Want Better Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)? Buy a Smarter Thermostat

As the outdoor temperatures in most parts of the country spiral downward, families are spending more time indoors. It’s a time when indoor air quality becomes a chief concern.

In the past, discussions of a home’s indoor environment typically revolved around the temperature of the air. While temperature remains a critical component to the overall comfort of a home, there are many other environmental elements that can have an impact on physical well-being of your family, as well as the structural integrity of your home.

Air purity, ventilation, and relative humidity also contribute to total indoor air health and comfort; fortunately, there are ways to conveniently and effectively monitor and manage these facets along with the temperature.

Consolidation of IAQ Control

You can tackle IAQ problems by investing in separate components, but smart home technology can consolidate these individual controls with the same systems used to manage other aspects of your home. With years of experience developing a variety of ventilation, air filtration, humidification and temperature solutions, Aprilaire is one manufacturer that’s leading the charge by creating unified systems that can treat every aspect of IAQ from a single user interface. And here’s the real beauty: This interface is something you are already familiar with and comfortable using—a smart thermostat and a companion mobile app.

These common interfaces help minimize the learning curve and will make the IAQ of your home a breeze to manage. You may already be using a thermostat and smartphone apps to adjust the temperature of your home—why not also them to control air purifiers, humidifiers/dehumidifiers, ventilation systems and other IAQ components? This unified approach is exactly what Aprilaire offers in its line of Wi-Fi Automation Thermostats to control the HVAC and IAQ equipment.

These IAQ-enabled thermostats not only give you a tool to enhance the overall home environment, but a chance to integrate the controls into a complete home automation system. Integration-friendly, the Aprilaire Wi-Fi Automation Thermostats open up new possibilities for enhanced home management.

Now, in addition to using the screen of an Aprilaire thermostat and smartphone app, you can monitor and remedy IAQ issues from a home automation interface, be it a touchscreen, handheld remote, or keypad. Moreover, IAQ systems under the aegis of the Aprilaire thermostat can be incorporated into home automation scenes, schedules, and settings.

For example, a “Welcome Home” command could not only turn on select lights, distribute music to certain rooms, and adjust the temperature, but also activate the ventilation system. Then, based on the conditions outdoors, as monitored by various sensors, the home automation system could trigger the Aprilaire thermostat to activate the dehumidifier.

By combining IAQ control with other aspects of a home environment—lights, shades, A/V, and more—you can benefit from a solution that touches all aspects of the home environment and breathe healthier, cleaner air.

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