Home maintenance should be one of your priorities, but focusing on your home's conservation and air quality is also important for the environment and your health. Your garage is most likely a favorite space for parking vehicles and storing lawn care equipment, but these tools and other chemicals stored in your garage space may also be affecting the environment and your underlying health. In addition, your garage may be the cause of a great deal of energy wastage. Using these tips to improve your garage, you can reduce its effect on the environment and your health.
Improved Air Quality
Gasoline, motor oil, paint, and chemical cleaners are all common items to store in your garage. While necessary for maintaining vehicles, lawn care equipment, and your home, these chemicals decrease the air quality in and around your house.
Carbon monoxide may be an invisible gas, but it can affect the environment and your health. Considering 400 or more Americans die each year from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, preventing this deadly gas from affecting your home is essential. Here are a few symptoms of carbon monoxide exposure:
- Headaches
- Dizziness and Confusion
- Fatigue
- Nausea and Vomiting
- Chest Pain
- Difficulty Breathing
Carbon monoxide can affect you quickly, so you may experience these symptoms after a small exposure to the gas. Thankfully, you can prevent this gas from decreasing the quality of your air.
When parking your vehicle inside the garage, be sure the garage door remains open after turning the vehicle off. Also, never start your vehicle with the garage door closed. These same rules apply to your lawnmowers, weed eaters, blowers, and other gas-powered equipment.
Make sure all paints, pesticides, cleaners, and other chemicals are closed tightly. Make sure to clean spills up immediately as well, since the chemicals may linger in your garage space for longer periods of time. With the garage door open, sprinkle a few cups of cat litter or sand on the spills. Allow the ingredient to absorb the liquid for 20 minutes before sweeping up with your broom. Be sure to place in a bag and dispose in an outdoor waste bin.
Energy Conservation
An estimated 54 percent of your home's total energy usage stems from heating and cooling, so reducing the loss of conditioned air is smart for conserving energy and saving money. Thankfully, you can prevent heat loss through your garage door with a few simple updates.
To get started, consider insulating your garage door. Insulating your door will conserve energy by preventing heated and cooled air from escaping, but it can also reduce the amount of moisture inside your garage. This reduces the risk of mold and allergens that may affect your air quality.
Cut a sheet of foil insulation to fit the interior of your garage door. The foil is easy to cut, but using a utility knife is best to ensure an exact cut to fit the door.
Connect the sheet of insulation to the interior of your door by tucking the sides and corners into the door frame. Use your utility knife to trim off any excess foil before securing the insulation in place with foil tape. Repeat the process if you have multiple garage doors.
Conditioned air also escapes through the space between the garage door and floor. Using a strip of weatherstripping, you can seal off the space between the garage door and your garage floor.
Apply the weatherstripping seal to the garage door threshold. Be sure the garage door closes directly onto the seal, preventing air from escaping. This simple application will reduce air loss, conserve energy, and decrease your monthly heating and cooling costs.
Your garage may be a favorite space of the house, but it can become dangerous and wasteful. Using these tips, you can improve the air quality and energy conservation of your garage.
For more information and assistance in insulating your garage, talk with professional garage door companies, such as Jayton Door Corporation.
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