Tip #7: Allergies - yes, you do have them!

Ok, maybe you don't have them. But chances are good that you do have them as the climate changes and pollution increases. While we can have allergies to many small particles such as pet dander or saliva, food particles, wheat, soy, nuts, we have recently discovered that our daughter is allergic to car exhaust. We have to pay attention to the furnace filters we buy so that our filters eliminate car exhaust and smog from the air in our house.

This also means that we rarely open our windows. We run an air purifier outside her bedroom and a larger air purifier in the main living area. She takes two allergy medicines nearly year-round. That seems extreme, but it works. Our daughter can play outside without too much trouble, but the air inside needs to be free from pollution for her to get restful sleep. Check out this website for an explanation of the MERV ratings (used on 4 inch filters) on furnace filters: https://www.qualityairfilters.com/filter-guide/ A higher rating (13 instead of 8) means that there are smaller spaces for air to go through which can, unfortunately, put some strain on your furnace. But consider that businesses and hospitals use an even higher rating of 14-20.