Protect Your Home From Wildfire Smoke With These Simple Air Quality Tips

Protect your home from smoke this wildfire season with the following tips:

• Drafty doors or windows: Install weatherstripping to help stop smoke from drifting into the house.
• Tighten seals: Ensure that the seals on windows, doors, and window air conditioners are secure.
• Air out your home after a smoke event: Open the windows or use the fresh air intake on your air conditioner’s heating and cooling system.
• Avoid activities that create particles in the home’s air, such as frying, broiling, and burning candles, as well as smoking cigarettes, burning incense, using gas/propane/wood-burning stoves and furnaces, spraying aerosol products, or vacuuming (unless you use a HEPA filter). These activities all affect the indoor air quality.
• Switch air conditioners to “fan only” mode temporarily: By using your heating and cooling system in “fan only” mode during wildfire season, your system can operate continuously, running the same clean air through the filter. Switch back to “auto” mode before the cold weather returns and heating season starts.
• Check the air conditioner’s air filter frequently and replace it more often. Check the manufacturer’s website for the best advice on which filter to use. Examine your filter for dust and debris buildup at least every month.Typically, filters are replaced every three months, but during smoke events, the filter could need to be replaced every six weeks to keep the air quality healthy and use less energy.
• Use high-efficiency filters: High-rated minimum efficiency reporting value (MERV) filters generally catch more particles than standard filters do, but can use more energy by pushing heating and cooling systems to work harder.
• Use portable air purifiers: Some air purifiers use less energy, but ensure yours is energy-efficient and run it as often as possible on the highest fan speed.
• When using a window air conditioner, close the outdoor air damper, or if it can’t close, don’t use the window A/C unit.
• When using a portable air conditioner with a single hose vented out of a window, keep it off in smoky conditions. If yours has two hoses, ensure that the seal between the window and the vent kit is as tight as possible.