Working as a Heating Professional Can Lead to Success

Dealing With The Potential Health Effects Of Air Conditioning

20 March 2020

Abbie Wade

You have probably heard that using an air conditioner (AC) is bad for your health. This claim is only true as far as the side effects of AC systems are concerned. Below are some of the AC complications that might affect your health and how to deal with them.

Low Humidity

An AC can lower your indoor humidity to dangerous levels. An AC cools your house by lowering the temperature and extracting some moisture from the air. Run the AC for too long, and the humidity can fall to dangerous levels.

Extremely low humidity can be bad for your health. The effects include:

• Dry skin
• Throat irritation
• Bloody noses
• Respiratory problems

You can improve indoor humidity by keeping indoor plants, keeping open containers of water in the house, and running a humidifier. You can also reduce the effect of the AC on humidity by turning it off when you're not using it.

Mold Exposure

Mold causes a variety of respiratory health problems. Some people are also allergic to mold. Mold can grow in your AC if:

• You don't use the AC for a long time (in which case, moisture sat in the AC for a long time)
• The AC is dirty (moisture and organic debris encourages mold growth)
• Your house is poorly ventilated
• The condensate drainage system in the AC is malfunctioning or clogged
• Your house is too humid
• Your AC is oversized (so it cannot run long enough to control indoor humidity)

As you can see, multiple things can lead to mold growth and circulation of mold by the AC. The solution requires diagnosing the root cause of the mold problem and dealing with it. For the AC, ensure that you have sized it correctly, that the system is clean, and that you have maintained (including cleaning) it appropriately.

Spread of Germs

Lastly, some people think that AC systems cause infectious diseases, but that is false. However, mold can circulate harmful pathogens in your house.

The circulation is understandable given that an AC cools and circulates the air inside your house. In fact, cooling professionals advise homeowners to seal their homes to avoid losing cool air or drawing hot air into the house. The sealing off creates a sealed system that can pick up germs in one part of the house and disperse them throughout the house. For example, germs from a dead animal in the air duct can disperse throughout the house when the AC is running.

The solution to this problem is to ensure that there are no germs to begin with. You should also seal your air ducts so that nothing can get inside them. Lastly, use the right filters and ensure they are clean so they can trap dangerous debris in your indoor air.

To learn more about how to mitigate these potential issues, contact an HVAC contractor.

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