Improve Your Home’s Indoor Air Quality
Clean energy solutions can help create a healthier home.
The indoor air quality of your home is closely tied to factors like insulation, ventilation, and the condition of your heating and cooling equipment. Discover ways that you can use clean energy to improve your indoor air quality and create a healthier home.
How You’ll Benefit
- Create a safer, healthier home for yourself and your family
- Feel more productive when you work from home
- Avoid complaints from any tenants or subletters
- Improve your energy efficiency and reduce your carbon footprint while you improve your indoor air quality
- Eliminate the storage and combustion of fossil fuels (like oil, propane, and natural gas) when you switch to clean technologies, such as heat pumps or induction stoves
Ways to Improve Your Indoor Air Quality
1. Energy Assessments
Completing a no-cost home energy assessment with a residential auditor helps identify where your home is wasting energy and potential air quality and safety issues, such as improper ventilation, mold growth, or problems with existing heating and cooling equipment. Taking advantage of a free home energy assessment is a great way to begin improving your home’s indoor air quality while also reducing your carbon footprint.
Learn more about home energy assessments
2. Clean Heating and Cooling Upgrades
Clean heating and cooling systems, including cold-climate air source heat pumps, ground source (geothermal heat pumps), and heat pump water heaters, provide year-round comfort, save energy, and improve indoor air quality by filtering out dust and other allergens. With heat pumps, there’s no combustion of fossil fuels (like oil, propane, or natural gas) or fuel storage in your home, reducing exposure to carbon monoxide and particulate matter. Rebates, tax credits, and low-interest financing from NYS Clean Heat can help pay for the installation of a new heat pump system for your home.
Learn more about clean heating and cooling
3. Induction Cooking
Induction stoves can help you improve your home’s indoor air quality because they do not use gas to cook your food. Research shows that gas stoves leak methane, carbon monoxide, benzene, and at least 9 other harmful toxins — even when they are turned off. When combined with proper kitchen ventilation, an induction stove is the safest and healthiest way to prepare meals at home.
You Might Also Be Interested In
Improving your home’s indoor air quality can help you create a safe and healthier living space, especially when you upgrade your air sealing and HVAC systems. Consider other opportunities for saving energy while creating a healthier home environment, including:
- Air Sealing and Insulation: Improve indoor air quality and energy efficiency by sealing air leaks, upgrading insulation, and installing high-performance windows with incentives through NYSERDA’s Comfort Home program. When done properly, air sealing and insulating your home reduces the risk of mold and rot, prevents dust and pollutants from entering your home, controls humidity levels, and helps your heating, cooling, and ventilation systems work as intended.
- Energy-Saving Tips: See our list of energy saving tips for your home, many of which can also help improve your indoor air quality. For example, changing and cleaning air filters on your heating and cooling systems helps your equipment run smoothly while removing dust. You can also do some basic DIY weatherproofing projects, such as caulking around your windows and doors or adding weatherstrips to seal them. For more DIY tips visit the Environmental Protection Agency .
For a full list of residential programs, visit our energy programs and incentives page.
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