The laundry room can sometimes
be a forgotten area of the home when it comes to Indoor Air Quality (IAQ). Most
of the IAQ focus when it comes to ventilation is on the kitchen and bathrooms
and rightfully so. However, the laundry room can be a large source of
contaminants in your home. Let’s take a closer look at the laundry room.
If we are calling it a laundry
room, then by name laundry is being done there which means there is a washer
and in most cases a dryer. That means there are chemicals in the room. Off-gassing of cleaning detergents have a negative effect on your IAQ. Have you
ever gone into the laundry room and had a smell of chemicals. They might even
smell somewhat good – like flowers. Unless you are also growing flowers in your
laundry room, that smell is the off-gassing of the cleaning detergents. Then
there are the machines themselves. With higher rate spin cycle washers and
especially with dryers, their normal operation is going to produce heat and
humidity. This can lead to an uncomfortable area to be in temperature-wise and
the extra humidity in the room can lead to mold and mildew growth.
So far we have only talked about
the washer and dryer in the room. In many homes, the laundry room doubles as a
storage room for other cleaners. Many also have a utility sink for cleaning up
things like paint, grease and other items that you don’t want to risk damaging
the kitchen sink to clean. These just add to the amount of off-gassing
happening. Another issue is that typically the laundry room is a smaller room
so all these factors are concentrated in a small space.
After all that I am sure you are
excitingly looking forward to the next time you need to do the laundry or even
just walking through the room. Okay, maybe not. The good news is there are some
things you can do to lessen your exposure to these contaminants.
1.
Install and utilize a ventilation fan. This is your best option. This will take contaminates
and remove them from the home. You may want to consider a two-speed fan. Two-speed fans run continuously at a very low speed, then at a higher speed when
the room is occupied. The low speed would help eliminate any off-gassing from
chemicals being stored in the room then the high speed would take care of when
laundry is actually being done. You can also look at models that have motion
sensors that switch from low to high automatically based on if the room is
being used or not. If a two-speed fan is a bit much for you, even a small
inexpensive single speed fan will make a world of difference in eliminating
contaminates.
2.
Open a window or an outside door. This can also be effective but has its limitations. An
open door or window will help when the room is being used but unless you keep
it open all the time, any off-gassing will stay in the room until the next time
the door or window is opened. This is also not an ideal solution if you live in
areas of extreme heat or cold.
3.
Keep the door to the laundry room open. This is the least effective method but is better than
nothing – maybe. By keeping the laundry room door open to the rest of the home
it will disperse the contaminates. The issue, however, is that it is dispersing
them into possibly your main living area, which is not a good situation. If the
rest of your home is properly ventilated, it will lessen the effects.
To learn more about Air King’s
ventilation solutions, visit www.airkinglimited.com.