Written by Hans Augustenborg
May 3rd, 2024 — 9 minute reading time
In most peoples' homes, the air swirls with harmful particles from cooking fumes, candles, wood stoves, and the air we exhale.
Many of us also struggle with poor acoustics and noise disturbances, as well as inadequate lighting, which can affect our indoor environment.
Indoor climate encompasses all sensory impressions that affect your body when you're indoors.
But how do you achieve a better indoor climate? When is your indoor climate good? And how do you recognize when it's poor? You'll find out here, along with 3 important tips.
When is Your Indoor Climate Good?
Air, light, and sound. All three contribute to the environment we inhabit indoors – and can either be good or bad.
A good indoor climate depends on:
- Air quality with low CO2 levels and optimal humidity
- Minimal noise disturbances and good acoustics
- Optimal lighting
We primarily focus on air quality and its impact on the indoor climate – and that's why it's the focus here, as it bears much responsibility for a good indoor climate.
If you want a better indoor climate, you can start by improving air quality.
How?
You need to prioritize proper ventilation. Because ventilation and indoor climate are inextricably linked.
By ventilating adequately, you reduce the CO2 level in the air while improving humidity.
This Is Why Air Quality Is Crucial For Your Health And Safety
"Public awareness and regulatory authorities are finally waking up, and many more now understand that indoor air has a tremendous impact on our health and well-being."
So says Joseph Allen, a lecturer at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in an interview in Weekendavisen.
For too long, we've overlooked indoor climate in the larger health puzzle. But fortunately, it's now starting to be recognized as an important piece. And air quality is one of the crucial ones.
The air in your home is often more polluted than along the busiest city streets, the article continues. When we light up the wood stove, cook, and create coziness at home with candles, it releases a myriad of harmful particles.
This increases the CO2 level and deteriorates the air quality in your home. And since we spend 90% of our time indoors, we inhale many of these harmful particles.
Poor Indoor Climate and Symptoms
How do you know if air quality contributes to poor indoor climate at your home?
What we can't see, we don't feel sorry for, goes an old saying. But when it comes to poor indoor climate, we do feel sorry for it, because it can affect us in many ways.
It can be difficult to spot poor air quality with the naked eye – and therefore it can quickly slip to the back of our minds.
However, you can keep an eye out for several symptoms and thereby recognize poor indoor climate.
Physical symptoms:
- Headaches
- Fatigue
- Nausea and dizziness
- Dry mucous membranes in eyes, nose, and throat
- Asthma and allergies
Symptoms in your home:
- Growth of mold
- Poor, stale, and "musty" smell
- Condensation on the inside of windows
Poor indoor climate is unfortunately an invisible problem, which you rarely see or feel. Birdie senses when the oxygen in the air becomes poor and the CO2 level is high by dropping dead.
It surprises many how quickly it goes from flying to dropping dead. Even if they believe their ventilation habits are good and their health or home shows no signs of poor air quality.
3 Ways to Improve Your Air Quality
Do you want to give your indoor climate the health focus it deserves?
Here are 3 effective tips on how to create better air quality, which plays an important role in the indoor climate, at your home.
1. Ventilate properly
Most of us ventilate every day. But only a small part does it in the most effective way.
WHO and Danish Health Authorities recommend that you ventilate with a draft at least three times a day for 5-10 minutes.
Only about 25% do it.
You should open the windows wide on each side of your home to create the necessary draft. If you don't do that, too little of the old, polluted air is replaced with new, fresh air.
2. Maintain the right humidity level
Humidity in the air plays a crucial role in creating a better indoor climate.
Humidity indicates how much water the air contains. And it shouldn't contain too much or too little. If there's too little moisture in the air, it'll become dry. Conversely, if there's too much, the humidity will be too high.
The optimal humidity level is between 40-60%, but it depends on the season. This means that humidity should be lower in the winter months, while it naturally rises in the summer months.
Here, ventilation is also the way to achieve a stable humidity level.
Also, always remember to close the bathroom door when you've been bathing – and avoid drying clothes indoors. Both will deteriorate the humidity in your home.
3. Lower the CO2 level
When we breathe in the air, the amount of CO2 around us increases. Especially if many people are gathered indoors, the CO2 level will rise explosively.
The CO2 level deteriorates the air quality in your home – and therefore you should keep it down.
Both the CO2 level and humidity will find their equilibrium if you remember to ventilate properly.
Birdie Helps To Keep Track Of Ventilation
Birdie helps you improve your indoor climate by reacting when the CO2 level becomes too high. This way, you get a clear signal that the air quality is poor.
This prompts you to ventilate and gives you all the other benefits of ventilation because you improve humidity and "flush out" the other harmful particles.
In Weekendavisen, Pawel Wargocki, a lecturer at DTU Sustain, says:
"We must think of clean air as we think of clean water and fresh food. We don't compromise on those, and we shouldn't compromise on indoor climate either."
With Birdie, you get help to take both your health and safety seriously.
