Your Gilbert, AZ home should be comfortable and inviting for the guests who will be stopping by during the holiday season. This can be accomplished in a few different ways. You’ll want to pay attention to indoor air quality, relative humidity, temperature, and more. Here’s a look at some of the different ways that you can jingle all the way to comfort this holiday season and beyond.
Paying Attention to Temperature
While the temperature in Gilbert doesn’t get as cold as some other locations further up north, it can still get pretty chilly, especially once the sun goes down. The ideal interior temperature of a home in the winter is 68 degrees Fahrenheit. You can keep an eye on your thermostat to ensure your indoor temperature doesn’t get too high. Having a lot of people in the home paired with cooking and other activities can quickly overheat your home, making it feel stuffy and uncomfortable. You should drop your thermostat down by a couple of degrees in anticipation if this is frequently an issue.
You also don’t want your guests to be too cold. You’ll have a lot of people coming and going, which means doors will be opening and closing. This allows cool air to enter your home. If things start to feel drafty, adjust your thermostat accordingly. Have guests gather in an area of the home that is away from your main entrance.
You can address other drafty areas in the home by sealing up cracks and gaps. Areas around windows, doors, and your foundation can allow for outside air to come in. You’ll also experience loss of heat outdoors, which decreases HVAC system efficiency and makes your home feel chilly. Materials like caulk, weatherstripping, and expanding spray foam can help you make repairs prior to your holiday gatherings for maximum coziness.
Addressing Humidity Concerns
The amount of humidity in your air can affect how warm or cold you and your guests feel. If you have high levels of humidity present, your indoor air may feel warm or oppressive. You can bring relative humidity down with the use of a whole-house dehumidifier. If you experience very dry indoor air, you can add moisture back in using a whole-house humidifier. Dry air also feels colder than it really is, leading to your HVAC system potentially running more to accommodate for the chill. Ideally, your indoor relative humidity should always be between 30% and 50%. Keep in mind that high levels of humidity can lead to poor indoor air quality, as humid air can hold on to more particulate matter. High relative humidity can also set the stage for mold growth, which is dangerous to your health.
Indoor Air Quality
The quality of your indoor air is very important regarding how inviting and cozy your home feels. There are many contaminants that can have a negative impact on your indoor air. Everything from outdoor pollen to pet dander can decrease indoor air quality, leading to an increase in allergies, asthma, respiratory problems, headaches, fatigue, and more. Other contaminants include dust, dust mites, mold spores, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
You can address indoor air quality concerns using filtration. Your furnace already has a filter that removes a good deal of particulates. However, there will be smaller particles that pass through into your ducts and living spaces. We recommend having a whole-house air purification device installed on your HVAC system. These units use upgraded filters to remove up to 99.97% of particulate matter from your indoor air.
There is a variety types of filters that you can use in your furnace and filtration equipment to promote healthy and cozy indoor air. Here are the most common types.
Pleated Filters
These basic filters are affordable and require changing once every 30 to 90 days. They generally remove the largest particulates from your indoor air.
HEPA Filtration
High-efficiency particulate air filters, or HEPA for short, can remove as much as 99.97% of dust, mold spores, pet dander, and other contaminants from your indoor air. They are usually too restrictive for your furnace, so they are ideal for air purifiers.
Carbon Filtration
Activated carbon removes odors from your indoor air and can also reduce volatile organic compound concentrations. They are usually combined with another form of filtration, such as pleated filters.
UV-C Light Technology
With a lot of people gathering in your home, you can reduce the spread of germs using UV light. UV-C light specifically can damage the structure of bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens. This makes them unable to get you sick. You should ideally combine UV-C light technology with other forms of filtration, as this technology doesn’t remove particulates from your indoor air.
Scheduling Routine Maintenance and Service
We encourage you to have our team come out to your home at least once per year for routine service. We will inspect the different components of your HVAC system to ensure they are running efficiently and effectively. Right before winter is the best time to schedule this service so you can ensure you experience a cozy and inviting environment for the holidays and all season long. If we notice that anything is wrong during this appointment, we can perform repairs. This often prevents something major from going wrong, reducing your expenses and ensuring you’re not inconvenienced during the holidays.
Routine inspection includes things like lubricating moving parts, cleaning interior components, checking electrical connections, and making sure your thermostat works properly.
Continue Using Ceiling Fans
Ceiling fans are a great way to keep your home cool during the heat of the Gilbert summer, but they can still be beneficial during the winter months as well. You probably know that heat tends to rise, which is true of heated air, too. If you have your fans running in a clockwise direction, this will push that warm air from where it collects at your ceiling down to the lower portion of your rooms. (Just make sure to change the fan directions back when the weather gets warm!)
Consider Zoned Heating
If you often host guests during the holidays or have different temperature preferences for different areas of your home, consider utilizing zoned heating. This setup allows you to set different temperatures in your home without having to worry about changing dampers or restricting airflow to your furnace. Guests can control their area of your residence to accommodate their comfort needs. Zoned heating also has the potential to boost the efficiency of your home’s energy system, reducing your monthly utility bills.
If you would like to schedule an appointment for maintenance or AC repairs of your HVAC system, reach out to our team here at A/C & Plumbing Doctors. We also offer the installation of new heating and cooling equipment, commercial HVAC services, ductwork assistance, and indoor air quality testing and improvements. Our plumbing services include drain cleaning, plumbing repair, leak detection, pipe replacement, water heater service, and more.
Reach out to A/C & Plumbing Doctors to schedule an appointment today.
