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The ozone layer and general outdoor air quality concerns have been making headlines for years, but have you ever thought of the population filling the air within your own home?

We often think of our home as a retreat, but your safe space may be causing you or your family members harm. That’s because air pollution – indoor or outdoor – can seriously impact a person’s health, increasing your chance of chronic lung problems, asthma, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

But just as you clean your furniture and floors, you can do things to clean the air within your home. Here’s some ways to get started.

Be more thoughtful with your household products
Some of the most common household cleaners can actually be very irritating to the human airways — think bleach and hydrochloric acid. Read ingredient lists of your cleaners and if they
include items you’d rather not have at home, switch to more natural-based cleaners or even simple items like lemon juice, vinegar, and hot water.

Remove other items from you home that can cause lung issues
Items with strong perfumes (scented candles or body lotions, for example) can exacerbate asthma, as can the fumes from many paints, glues, and inks. If you don’t truly need them, remove them.

Opt for tile or hardwoods over carpeting
Carpets love to hold onto dust, dander, pollen and other indoor pollutants, and even regular vacuuming cannot remove all of the danger. If you have a family member with sensitive lungs,
remove old carpeting and replace with more hypoallergenic laminate, tile, or hardwood.

Invest in a HEPA filter
Don’t settle for a cheaper air purifier — many models simple move the dust around and can actually make air quality worse. A high efficiency particulate arresting (HEPA) filter is the best way to really clean your air.

Use a dehumidifier
Pollen and mold spores love moist places, so encourage them to go elsewhere with a dehumidifier which removes excess moisture from the air.

Get your HVAC system cleaned regularly
Remove excess dust, pollen, mold spores, and other pollutants from the vents that supply air to your home on a daily basis. While you can easily clean the vent covers, call your Madsen tech for an annual full cleaning that gets deep within the system and provides the cleanest air possible.

Your thermostat has been set to and is reading a steady 70 degrees. Your family room, however, feels a little on the cooler side, while your bedroom upstairs is stuffy and much warmer.

Frustrating? Of course. But not unusual. Your HVAC thermostat can only read and adjust to the temperature of the air directly around it, and various factors can lessen or increase the amount
of cooled air reaching the rest of your home. If the discrepancies are not allowing your space to be comfortable, try making some of these changes to even out the temperature of your home.

1. Keep vents clear of furniture, debris, and other items. Even a small side table can block the flow of cooled air into the room. With all vents open and clear you’ll experience better air flow and more consistent temperatures.
2. Have your vents cleaned. In addition to removing dust, mold, pollen, and other allergens from your air, a good cleaning could remove blockages that are preventing the full supply of cool air to reach a certain room or vent.
3. Check for leaks in ducting. While you have an HVAC tech cleaning your ducts, have them look for cracks and holes in your ducts. Even a small gap can result in the loss of precious cool air.
4. Close off unwanted vents. Have a room that you barely use, or that you don’t mind keeping slightly warmer? Block off the vent and allow the cool air to redirect to spaces
   that need it more. You can replace your vents with solid covers for a permanent solution, or purchase magnetic vent blockers for temporary or seasonal fixes.
5. Keep your HVAC fan set to “on”. Most people have their thermostat fan function set to “auto,” assuming the system will know best. However the auto setting simply times the
   fan to run at the same time as your air conditioner, which means it shuts off as soon as the temperature set has been reached. When you switch to “on” the fan will continue to run and push that new cool air through your home, helping continue to lower the temperature in chronically warmer spaces.
6. Insulate your attic. A poorly insulated attic can suck your cooled air away from living spaces. Make sure you have the proper amount of quality insulation to ensure you aren’t spending money to cool unnecessary space.
7. Upgrade to zoning. For the ultimate in even cooling, talk to a Madsen tech about putting in a zoned HVAC system. With zoning your second floor or other designated space is monitored with its own thermostat and cooled by its own outdoor condenser, allowing you to set different floors or rooms to different temperatures or give your warmer second floor the extra dose of cool air it needs.

A kitchen remodel is an exciting project, but it’s also a big, time-consuming, and often pricy one as well. Which is why ample thought and planning are a must before you begin demo day. While you may be focused on the door fronts, sparkly backsplash, or that new 12-burner pro range, there are big decisions you also need to make that don’t involve shopping. As you work with your designer or contractor, make sure you know the answers to these questions and that your family’s needs are reflected in the resulting layout and design.

How do you use the room daily?

If we are being honest, no one only uses their kitchen just for cooking. Kitchens are the heart of the home and as such they are also conversations pits, homework spaces, pseudo offices, mud rooms, and storage facilities. Carefully watch how every person in your family uses the kitchen over the course of a week, and how the new design could potentially make that activity easier. You may suddenly want a desk-height counter space, or more open shelving, or a command center for papers, calendars, and bags. Also consider how people are entering the kitchen to use it. Would a larger opening to the living room make for better family time? Would a new door to the garage make grocery unloading easier? Now is the time to consider that daily flow and the optimal traffic pattern of the finishing product.

Where will you place appliances?

While keeping your appliances in their current locations is the easiest and most affordable plan of attack, this is the one time you have to consider their homes and design the best work space possible. In kitchens we often hear of the “work triangle” — the space created between the stove, refrigerator, and sink. If these spaces are too close together they created a cramped space, but if they are on far-flung walls of the room cooking a meal becomes an aerobic workout. The rule of thumb is each item should be between 12 and 26 feet away from the other two. Ideally, you should also ensure that no major traffic thoroughfares cut through this triangle, to allow for easy cooking without interruption How do you eat in your kitchen? Are you a grab-and-go family that would better be served by an island that does double-duty as a quick dining space? Or do you want a full kitchen table within the room? Or maybe you want both! Make sure you have the space as you work on the layout. For a counter to serve as a dining area, you’ll need room for stools and an overhang of about 12 inches to comfortably accommodate someone’s knees. For a kitchen table, measure your current or planned table, then add 2½ to 3 feet to both the width and length to get the ideal space allotment for chairs and adequate circulation.

Once it looks good on paper, will it work well in daily use?

Some of the best laid out plans fail once they are implemented because everyday use was not considered. Look at that final plan hard before you give the official okay. Could you open various appliances and cabinets and have no fear of doors hitting one another? Could you stand at a counter chopping an onion and there be plenty of space for a gaggle of teens to run behind you? Do you have enough counter space for dirty dishes, a drying rack, meal prep, small appliances, and the various items that family members may leave around? Will you be able to easily reach the correct cabinets and drawers to unload the dishwasher quickly? Is there enough clearance between your countertops and upper cabinets to fit the items you intend to store there? Will your cooktop or kitchen table be attacked by sunglare at any point in the day? Go over every detail so that one minor flaw doesn’t end up ruining your entire remodel.

When summer temperatures hit, we are quickly reminded of how important our air conditioners are. But if we truly appreciate these helpful home appliances, we should be taking care of them well before we need them. By taking time each year to inspect and service your HVAC system, you can not only ensure it will work well for you, but that it will work efficiently, providing cool air and lower energy bills all summer long.

1. Pick the right air filter. At the start of the season, start things off right with a new, cleanair filter. The most popular air filters in the market are made of fiberglass and should bereplaced every one to three months. If you or someone in your home suffers fromallergies, consider a HEPA filter, which provides more protection from allergens. Theseunits stay in place but need to be cleaned every three months.
2.  Keep the area clear around your unit. Trim trees and bushes near your outdoor unit to be at least 24 inches from the grill to help prevent yard debris from entering the unit.Brush off leaves or lawn clippings that may fall on the unit throughout the summer.
3. Test your system and power source. Once things begin warming up but well before they reach summer highs — think around 70 degrees F — turn on your air conditioner to ensure it’s ready to run. If the unit does not come on, check that the unit is properly connected to power by checking your circuit breaker and the switch on side of unit. If both are on but the unit still does not power up, it’s time for a service call.
4. Get a tune up before temperatures soar. Even if from your end everything appears to be working properly, it’s smart to call your Madsen tech to do a multi-check inspection on your HVAC system. Finding a small issue now before you truly “need” your air conditioning will prevent larger problems and the need for emergency calls later in the summer

With rainy and often chilly days the standard forecast this time of year, it may seem odd to think about record-breaking temperatures and high humidity. But in fact, this is the perfect time to start thinking summer. By performing a simple audit of your home and current HVAC system, you can quickly identify potential issues, repair them now, and have the peace of mind that once you start that air conditioner up, it will cool your home effectively and more efficiently.

1. Change your filter. This should be done twice a year at least, so pre-AC use and pre-heater use are smart times to make sure this is done. Filters can be purchased at most home improvement or hardware stores. If your outgoing filter is especially clogged with dust, consider having your vents cleaned as well.

2. Check for and fix cracks in window sills, door sills, and thresholds. Any gap in your home is a space that the cool air you are paying for can escape through. To keep your unit running more efficiently, make sure these spaces are taken care of. Fill cracks and caulk edges, and consider replacing very old windows or doors if necessary.

3. Switch the direction of your ceiling fans. If you are an eco-conscious homeowner you probably switching all your ceiling fans to run clockwise during the winter — a smart and easy way to encourage warm air down. Now as you want the air to be cooler, switch back to the original counter-clockwise direction, which will push a more wind down and help the rooms feel cooler.

4. Call and schedule an HVAC check. One of our trained professionals will check all the various components of your system, including the outdoor unit, main furnace unit, and any visible venting to ensure its in proper condition before the heat arrives. Services they may suggest could include cleaning the air conditioning unit coils, replacing a loose or cracked belt, repairing a refrigerant leak, or fixing worn out electrical components.

Three for you, one for us, but you have to make a call. Ready to schedule that HVAC check? Contact Madsen today.