Indoor Air Quality
Most conversations about indoor air start with a guess. This one starts with a measurement — seven of them, taken in your home, in rooms you actually use.
Measurement, not guesswork
Indoor air is mostly invisible. People notice a smell, a headache that clears up when they leave, dust that returns two days after cleaning — and then buy a purifier and hope.
Sometimes a purifier is the right answer. Often it is not. High carbon dioxide is a ventilation problem, not a filtration one. Dust that keeps coming back is frequently a return duct pulling unfiltered air from a crawlspace. A room that feels stale with the door shut is usually an airflow problem wearing an air quality costume. Air Advice tells us which conversation we are actually having.
It is the same principle we apply to comfort and airflow: measure first, then decide. If you want the longer version before we visit, we wrote up what Air Advice measures and why each reading matters.
What it measures
Fine airborne particles small enough to reach deep into the lungs — dust, smoke, pollen fragments and cooking residue. The reading tells you how much of it is circulating rather than whether you can see it.
Gases released by paint, adhesives, new furnishings, cleaning products and flooring. Often the reason a room smells 'off' or gives you a headache without any obvious source.
A specific VOC common in engineered wood, cabinetry and some insulation. Worth measuring separately because it off-gasses for a long time after a remodel.
A direct indicator of how well a home is exchanging air. Rising CO₂ in an occupied room means ventilation is not keeping up, which is increasingly common in tightly sealed homes.
A colourless, odourless gas produced by fuel-burning equipment. This is a safety reading, not a comfort one, and we treat any result accordingly.
Safety reading
Measured in the room rather than at the thermostat, which is frequently the first clue that a comfort complaint is a distribution problem.
Too high in summer breeds mould and dust mites; too low in winter dries out your sinuses and your woodwork. Comfort is not temperature alone.
Two ways to test
About 30 minutes
Free at a cleaning appointment
We bring the Air Advice monitor with us to a scheduled cleaning appointment and take a reading while we are already in the home. It is a snapshot, and it is enough to tell you whether anything warrants a closer look.
Two days in the home
Additional charge — ask our team
The monitor stays in the home for two days and records continuously. This catches what a snapshot cannot: the overnight rise in CO₂ with bedroom doors shut, the VOC spike after cleaning, the humidity swing between afternoon and early morning.
What we do about it
We fit the fix to the data. If the readings come back healthy, we will tell you that too. Everything below sits under indoor air quality, and where the readings point at distribution rather than contamination it becomes comfort and airflow work instead.
Including hospital-grade whole-house filtration where the readings justify it. Media cabinets sized so they trap particulates without choking airflow.
Aprilaire air cleaners and Dust Free Sixteen systems integrated into the ductwork rather than plugged in room by room.
Whole-home humidifiers and dehumidifiers, sized to the house, to bring humidity into a range that is comfortable and does not damage your home.
Fresh-air ventilators for homes sealed tightly enough that they no longer breathe on their own. High CO₂ readings usually point here.
If the return side is pulling air from an attic or crawlspace, filtration downstream is treating a symptom. We fix the source.
Stale air is often a distribution problem. Where the readings point that way, this becomes High-Performance work.
Safety first
Do not wait for a test. Leave the building, then call us from outside.
Carbon monoxide is one of the seven things Air Advice measures, and our Gold membership includes a low-level CO monitor. Neither is a substitute for a sounding alarm being treated as an emergency. There is more on living safely with fuel-burning equipment in our guide to carbon monoxide safety.
Ask about a test
Tell us what you have noticed and we will go through which test makes sense. If you would rather just talk it through, calling is usually faster.
(847) 729-9190Tell us what you need and GV's Heating & Cooling will follow up quickly.
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