The weather in Texas can be pretty brutal during the summer, making you extremely grateful for a working air conditioner. However, you don’t want to be leaving the fresh, albeit hot, outdoor air for a house full of stagnant, polluted indoor air. There are a few simple things you can do to improve indoor air quality and make your home a true refuge from the long, hot days of summer.

Regularly replace your air filters

Air filters usually do a good job of cleaning your indoor air by trapping dust, pet dander, and other undesirable particles in the air. They work the best when they are regularly changed. You should change them at least every three months, but if anyone in your home has allergies or asthma, changing them every month would probably be a better practice.

Another great reason to change your air filters often is to get a cooler home. A clogged air filter causes your air conditioner to work much harder to cool your home, while a clean air filter enables your air conditioner to easily keep your home at a comfortable temperature no matter how hot it gets outside.

Remove sources of pollution

Do you have paint buckets, harsh cleaning chemicals and other toxins tucked away somewhere in your home? They may be polluting your indoor air. Improve indoor air quality by putting these substances in an area that’s located away from your indoor air, such as a garage or a shed.

Increase ventilation

You can improve indoor air quality by bringing in more outdoor air to push out the polluted indoor air, but you might not want to do that during the summer. Opening a window will make your home warmer when it’s extremely hot outside. You can increase ventilation in another way — with a whole-house ventilation system. Choose a system that will cool down hot outdoor air so it won’t undermine the performance of your air conditioner.

Want to know more about how to improve indoor air quality? Talk to an expert at Bill Joplin’s Air Conditioning & Heating. We serve the cities of McKinney, Frisco, and Allen.