The air you breathe inside can impact your health. Whether at home, school, or work, poor indoor air quality can cause breathing issues, allergies, and other problems. You’ve probably heard that the EPA estimates indoor air pollution levels can be 2-5 times higher than outdoors. Well, in case you’re wondering, it’s true! This is why it's important to know about the latest indoor air trends as we enter 2024.
This article explores insights from AlorAir, a company that specializes in crawl space solutions for protecting indoor air. We'll look at outdoor pollution getting indoors, the importance of controlling crawl space moisture, new air cleaning tech, and creating an overall strategy for healthy indoor air. Keeping up with these top trends can help you take steps to protect yourself and your family.
Outdoor Pollution Creeping Indoors
According to The American Lung Association's "State of the Air 2024" report, 4 out of 10 Americans live in places with high levels of air pollution. A major issue in 2023 was outdoor air pollution from wildfires raising indoor particle levels. The company Airthings found home PM2.5 levels spiked during wildfire season across many areas. PM2.5 are tiny particles 1/30th the width of a human hair that can cause lung and heart issues when breathed in over time.
This troubling data shows outdoor pollution can easily sneak indoors, especially in homes that aren't properly sealed. Even tiny cracks, gaps around windows/doors, and poor attic ventilation can allow outdoor contaminants to infiltrate inside spaces we live and work in. That's why we stress the importance of sealing up homes and buildings to form an air-tight envelope from the outdoors. Proper air sealing blocks outdoor pollutants but allows controlled fresh air ventilation when needed.
Even if you live far from recent wildfire events, contaminants like car exhaust, industrial smokestack emissions, construction dust, and pollen can get inside if your home has enough leaks or holes. Protecting against this outdoor-to-indoor air pollution infiltration is a key focus for maintaining indoor air quality.
Crawl Space Moisture Problems
Another critical factor impacting indoor air quality is excessive moisture, especially lurking in crawl spaces underneath homes. These small void areas are prone to dampness problems from water leaks, high humidity, or moisture seeping up through dirt floors from the ground outside.
Crawl space dampness creates the absolutely perfect environment for mold growth to take hold on wood framing, subflooring, insulation, and other organic building materials. The accumulating mold then releases tiny spores that can travel through flooring seams and forced-air heating ducts up into living spaces above. Once inside, these mold spores contribute to breathing difficulties, allergic reactions, headaches, and other health issues for residents.
That's why experts say proper crawl space dehumidification is so crucial for indoor air quality. The Alorair posted a review of the 8 Best Crawl Space Dehumidifiers for 2024, AlorAir's high-performance dehumidification units consistently rank at the top of the list. Their heavy-duty, self-draining dehumidifiers are designed to effectively reduce moisture content to safe levels below 50% RH, starving out any mold growth before it can begin.
The benefits of using a quality dehumidifier for crawl space are huge. It protects the structural integrity and air quality of your home by preventing rot, mustiness, and toxic mold damage. It improves overall air quality and health for occupants upstairs. It eliminates foul odors, allergens, dust mites, and other pollutants that thrive in damp conditions.
Innovative Air Cleaning Technology
In addition to sealing against outdoor contaminants and controlling moisture sources, we can also expect to see some exciting new air-cleaning technologies emerging in 2024 to help improve indoor environments:
Air Purification Systems: Be on the lookout for increasingly sophisticated air purifier models hitting the consumer market. These use multiple stages and combinations of filters and purification methods like UV light, ionization, electrostatic attraction, and activated carbon to clean indoor air from all angles. The best systems can capture microscopic particles, neutralize germs, viruses, odors, and VOCs, and remove gaseous pollutants.
Smart Monitoring Devices: It's becoming more common for homes and buildings to utilize continuous air quality monitoring sensors. These smart detectors track levels of particulates, chemicals, carbon dioxide, and other contaminants in real-time. They can alert you to emerging issues and provide personalized data and advice to address indoor air quality problems.
UV-C & Ionization: While not brand new technologies, we'll likely see wider adoption of UV-C light disinfection and ionization methods in 2024 HVAC equipment and portable units. These methods can safely deactivate and filter out viruses, bacteria, mold, allergens, and other microbes suspended in indoor air very effectively.
While these air cleaning innovations are promising, industry experts still emphasize they work best as part of a comprehensive, multi-angled approach alongside source control, filtration, and ventilation strategies.
Holistic Indoor Air Quality Plan
The key takeaway is there's no single, simple solution for ensuring good indoor air quality all the time. Keeping indoor air clean, fresh, and healthy requires a proactive, multi-faceted whole-home approach hitting multiple fronts:
Source Control: Perhaps most importantly, you need to identify and eliminate sources of indoor pollutants at their root cause. This means properly controlling moisture issues, venting all combustion appliances outside, using low/no VOC building materials, allowing proper drying time after leaks or flooding, and quickly remediating any mold growth found.
Ventilation & Filtration: Even with stringent source control, some level of air filtering and regular ventilation is still needed. Routinely exchanging stale indoor air with fresh outdoor air through open windows or energy recovery ventilators helps dilute any remaining indoor contaminants. Portable or integrated high-efficiency filters capture airborne particles, allergens, and microbes.
Professional Inspections: For complex indoor air quality issues, it's wise to have an experienced professional conduct a thorough home inspection. They can identify hidden moisture areas, measure pollution levels, and provide customized recommendations to address your home's deficiencies.
Education & Maintenance: Ultimately, none of these purification strategies are effective if they aren't properly operated and maintained long-term. Ongoing resident education on cleaning routines, filter changes, vent clearing, and system maintenance is crucial.
A comprehensive, holistic indoor air quality plan customized for each home or building that covers all these bases is what leading experts like AlorAir recommend for the healthiest possible indoor environments.
Take the Next Step
As we head into 2024, the clear message is that focusing on indoor air quality should be a top priority for protecting public health. This year, watch for new technological advancements hitting the air purification market, and increased emphasis on complete, whole-home IAQ strategies.
By staying aware of the top indoor air quality trends for 2024 and taking recommended actions, you'll be making smarter choices to protect your indoor environment and safeguard your family's respiratory health. Chosen as the “Best Overall Crawl Space Dehumidifier,” the Alorair Storm LGR Extreme Dehumidifier works well in any environment and lives up to its reputation.
