Air Sealing - Defense Against Allergens

The occurrence of Allergens impacting people’s life is increasing. Air Sealing is one way people can take action to reduce the impact if their family is experiencing this trend.

Allergen Statistics

Americans suffering from allergies has doubled over the last 25 years according to a paper presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology this year. Some believe that the cause of this trend is an increase in the potency of certain pollens as allergens caused by warmer weather. The warmer weather is causing longer growing seasons for irritants including Rag Weed as an example.

Between 1988 and 1994, a nationwide survey found that 2.5% of the study participants had reported asthma. In a similar study conducted between 2007 and 2012, 5.0% of the participants reported experience with asthma. The same study found similar increases in nasal symptoms and skin reaction to cat dander, rag weed and the mold Alternarian Alternata. These results were recently published in an article contained in a post on “Indoor Environment Connections” on November 17th, 2013.

Interestingly, and surprisingly, the study found that asthma was most common in young people living in the country (like the environment in Loudoun and Fairfax Counties) rather than those living in the city. Previously, it had been thought that most Asthma was experienced by those living in urban environments.

Air Sealing 101: How Can This Help Me?

Air Sealing your home is one way to take action to combat the effects of this trend in your home. Air Sealing helps in the following ways:

Air Sealing reduces the stack effect in your home, in turn reducing the number of air exchanges that occur. Why does this matter? All of the air that comes into your home brings with it allergens from the outside environment. Often times once inside the home, the concentration of these allergens can increase as they settle into fibers of carpeting, window treatments, bedding and other textiles in your home. Once settled, they become airborne again when we disturb these surfaces. Air Sealing serves the purpose of keeping reducing the number of air exchanges and reducing the introduction of allergens into your home environment.

Air sealing also helps to control the humidity level in your home. Using the summer as an example, in our humid Mid-Atlantic climate, as air leaks into our homes it brings with it the humidity found in the out of door climate. We then cool this new (entered through a leak) air to levels that are comfortable in our homes. During the dog days of summer this can be a decrease of 15 degrees Fahrenheit or more. This action decreases the air’s capacity to hold moisture and increases the relative humidity level of the air by around 1.5% for each degree. What we then create is a moisture rich environment in our home that can support mold growth and increases in populations of critters like Dust Mites. Air Sealing reduces the occurrence of this series of events.

Have allergies? Looking for solutions? Air Sealing is one strategy you need to consider. It has the side benefit of requiring no maintenance, it makes your home more comfortable thermally (less drafty) and it saves you money on your energy bill. Contact us online to schedule a free home inspection and home insulation estimate.