Indoor Air Quality:
Inadequate Maintenance of Heating and Cooling Systems
If not maintained properly, your home’s heating and cooling systems can produce excessive levels of carbon monoxide, and can become breeding grounds for mold, bacteria, allergens, and viruses. Warning signs include eye, nose, and throat irritation, shortness of breath, dizziness, drowsiness, and asthma. In extreme cases, excessive carbon monoxide can lead to chest pain in people with heart disease, and even death.
What to do:
To help prevent these problems, the following should be checked and maintained at least once a year:
- Furnaces
- Air Conditioners
- Humidifiers
- Gas Water Heaters
- Clothes Dryers
- Stoves
- Heat Exchangers
- Space Heaters
- Fireplaces
- Chimneys
- To further reduce indoor air pollutants, consider installing an air cleaning device into your heating or air conditioning system. Ask your local heating supplier or contractor for details.
Please see also Carbon monoxide gas
