With a life-long history of allergies under my belt, I am well aware of the importance of keeping the air I breathe in my house clean. (Nothing made this more clear to me than a year of living in the dorms in college…) In fact, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency indoor air can be two to five times worse than outdoor air. I can’t control the allergens outside, but I can do everything in my power to reduce their accumulation in my house.
In addition to a mostly tile house, limited drapery, dust mite covers on beds and pillows, etc. I also use allergy reducing filters on our heater and AC. When things get really bad, I even have a portable air purifier for my room – which I have also been known to travel with!
The Filtrete Elite Allergen Reduction Filter prevents 94% of large airborne contaminates such as pollen, mold spores, pet dander and dust mite debris from passing through the filter. In addition to the stuff you can see, it also captures up to 40 times more microscopic particles than ordinary fiberglass filters including bacteria, particles that can carry viruses and particles that carry odors. Making your air cleaner for allergy suffers and everyone else too.
In addition to keeping the home warm and safe for family and holiday guests, preparing the home for winter can help reduce monthly energy bills. Home-improvement guru Jodi Marks offers these tips:
- To help improve your home’s indoor air quality and keep your heating system running efficiently, use a high performance filter, like the Filtrete Elite Allergen Reduction filter from 3M.
- Change your filter every three months for maximum effectiveness. Changing your filter at the start of every season is a good way to remember this.
- Properly install weatherproofing around your doors and windows and check to make sure the insulation in your attic hasn’t gotten compacted to reduce air leakage and help you save on your energy bill. Also check around the dryer vent, the kitchen exhaust hood vent and even the water bib for your garden hose — prime areas where warm air can escape through your walls to the outside.
- Use a programmable thermostat to reduce energy costs and keep your home warm and toasty.
Home improvement expert Jodi Marks is the former co-host of HGTV’s Fix It Up! and co-author of Fix It In a Flash, a how-to book on the basics of home repair. She is currently a cast member of the show Today’s Homeowner with Danny Lipford and is an expert on the Filtrete Healthy Home Authority panel.
Since installing an allergy reducing filter not only improves the air quality of your home but can also improve the effectiveness of your heating and AC units by removing dirt and reducing strain on the motor, it’s an all around good idea (especially for us allergy suffers).
Disclosure – I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Filtrete and received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.