You’re blocked up. It’s hard to breathe. What should flow smoothly, without your even thinking about it, is a struggle to achieve.

Is it a cold? Allergies? Nah, we’re talking about the effect of lousy indoor air quality. For a lot of people, the buildup of contaminants within a home can lead to breathing troubles, headaches, and fatigue. It can get bad enough that it has a name—sick building syndrome.

When you shut your door, you aren’t necessarily shutting out pollutants but shutting them in. Surprisingly, the air inside your home can be 100 times more polluted than the outside air if your home isn’t ventilated properly. These homes also are more susceptible to mold issues, which come with their own nasty respiratory effects.

We live and breathe air sealing (ba-dum ching!), but we recognize that most of our members haven’t given it a moment’s thought. Unless there’s an obvious problem, why would you? Better to come home, enjoy your heated or cooled house, and carry on about your life.

Please do give us a minute, though. Air leaks are a big deal for energy efficiency, and good air flow is a very big deal for your health. Without proper ventilation in your home, buildup from everyday items like cleaning supplies, hairspray, paints, pets, and air fresheners (not to mention tobacco smoke) can go straight to your health.

Finding the balance can be tough: You want to seal up your home to keep your conditioned air from leaking out, but you need to keep enough air movement that you aren’t sealing in contaminants that can harm you—especially if you have gas-burning appliances.

If you feel drafts, you probably have leaks. Finding out whether your home isn’t ventilated properly is a little trickier. People commonly overlook the symptoms, get used to them, or attribute them to some other source, like seasonal allergies. A blower door test can find out exactly how your home is performing and where it needs attention—for sealing and ventilating.

Here’s the good news: You’re unlikely to over-seal your home. The premier issue most houses have in this arena is that they’re too open. In fact, the air leaks within a typical home are equal to leaving a window wide open year-round. The best way to make sure that your home is ventilated properly—and sealed up as well as it should be—is to call in a contractor. We’d be happy to be your first step by providing a home energy audit that can show you where you’re losing money, and that audit will include a blower test to find out how your home is performing on the ventilation front. A contractor can then seal your home’s leaky areas or suggest ways to improve the air flow.

You’ll breathe easier when you have answers. (Yeah—of course we went there.) Talking to your local Energy Advisor never costs a thing, so call today.