Is the Air Inside Your Home Safe to Breath? Part 1 – The Kitchen

According to the American Lung Association, approximately 85% of Americans don’t realize the air in the home can be hazardous. In some cases it can be up to 5 times more polluted than outdoor air. That’s a bit concerning. The question is, what makes the air so bad? In this two part series we’ll take a look at the biggest culprits inside our homes.

The Kitchen. The kitchen can be the largest area of contaminates inside the home. Anytime you are cooking, there will be a source of particulates going into the air. This can be smoke, grease, carcinogens and so forth. This is just part of cooking. The way to combat these contaminates is with a properly functioning range hood. The key is the proper functioning part.

Vented to the outdoors: First and foremost, the range hood has to vent to the outside. There are many range hoods on the market that pass the contaminated air through a filter then recirculate the air back into the kitchen. While these are somewhat better than nothing, they just are not going to provide the level of air filtration that is needed.

Turn it on: The range hood has to be turned on. Yes we know, they can be loud and cause the pets to run and hide but there are now many solutions on the market that operate at a fraction of the sound of older range hoods. Air King has a complete line of range hoods that provide proper ventilation at quiet sound levels.

Power: The hood needs to be powerful enough for the cooking you are doing. If the hood can’t keep up with contaminates coming off the surface that means they are going into the air you are breathing.

Keep it running: The hood should run for an extended period of time once the cooking is completed. Typically there are still a lot of residual particles and contaminates that are still in the air even when you finish cooking. The goal is to get every last bit out of the home and away from the air you are breathing.

There has been a lot of research as well as building codes being implemented concerning Indoor Air Quality (IAQ). More and more studies are pointing to the kitchen as being the most important location to properly ventilate. One of the building codes now calls for an exhaust fan to be running continuously inside the home to make sure the air is being exchanged. Air King has developed products to place that continuously operating exhaust fan in the kitchen. The ECV, ECQ and LE series all have a barely audible low speed that runs continuously then have additional speeds when more ventilation is needed – like when you are actively cooking. The science behind this product is that if the kitchen is the biggest contaminate of the home, why not place the primary source of ventilation there? This takes care of any particulate matter during cooking as well as any residual particulates after cooking. It just makes sense to fight it at the source and prevent any infiltration into the rest of the home.

To learn more about Indoor Air Quality and how you can properly ventilate your home, visit www.airkinglimited.com.