Can Air Filters Help Reduce Hay Fever Symptoms

Can Air Filters Help Reduce Hay Fever Symptoms

By Ruth MacEachern

Product Manager

Over the summer months, hay fever symptoms can be painful for sufferers, causing sore eyes, streaming noses, and pain. In some cases, people with particularly severe allergic reactions to pollen can face breathing problems like asthma attacks. Avoiding pollen can make summer miserable and mean leaving windows closed during the day which increases temperatures in the home making the time of year uncomfortable.

The UK hay fever season in the UK runs from late March through until September. Different pollens are prevalent over the course of the season, so people with sensitivity to those different pollen types may find that their symptoms change in severity over the course of the season.

What types of pollen cause hay fever

Over the course of the summer, the type of pollen that is released into the air changes.

During the first part of the season, tree pollen is most common. As the trees come into spring blossom between March and May, you will find large amounts of pollen grains released at higher levels. This type of pollen affects around one-in-four hay fever sufferers and is a bigger problem in areas with lots of deciduous trees such as old growth woodland and in larger public parks.

Around three-quarters of people who suffer from hay fever are affected by grass pollen, and this part of the season takes place over two peaks during the first two weeks of June and the first two weeks of July – although timings can change depending on the weather conditions.

Reducing the effects of pollen in the home

During the hay fever season, there’s very little you can do to avoid coming into contact with pollen outdoors, and most sufferers may need to use antihistamines to mitigate the effects of their allergies, however it is possible to reduce the concentration of pollen in your indoor air and find respite.

While simply closing windows and doors can reduce the amount of pollen that gets into your home, it can make the air stifling and uncomfortable on hot days and result in high humidity levels that will lead to condensation if not dealt with.

Positive Input Ventilation systems (PIV) such as EnviroVent ATMOS can be very helpful in reducing the amount of pollen found in your home during hay fever season while also keeping the air fresh and maintaining lower levels of humidity.

PIV systems work by drawing air into your home through a central unit that is mounted in the loft and then releasing that air into the rest of the property. This incoming air is filtered to remove particulate matter including pollen grains and pollutants making it fresh and clean.

An advantage of a whole house PIV system is that it creates slightly higher air pressure inside your home, and this positive air pressure difference helps to reduce the amount of air that gets in through other unfiltered routes such as around windows. This means that pollen levels are further reduced, and any pollen that does come into the property will be carried out by the higher-pressure air as it is pushed out of the building taking humidity with it.

Find out more

If you are troubled with hay fever or other allergies during the summer months, improving the ventilation in your home could help. Book a free home survey from one of our local ventilation specialists to get advice about the best solution for your property. Simply enter your postcode below to find an expert in your area.