Your air conditioning system should provide you with the clean air that you need to breathe healthily. However, there comes a time when professional repair services may be necessary. This situation develops if your ducts are dirty and you need to get them cleaned as soon as possible by a professional.

When you get an HVAC contractor to help manage this problem, you help provide your family with cleaner and healthier air. Understanding why this process is so important will help you choose a home air conditioner service that makes sense and avoids impacting your family’s health for years to come.

Why Dirty Air Ducts Affect Your Health

If you let dirty air float through your home, you are putting your family at risk. That’s because dust and dirt particles can contain a surprisingly high concentration of dangerous items. These particles may not be immediately deadly but can cause various health problems if they’re allowed to spread and worsen. This issue often becomes worse during summer, as you run your unit more often during this season.

For instance, mold growths in your air conditioning ducts typically grow more intense during the summer because of a higher concentration of warmer temperatures and moisture. These elements spread throughout your system and can trigger a duct-wide infestation of mold. Ducts are prevalent homes for mold because they are less affected by airflow and mechanical movement. Sometimes, this mold may be hard to see without careful inspection equipment from professionals.

Therefore, mold often tenaciously clings to these surfaces and spreads. And as air flows, mold particles will become airborne and float through your air conditioning system and your home. As a result, you and your family members may be breathing mold every day without even realizing it. This problem is usually minor for most people but can be a severe health risk for many others, including those who visit you from time to time.

Therefore, it is essential to fully understand the range of health problems that airborne mold and dirt may cause and what kinds of person these issues are most likely to affect. Critically, it is essential to determine if your family has any of these health issues and take steps to protect them before you get your ducts clean. Doing so will help to provide a more robust and healthier level of protection for your family.

Dirty Air Triggers Many Health Problems

The health problems caused by dirty air vary quite heavily and can be frustrating and hard to manage. They range from pretty minor inconveniences to more severe health reactions. Those who experience less severe problems may not even realize that they have mold in their air ducts.

Unfortunately, it can be hard to know when you have dirty air and more challenging to understand what problems they may cause. Thankfully, AC service professionals can help you by addressing this problem and cleaning your ducts. So make sure that you pay attention to conditions like:

• Sore Throats – If your family experiences a high frequency of sore throats and you aren’t sure what is wrong, your air may be dirty. Dust and mold particles can quickly dry out the throat and cause excessive soreness. This problem is likely to worsen even if you humidify the air – adding more moisture to the air may only worsen the spread of mold particles throughout your HVAC ducts.
• Allergic Reactions – People who are allergic to dust will find themselves reacting adversely when breathing in air from their HVAC system. These allergies may be as simple as a stuffed nose to a more comprehensive level of breathing difficulties. These reactions are usually more severe when breathing in mold particles and may cause a surprising range of health issues in many different people.
• Asthma Attacks – People with asthma typically have many triggers, including dust, mold, and dirt. If your air ducts are filled with these items, there’s a good chance that anyone with asthma in your house will experience an intense physical reaction. As a result, it is essential to take care of this problem by getting your ducts cleaned. Doing so will ensure every one is as protected as possible from this issue.
• High Levels of Coughing – Does your family cough frequently for no apparent reason? Then there’s a good chance that your air is dirty and your ducts need cleaning. Try house cleaning first to ensure that there aren’t other types of vents that may cause these reactions. If not, you need to move on to professionals who can help you manage this long-term health issue with relative ease.
• Frequent Colds – Dirty air ducts can be a surprising trigger for many colds, as dirt and mold can affect your immune system and throat health and allow colds to spread through your body. Dirty ducts also contain many bacteria and viruses that may spread colds, making it essential to clean out your ducts as soon as possible to minimize the potential risk of this severe problem.
• “Sick Building Syndrome” Outbreaks – In buildings with dirty air or dirty air ducts, a potential long-term issue known as “sick building syndrome” could develop in many people. This health issue can cause intensive breathing issues and may worsen as a person ages. Usually, it intensifies if an individual lives in an affected area for too long and continues breathing moldy air.

As you can see, it is vital to pay attention to HVAC issues and fix furnace problems as soon as they develop. Paying attention to your air ducts, in particular, helps to minimize the risks of this danger and should make it easier for you, your family, and visitors to enjoy your home without any fear of infection.

That said, it is also important to know that bad air can cause a surprising increase in aging-related symptoms that may cause you to age more quickly as a person. Therefore, you must understand air conditioning system repair and how it can help keep your ducts clean of this danger.

Moldy Air Can Cause Increase Aging Symptoms

Few people realize that dirty air is one of the most common causes of early aging symptoms. People who consistently live in homes with polluted air will find themselves aging more quickly. Some of these symptoms may be reversed – others cannot be stopped and will only worsen if a person stays.

Thankfully, getting cleaner air in your home may help to improve your health by minimizing these symptoms and making your life easier. Such steps also cut back on health concerns by giving you a steady supply of oxygen that boosts your immune system. Potential age-related symptoms of dirty air include:

• Excessive Feelings of Fatigue – As you breathe dirty air, you may start experiencing extreme fatigue that you just can’t explain. This problem occurs because the dirt and mold in your lungs will make breathing more difficult and cause you to struggle to get the oxygen you need. As a result, you may end up feeling older and moving more sluggish than you would have before.
• Potential Increase in Wrinkles – While this problem needs more testing to confirm fully, it may be possible that dirt, dust, mold, bacteria, and other health issues could affect your skin health and cause heavier wrinkles. This problem may be pretty minor but persistent. It may end up making you feel older and cause emotional struggles as you attempt to handle this situation with grace and humility.
• Cognitive Struggles – Dirt, dust, bacteria, and mold can cause mental troubles and make it more complicated for you to think clearly. This problem partially occurs because you won’t get as much oxygen as you would in a home with clean air. However, bacteria may also affect mental operation and cause you to feel slower or less capable. This problem may make you feel older or may even trigger age-related concerns.
• More Frequent Sickness – As many people age, they find themselves prone to more sicknesses and can’t fight off infections as well as they did in the past. Dirt, dust, bacteria, and mildew in your air will make you sick more often, impacting your immune system and potentially aging your body in subtle ways that may not even be noticeable without inspection from a high-quality medical professional.

You likely want to avoid these concerns as you age because most people want to feel young as long as possible. Unfortunately, it may be challenging for you to reach that lofty goal because your dirty air may remain a serious problem as long as your ducts are not properly cleaned.

Therefore, it is essential to get help from a duct cleaning professional to ensure you are protected. You may also want to talk to your general healthcare provider to learn more. They can spot any age-related symptoms and give you the help needed to minimize the worsening of these frustrating issues.

Dirty Air Ducts Spread Rat Droppings

We know that this may be hard for some people to stomach, but many AC unit designs and duct layouts may be prone to invasion by rats and other rodents. When these creatures live and move throughout your air ducts, they will leave behind droppings that may become airborne as they dry.

Beyond this issue, rats can also cause many other related health problems that must be taken seriously and handled right away to minimize potential dangers. Just a few concerns that rats in your ducts may cause include different ways that they:

• Spread Diseases – Many conditions spread through rat feces, including many respiratory issues that can be quite dangerous. As a result, it is essential to get your ducts cleaned to prevent the spread of these problems and to minimize the risk of severe long-term breathing dangers.
• Increase Mold Spread – Rat nests in your ducts will have a high concentration of food (stolen from your home) and water, which will serve to help mold grow more rapidly throughout your ducts. Rats may even have mold particles on their bodies and feet that they spread by moving throughout.
• Bite Family Members and Pets – While rat and rodent bites aren’t familiar (they truly are more scared of you than you are them), they could occur if one of these pests is cornered or feels threatened. These bites are not only painful but could spread diseases and bacteria to your family members.
• Invade Your Food – Rats love getting into your food and will spread various types of diseases and health problems throughout your family and your visitors. When this issue occurs, you may have to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars replacing your food and other affected items.

Will these rat-related issues require processes as long-term as air duct replacement? Probably not. Instead, you can likely get duct cleaning to manage this issue and avoid long-term health concerns. Duct cleaning and pest control should be pretty easy for most homeowners to afford in this scenario.

Just as importantly, cleaning your air ducts also helps to enhance other repair processes throughout your home, such as boosting the quality of your furnace, minimizing the dangers of heating issues, and much more. So make sure that you spend a little money on this process to keep your home safe.

Finding a Great Duct Cleaner

If you’re interested in this process, you need to reach out to an HVAC repair and duct cleaning company that can provide you with short- and long-term health. Your first cleaning may require you to temporarily move some items to air conditioned storage units to keep them out of their way.

Then, these professional cleaning service experts will go through your ducts and find mold, dirt, mildew, and other issues and clean them out. They’ll also clean out your air filter to ensure that it doesn’t spread any of these health problems throughout your home. In this way, you can keep your home as safe as possible from these dangers.