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Coronavirus: Here’s how to keep your air quality good indoors

ATLANTA — With more people spending time confined inside, we wanted to know if any changes need to be made to keep you healthy.

“Even without this pandemic, you want to consider trying to improve the indoor quality of the air inside your house,” Chris Rich said.

Rich has worked in heating and air conditioning for 40 years. He says the air we breathe indoors can be two to five times more polluted than outdoor air. For this reason, filtration is important, and it doesn’t have to cost much. He recommends affordable, accordion-style filters.

“Normally, they say replace them every three to six months. With what we got going on now, it’s not a bad idea to replace them, probably on a weekly basis,” Rich said.

Without air circulation, particles settle in your home. Air circulation keeps them moving, so he recommends this for the next few weeks: Change your fan from auto to on.

“So that way, anything that’s suspended in the airflow is going to be able to circulate through and get caught and trapped in your filter,” Rich said.

Another way to circulate air in your home is to open doors and windows for a while. Even with pollen possibly coming in, it’s OK. Your air filter system should be able to catch it.

Filters are a first step. They catch things, but in order to kill anything organic in the air, like dust mites, bacteria, mold, mildew or viruses, you can step up to an ultraviolet light system.

“And the UV lights, when it’s in your ductwork, all your air goes through that light, and it kills every bit of that, but again, it only does it when it’s suspended in the air,” Rich said.