Derek Cole breaks down indoor air quality into three essentials: filtration, whole-home air purification, and humidity control. Use at least a MERV 8 filter and change it regularly. Humidity acts like a blanket—too high breeds mold, too low dries you out—so adjust seasonally. Start with a schedule for filter changes, check your airflow, then add humidifiers or air cleaners based on your home's specific needs.
Chapters
Home and Life Comfort with Derek Cole. All right, let's get straight into it. Most homeowners feel like if it's— if their home is cool in the summer and warm in the winter, it must be everything is all right, right? Not necessarily, because your home comfort system isn't just controlling temperature. Is moving all the air in your home, and whatever is in that air, you're breathing it. Let me explain. Every time you turn your system on, it's pulling air into the system, through the system, and pushing it back out into the home, into every room with a run of ductwork. So if that air has dust, pollen, pet dander, Humidity. You're not getting rid of it by turning the air on. You're just circulating it through the home. That's why IEQ, indoor air quality, is becoming such a big deal. Homeowners are beginning to notice allergies are getting worse at home. Rooms are feeling stuffy. The air is feeling heavy or just off, and they're realizing something isn't right. And here's the truth most people don't want to hear, which is you can have a brand new system and still have poor indoor air quality because the equipment alone doesn't fix the air. It just removes heat out there. It removes heat in the summertime, adds heat in the wintertime. It doesn't fix the air. Quality in the home. There are really 3 things when it comes to IQ. First, filtration. The big one everyone misses. Your filter is the first line of defense. If you're using a cheap filter and not even changing that one, and it gets clogged up and gets dirty, and the airflow isn't right, even a good filter wouldn't perform the way it should. Much less a cheap filter. By cheap, I mean like a MERV 2, 3, 4. That's a cheap filter. You should be doing at least a MERV 8. If you look on the filter, you'll see a MERV rating. You want to at least do a MERV 8. The higher the number, the more efficient it is at collecting particles. But the give and take is The higher you go with that number, can your system handle that much airflow restriction? So that's why I say a MERV 8 is a good middle way, not too good, not bad, puts you right in the middle. Number 2, air purification. That's where the whole home system comes in. Your HVAC system is the whole home. There's no reason to get a room purifier or a room humidifier. You're conditioning the whole home. You want the whole home to have the right humidity, the whole home to have clean air, right? You're not staying in that one room in the home forever. No, you want to treat the whole home. Number 3, humidity control. If you have too much humidity in the home, you can feel it. It feels sticky, it feels warm. Humidity is like a blanket. If you were to put a blanket on, it'll be nice and warm, right? Humidity is the same way. That's why in the wintertime you want to add humidity. In the summertime, you want to get away from humidity because you want the home cooler And then the wintertime, you want the home warmer. So humidity goes both ways. If you have too much, it feels sticky, uh, things start to grow, which is never a good thing. And if you have too little, you have sinus issues, you have breathing problems. It's very irritating because everything feels dry. When humidity is right, the whole home feels better. So Derek, I get it, I got all this stuff, what do I need to do? Keep it simple. What can I do? Change your filter. Number 1, change your filter regularly. That's not, uh, every now and then check your filter. If you don't have it set up for the Smart Club at your home, that alert you when it's time to change the filter, at least set it up on your phone. Set up a monthly reminder on your phone alarm, change your filter, check your filter. That way you don't forget about it. Number 2, have someone check your airflow. The airflow is the backbone to your system. You need to have proper airflow. And number 3, look at your home. Do you have pets? Do you have allergies? Do you have an older duct system? Every home is different, and the solution is going to be different for every homeowner. So it's a— it's not a simple blanket statement of do this or do that, because everything is different. Some need to add indoor air quality, some need to add humidification, some need to add dehumidification. So if I have a wet crawl space, some might have humidity problems and they need a dehumidifier. Every home is different, everything is different, but it all— those three need to be looked at: air filters, airflow, Indoor air quality. The indoor air quality could be humidity, dehumidifier, air cleaners. See what's going on. Look around your home. Do you have those problems we talked about? Not everyone needs everything, but everyone probably needs something. And you got to decide, do you want to buy a filter or be a filter? Uh, do you want to filter that stuff out there, or do you want to breathe that stuff? Do you want to breathe that stuff in your lungs? Do you want to filter that stuff out there, or do you want to breathe that stuff in your lungs? Be a filter or buy a filter. If you have never had your indoor air quality looked at, now is the time. Most people wait until there is a problem. The smarter move is to get ahead of it. Home and Life Comfort with Derek Cole.
