It's that time of year again — time to get your house ready for spring and all of the weather that comes with it in Tennessee. You know you need to get your air conditioner checked out to ensure it will be ready once temperatures and humidity start to rise. But if you're new to the region, you also need to know about an ongoing battle: pollen versus your air conditioner.
Knoxville and Spring Pollen
Tennessee is blessed with adequate rainfall for lush, green landscapes. It's also an awful state for pollen-induced allergies because all that rain and green leads to flowers and other plants. They release pollen over many months but especially in spring, which makes Knoxville one of the worst areas in the country for spring allergies.
In fact, in 2016, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America ranked Knoxville as the ninth worst place to deal with spring allergies. Granted, it's an improvement over Memphis, which came in second. But it's still an awful experience for anyone who is allergic to the type of pollen found in the region.
How Your Air Conditioner Affects Your Allergies
All that pollen flies around, and it gets inside your home when you open the windows and front door. Allergy sufferers benefit from keeping the windows closed on days when the pollen count is high and using their air conditioner instead.
The air conditioner keeps the interior of the house cool so you don't have to open windows, and it also helps filter out pollen. The pollen-filled air is sucked into the intake vents, and the air passes through the filter. The air that is sent out from the air conditioner has substantially less pollen in it. If your filter is in great shape, then it should have little to no pollen.
That cleans out your home's air, allowing you to breathe in less pollen. In turn, that leads to fewer problems with allergies inside your home.
How Pollen Affects Your Air Conditioner
You can't let your air conditioning system just sit for months and assume it will keep working well. As more pollen gets filtered out when the air goes into the intake vents, the pollen ends up sitting on the filters. As more pollen builds up, along with dust, pet hair, dead skin cells, and other airborne debris, the filters become clogged. They no longer filter as well, and the air conditioning system works harder than it should have to.
That makes the air less allergy-friendly, and it also increases your bills. So a vital part of controlling your allergies through the use of your air conditioner is to keep changing that filter as often as it needs to be changed. If you see a layer of dust and lint all over the filter and you can't see the filter mesh, then you need to change the filter. Luckily, that's an easy job, and filters aren't that expensive.
How You Can Help Your Air Conditioner and Your Allergies
First of all, don't stop using your air conditioner. It is a vital part of combating allergens within your home. What you want to do is control the allergens that do make it inside and help your air conditioning function without becoming clogged with pollen.
You should change the filter at each intake vent on a frequent basis, and you should also vacuum and dust your home often. Additionally, brush pets to gather up loose hair before it flies off on its own. Wash floors and keep your outdoor clothes as just that and change when you come home. In fact, it's best to shower when you get home to wash pollen out of your hair.
If you'd like help in evaluating your air conditioning system, be it for a general spring checkup or to figure out why it's not working after you've changed the filters, call A-1 Finchum Heating & Cooling. Don't assume you just have to live with allergies and pollen. Get experienced technicians to look at your system and get it working properly again.
