dirty they can start to suffocate your system and significantly reduce airflow.

As you can imagine, this makes your system less effective and your electric bill more expensive. Avoid those headaches by keeping your air filters in good condition. For the average home, air filters should be replaced at least every 90 days.

However, if your system is under additional strain, you’ll want to replace filters every month. Additionally, if you have family members with allergies or respiratory illnesses, it’s a good idea to replace filters every 45 to 60 days. To be on the safe side, it’s smart to get in the habit of checking your air filters once a month to ensure that they’re clean and functioning properly.

Avoid Health Issues with Regular Maintenance

Your HVAC system helps to ensure that the air in your home is safe and clean. It keeps allergens, pollutants, and dust from your air and ensures that your indoor air quality is good quality. This helps you to avoid a number of illnesses and diseases and is an important part of keeping your family safe and healthy.

However, if your system is not properly maintained, it can have a negative impact on your air quality. If your ducts are not cleaned, mold and mildew can build up in them and circulate. Additionally, if your air filters are not clean, they cannot effectively keep contaminants from circulating throughout your home.

The best way to ensure that you have good air quality in your home is by keeping air filters clean, professionally cleaning your air conditioner and heater at least once a year. Cleaning your air ducts at least every three years will also help maintain favorable air quality. Staying on top of this maintenance can help you and your family avoid allergies, respiratory issues, and other illnesses.

Does Your System Seem to Always Need HVAC Services?

Even with the best maintenance, at some point, your system might start to need repairs on a regular basis. If this is the case, it might be time to consider replacing your unit.

The average HVAC unit lasts around 10 to 15 years, even under the best conditions. If your system is not heating or cooling properly and if you’re facing costly repairs then it might mean that it’s time to get a new HVAC system.

While fine wine gets better with age, sadly your HVAC system does not. If you are unsure about the age of your unit or are concerned that it needs to be replaced, call LenAire, Inc. today (318) 936-2296 to schedule a consultation.

Breathe Quality Air for Earth Day

When we talk about Earth Day, how many of us think about air quality? We think about flowers, mountains, and beaches, but those things are only possible because of the air surrounding us. Now more than ever is the time to remember that our only home is earth; and that home is slowly being poisoned by the pollutants we put into our air.

The quality of our air on this planet needs to be fixed, and we can start by taking care of the air in our individual homes! When we read statistics like 2.4 million pounds of carbon dioxide is released into the air every second, and there are over 50,000 deaths per year from pollutants in the US alone, most people agree that living green is less like a lifestyle choice and more like a necessary commitment.

What is really horrifying, however, is according to the EPA indoor air quality is 2 to 5 times higher than outdoors! When we think about our homes, and families, this can be truly terrifying. Breathing quality air in our homes is the first step to having quality air on our precious planet. A lot of people don’t know how to get started, though. We have put together some simple practices that can make the world of difference...so keep reading…

Outdoor Ventilation is a Must

The first, and probably most effective, way to preserve your air quality is to have proper outdoor ventilation throughout your home. To put it plainly; open windows!

Allowing outdoor ventilation to circulate through the home will help eliminate contaminants such as dust, harmful gases, and overall stale air. This is an important step even in the winter months.

Try opening windows in one room at a time. Not only will ventilation from the outside cut down on pollutants in the air, but it can also cut down the germs. Keeping windows open slightly can decrease the risk of illness in your family.

Purify Air to be Rid of Pollutants

There are many things you can do to help purify the air in your home. Making small changes, and implementing a few simple DIY, can really change your families respiration, and the purity of the air in your home. Controlling air quality naturally is not only better for the earth, but is usually better on your wallet; and much more pleasing to the eye.

Two great options to purify the air are salt lamps and activated charcoal. Salt lamps (otherwise known as Himalayan Pink Salt or HPS) are a large piece of pink salt that absorbs contaminated moisture in the air. Another purifying option is activated bamboo charcoal which also helps keep mold and bacteria at bay. Bamboo charcoal will actually rejuvenate itself with a sunbath once a month!

It’s also important to remember that earth has its own air purification system built right in- in the form of plants. What better way to keep your family’s air at its best quality than by using what mother nature has provided us! If you want to keep your home’s level of air purity as close to nature as possible-this is the best way to go! Garden Mum, Spider Plants, and Ficus are the top competitors in keeping your breathing easy.

Now; while you are moving your plants in, it’s time to throw your paraffin candles out. You can replace them, though, with beeswax candles and essential oils. Beeswax candles are all natural and produce negative ions which help purify your air quality. As beeswax candles generally have no scent, adding some essential oils to a diffuser will give your home a pleasant aroma while cleansing the atmosphere in your space.

Air Filters Need Attention Too

Okay, so we have gone over keeping your home ventilated, some natural tips, and DIY ideas to keep the quality of your air at a great level for you and your family. Still, in this day and age, most of us have air conditioners to beat the heat in the summer months. Keeping your air filters clean is another important step to clean air optimization.

Cleaning your air filters should be done periodically throughout the year. How often you clean them can depend on where you live, and your lifestyle. For example; if you live in the city and have four cats, your air filters may need to be cleaned more often then say someone who lives in a pet free home in the country. Another thing to consider is specific areas of your home. Less ventilated areas may need their air filters cleaned more often. Either way, keeping your air filters clean should be a priority.

Something else to keep in mind while cleaning your air filters, is what you are using to clean them. You can have a hundred air quality practices in place, but if you are cleaning your filters with chemicals; you can throw those practices out your open window. Everything that we buy, and use, goes into the atmosphere of our homes and planet.

With that being said, there are many “green” non-toxic products available on the market, but sometimes good old water and vinegar is the best way to go. Using water and vinegar is a sure bet way to clean your air filters in a way Mother Nature would approve. Adding a few teaspoons to some warm water and soaking the filter will generally do the trick.

Ask the Professionals

Making an effort to live green and improve your air quality is not only benefiting you, but also our planet. Taking care of Mother Nature is a responsibility that has gone unnoticed.

You can help keep the quality of our planet in good standing by utilizing some of the tips in this article, and by asking questions of the professionals.

LenAire, Inc. is committed to keeping our planet green and preserving our air quality. We want to hear from you with your indoor air quality questions, Please call us at (318) 936-2296.

Spring Cleaning For Your Indoor Air Quality

What does spring cleaning mean to you? Maybe it means going through all your old clothes, or perhaps that closet that has been full of junk since you moved into your home. Perhaps it means scrubbing down every surface of your home and doing a really “deep” clean.

But of all the things you do or do not clean, there’s a great chance you’re missing one of the dirtiest places of all. Whether you realize it or not, your air conditioner and air duct systems can pack in tons of dust and pollutants that can affect the air you breathe in your home. Not sure how to make indoor air quality a part of your spring cleaning? Keep reading to learn more!

Your Air Quality Deserves a Spring Cleaning Too

Don’t beat yourself up, most people miss it. All too often when we think of spring cleaning we think of clutter and dirty surfaces that we forget to dust.

How does that dust get their though? It collects there as a result of poor air quality. Come spring, too much dust, pollen, and particulate flood the air and air quality takes a fast and unhealthy dive.

Luckily, concerning ourselves with adding our HVAC system to our spring cleaning list, we can mitigate the bulk of dust/pollen’s burden.

Do You Know Your Home’s Indoor Air Quality?

Does your HVAC system produce good air quality inside? There is a good chance you don’t actually know. The good news is that you can buy testing kits at a relatively low cost at most home good stores and that should give you an idea.

It’s important because you eat here, rest here, and spend perhaps the largest portion of your time breathing the air that circulates around your home. Doing some HVAC spring cleaning along with the rest of your surfaces and clutter can significantly improve your quality of life and health.

It’s the perfect time of the year to do so, anyway. You may not realize it yet, but indoor air quality makes an enormous difference in our health. If DIY testing isn’t really your comfort zone, you could always hire a professional HVAC company for improved and more accurate results.

The Best Defense is a Good Offense

To jump in front of the abrasive springtime air will pay in dividends. The best way to jump in front of it is to schedule a springtime tune-up of your HVAC system. Replacing air filters, looking for leaks, preventative maintenance on existing systems, etc.

All of these things can and will help to ensure you are breathing the cleanest air possible and you deserve it. For best results, experts recommend scheduling a tune up about twice a year. Doing so will maintain good air quality without interruption. What better time than when you are cleaning everything else?

So it’s that time of the year. Time to spring clean. It is important to be detailed and dust all of our surfaces including fans and vent covers, de-clutter the piles of stored things we no longer use, and not forget to spring clean our HVAC systems by replacing our air filters and scheduling our biannual tune-ups.

We deserve to enter summer free of clutter in our storage spaces and clutter in our lungs. Air quality testing, changing out air filters and dusting your fans can be done yourself, but for more serious services, please call LenAire, Inc. at (318) 936-2296.

Dirty AC Confessions: It’s Affecting Your Health!

Hello?  Hi there! This is your air conditioning speaking. Did you know that you haven’t changed my filter in over six months? I’m full of dog hair, dander (not just the dog’s,) dust, grime, mold, and I think I felt a rat running around.

I feel gross and just so you know, I’m blowing all that nastiness back to you. Yes, you’re breathing all that in and it’s why you’ve been getting sick so much. I don’t know how much longer I can live like this, I may just completely quit--but I’ll make sure to do it when you least expect it and on one of the hottest days of the year.

xoxo,
Your Air Conditioner

All jokes aside, having a dirty air conditioner is not good for your health, the unit, or your pocketbook. You end up spending less time at work, more time at the doctor’s office and feeling horrible most of the time. We’re going to take a look at what types of illnesses are caused by a dirty AC and what you can do to keep a good indoor air quality. Keep reading to find out more!

Upper Respiratory Infections

When you are constantly breathing dirty air, you are putting yourself at risk for an upper respiratory infection. These are marked by lots of coughing, a hard time breathing, itchy eyes, sneezing, and feeling overall funky.

Sometimes these are called sinus infections while other doctors diagnose you as having bronchitis. No matter what the diagnosis is, it’s not fun and it’s not pretty.

The irritation happens when your ducts get dirty, collect dust, and eventually have moisture buildup. This moisture is responsible for growing mold spores and bacteria, both of which can make you sick.

Developing New Allergies

If nothing in your life has changed (including your air filter,) you may feel like you have suddenly developed allergies.

You can’t recall a change or an additional puppy, haven’t changed cleaning products, and the pollen levels are staying the same.

This new development of allergies could be indicative of filthy filters and dirty ducts.

Asthmatic Problems

Going from never having asthma to not being able to breathe is scary!

While asthma can develop at any point in someone’s life, it can also be caused by the invisible dust and debris floating around your home.

Once you develop this condition, it isn’t technically and completely curable, but it can be managed with medications.

Non-Permanent Damage

Luckily, the lack of TLC shown to your air conditioner is typically non-permanent. With a little work and a little time, your unit can run well and without getting you sick.

However, the time to act is now--it is much less expensive to change your AC filter than it is to replace or repair one! If you think you might need a hand with some of the duct cleanings or proper sizing of your AC filter, LenAire Inc. is the company to call!

New Technology to Transform Your Home

For a long time, people may have thought UV air sanitizers were just a trend and one that didn’t work. However, it has been proven that these sanitizers don’t just make the air smell better, they are a safer alternative to many chemicals that people use regularly, and can help save families money.

If you’ve been curious about what the big deal is about UV air sanitizers, keep reading. If you think they’re just one more added expense, keep reading. And if you want a safer, easier-to-clean home, keep reading!

Can Kill Viruses and Bacteria

No one can afford to miss work or pay for extra doctor’s visits. Unfortunately, these two things happen often when one or more person falls ill.

The problem with viruses and bacteria is the fact that they can spread through the air. No matter how clean your home is, if one child brings home a virus, you can bet the rest of the house will get it.

Many years ago, your mom may have just quarantined you to a bedroom. Although his technique might help stop the spread of illness via personal contact, it won’t stop those bacteria from making their way into the air and your vents.

UV air sanitizers can help stop this problem in its tracks because they work to eliminate bacteria at the molecular level. This means cleaner air throughout your home and the elimination of pollutants that can cause illness in your home.

Reduces Allergy Symptoms

Another common problem children and adults face are allergies. An allergy can be caused by just about anything including pollen, dirt, dust, pet and human dander, pet fur, or mold.

A UV air sanitizer can help remove these microscopic problems so that residents in the home feel their symptoms less. This is especially important for homes that have a pet living indoors as fur and dander tend to irritate allergy symptoms as much as pollen.

While cleaning does help eliminate some of these allergens, it’s near impossible to get rid of all of them. For someone extremely sensitive to any one of these allergens, having a UV air sanitizer can make the world of difference.

Does Not Use Harmful Chemicals

Many parents don’t wish to use unnatural chemicals around their children. Likewise, many responsible adults don’t want to harm the environment or themselves by using them either.

The concept of going green is important, but sometimes the chemicals used don’t clean the things that are the dirtiest. UV air sanitizers can help eliminate the need for a number of chemicals and reduce the use of several others.
Having a UV air sanitizer in your home can also make housework easier by reducing dust and cheaper by not having to purchase multiple types of chemicals. It is also the safer option when children live in the home because there are fewer harmful liquids for them to find and consume.

Where to Find This Product

Now that you understand the benefits of having a UV air sanitizer, you probably want one. Maybe you have more questions regarding air sanitizers and if they’re right for your home. The best place to get quality UV air sanitizer service is with your local experts at LenAire Inc.

With a highly trained staff of experts, you can get the information you need and the quality installation services you deserve to maximize your investment in a UV air sanitizer.

Looking for ways to improve the indoor air quality in your home? Call LenAire Inc. at (318)936-2296 to enjoy reliable and affordable UV air sanitizer services today!