Can Air Conditioning Make You Sick?

A long with summer come unbearably hot days when the thermometer seems to indicate impossible temperatures. For short periods when you’re outside, dressed in breezy clothes, with SPF cream to protect your skin from the UV, the heat is welcomed. But only for short periods. When you’re at home, it’s a whole different story. The last thing you want is to feel hot inside. This is where the air conditioner comes in to save the day. It’s the fastest, most efficient means to reduce indoor temperature and create pleasant living conditions.

The bad news is that the AC has one flaw: it can make you sick without knowing it. But how exactly does this happen? What are these negative sides to blasting the AC during heat-packed days? And is there anything you can do to remedy the situation so that you can still enjoy the cool atmosphere indoors? To learn the answers to all these questions, go on a journey with me today to learn more about your “cool” buddy, the air conditioner, from this article.

Air Conditioner in Living Room

How the AC Unit Can Cause Health Problems

I said it before, and I’ll say it again. Summer can be fun, but only if you enjoy thermal comfort indoors. Otherwise, you will end up sweating like a hog, feeling like your clothes stick to your body no matter what. If you’re unlucky enough, you can experience overheating or even the dreaded heatstroke.

During heatwaves, the thermometer will indicate some pretty crazy values both inside the house and out. And you will be tempted to monitor the thermometer to see how good the AC does at reducing temperatures inside. If you can’t control what’s happening in the yard, thankfully, you can at least control the environment indoors where it matters most since that’s where you spend most of your time.

The air conditioner is king for solutions for fighting heat waves, hands down. In a previous article, I recommended some other measures you should check out to weatherproof your home for the torrid season, though. What you learn there will help lessen the load on the AC since your home can preserve the cold air better, and hot air will stay where it belongs: out! However, as helpful as air conditioning is, under the right (or wrong, in this case) circumstances, it can prove harmful and cause sickness.

I want to mention that the air conditioning unit itself isn’t necessarily the culprit; most of the time, it’s not. Other factors lead to complications. Let’s start with maintenance. If you don’t regularly clean or replace the AC filters as instructed in the accompanying manual, it will spread dust, dirt, bacteria, and even mold spores into the air. So as the air passes through the AC, it’s polluted when it comes out. There are plenty of other sources of poor indoor air quality; you don’t need to add another one to the list.

Solution: Keep the filters clean. Read the manual and proceed accordingly. It will likely state that once every 3 to 6 months, you should clean or replace the unit’s air filter. Don’t skip this specific maintenance task. You should also periodically call in an HVAC specialist to inspect the AC for leakages or signs of mold development.

Note: FYI, in case you didn’t know this: the same goes for the furnace. When it’s time to turn it on, make sure you change the air filters and routinely service it, or else the furnace affects indoor quality.

You might enjoy the cool blast of the AC, especially when you just came inside from the scorching heat outdoors, but you must avoid setting a very low temperature for the unit to uphold. Icy air leads to several issues, including the easy spreading of cold-causing viruses, decreased immune response, and dryness.

Solution: This is an easy one because of its obviousness; just don’t set the temperature too low, easy as that. The U.S. Department of Energy recommends 78 degrees Fahrenheit temperature during summer. Therefore, I recommend that you set the AC to maintain this temperature threshold to avoid the repercussions mentioned above.

The last thing I want to discuss in this section is that you pay attention to the fact that the AC interacts with the environment indoors. If pollutants are floating in the air, as the air conditioner circulates the air into the room, it will cause them to disperse. You will likely inhale the airborne contaminants much easier because of the AC when you’re in their way. Read this article regarding indoor air pollution reduction strategies to keep this specific issue from emerging.

Solution: Ideally, you should use an air purifier. It is specifically intended to clear polluting particles from the air. As a result of keeping the air purifier on, you can rest assured knowing that the air conditioner won’t have any airborne contaminants circulating into the air.

Woman Suffering from Allergies Sitting on Bed

Symptoms to Keep an Eye Out For

Specific symptoms activate if the AC needs servicing or your attention for a while. This is what we cover in the following five subsections of the article. Here it goes:

• #1. You Can Literally See Signs of Mold Growth

  An oversized air conditioner with non-functional filters will encourage mold growth because of high indoor humidity and the lack of a working filter to trap mold spores. As mold starts to grow and spores linger, air purity drops considerably. When you inhale the mold spores, you put yourself at risk of a respiratory tract infection, allergies, asthma, etc.

• #2. Blood Pressure Levels Increase

  If it’s too cold, this will inevitably happen. And you want to avoid this, especially if you suffer from cardiovascular health problems. Program the thermostat at 78 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s the ideal threshold to keep cool without any health repercussions.

• #3. You Have Difficulty Breathing

  The air that circulates in the room is full of pollutants. As you inhale these contaminating particles, you will experience shortness of breath. Even as a standalone issue, shortness of breath can lead to other problems, including dizziness, high blood pressure, etc. You must routinely clean or replace the air filter to keep this from happening.

• #4. Your Skin Feels Dry and Itchy, And So Do Your Eyes

  If the air loses its moisture, you will see signs of dehydration, like dry and itchy skin and eyes. Keep the hygrometer on to ensure that relative humidity percentages stay within the 40% to 60% range. If air moisture drops below 40%, run the humidifier as much as needed to fix the issue.

• #5. You Experience Symptoms Similar to Cold or Allergies

  This happens because of the polluting particles that circulate in the room. Inhaling these irritating contaminants makes your nose runny and causes sneezes and other issues reminiscent of cold or allergy symptoms rather than anything else.

Bottom Line – Is Air Conditioning Bad?

The answer to the final question of this article is definitely a resounding NO. The air conditioner is ok for you if you stay busy with maintenance and mind how you use it. In fact, it’s a necessity if you want to make it through heat waves safely. Even with a heatwave-proof home that keeps the cool air inside and the hot air out better, you still need the assistance of this household appliance.

As you likely understand by now, incidents where the AC can pose a threat, are in your control. So you can make the right decisions and keep the adverse outcomes at bay. You should enjoy summer to the fullest, and if you know how to use the AC, so there won’t be any repercussions, this will happen. So, to wrap it up, I hope you have as much fun as possible this summer and come back for more exciting articles on FMA Research!