If last week was rough, this week is worse. The smoke over the Treasure Valley has thickened, air quality has pushed well into the unhealthy range and beyond, and the Department of Environmental Quality has extended its advisory across most of southwest Idaho, including Ada, Canyon, Gem, Payette, and Washington counties. Burn bans are in effect, and the heat is forecast to climb back toward 100 later this week on top of it all.
When the air is this bad, the tips that were nice to have last week become things you actually need to do. Here's how to protect your household and your system while we ride this out. For the live numbers, check DEQ's air quality site or AirNow before you plan your day.
How Bad Is It, and Who's Most at Risk?
At the levels we're seeing, the air is unhealthy for everyone, not just sensitive groups. The thing that makes wildfire smoke dangerous is fine particulate, small enough to get deep into your lungs and even your bloodstream. The people who need to be most careful are kids, older adults, pregnant women, and anyone with a heart or lung condition. If that's someone in your home, this is a week to keep them inside with the cleanest air you can create for them.
I'm young and pretty healthy myself, and my chest has been hurting when I breathe in deep, which is a huge red flag for me, meaning others with respiratory issues are definitely at risk.
Can't Find an Air Purifier Anywhere? Build One.
Every store in the valley sells out of air purifiers within a day of the smoke rolling in. The good news is you can build one that genuinely works for about thirty dollars, and public health folks actually recommend it.
The simple version: take a standard box fan, hold a MERV 13 furnace filter against the back of it (the intake side), and tape it in place around the edges so all the air gets pulled through the filter. Match the arrow on the filter to the direction of airflow, pointing into the fan. Turn it on. That's it, you're now filtering the air in that room.
The better version is called a Corsi-Rosenthal box, which uses a fan and four filters taped into a cube. It moves a lot more clean air and isn't hard to build. If you want to see exactly how to put one together, here's a 5 minute video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6lBCtl8ENo. You don't need a single tool to get this done.
A couple of safety notes: use a newer box fan in good condition, don't leave it running unattended when you're asleep or out of the house, and don't block the fan so much that it strains the motor. Used sensibly, it's one of the best cheap tools you have this week.
Keep Your System's Fan Running, and Change the Filter More Than You'd Think
Same advice as last week, and it matters even more now: set your thermostat fan to "ON" so your system is filtering your indoor air around the clock instead of only when it's cooling.
The difference this week is how fast your filter loads up. In smoke this heavy, a filter that would normally last a few months can get dirty in a couple of weeks. Check it weekly right now, and change it the moment it looks loaded. A clogged filter chokes your airflow and stops doing its job right when you need it most.
Don't Forget the Unit Outside
Here's one people miss: all that fine ash and smoke settles on your outdoor AC unit, coating the coils that need to shed heat. With temperatures headed back to 100 later this week, your system is going to be working hard, and a coil caked in ash makes it work harder. Gently rinse the outdoor unit with a hose to keep it clear. It's a five-minute job that protects the most expensive part of your system during the worst possible week to lose it.
If You Run a Swamp Cooler, Please Read This
We mentioned this last week, but at these smoke levels it's important enough to say louder. Evaporative coolers work by pulling outside air into your home. Right now, that outside air is hazardous. Running a swamp cooler this week means actively pumping smoke into the house you're trying to keep clean.
If you rely on one to stay cool, this is the week to shut it down, close up the house, set up a clean room with one of those box-fan filters, and find another way through the heat. We know that's a hard trade with temperatures climbing, but at very unhealthy air levels, it's the right call for the people in your home.
The Short Version
Build a box-fan air cleaner for the rooms you use most, run your system's fan on "ON," check your filter weekly, rinse the ash off your outdoor unit, and if you're on a swamp cooler, shut it down while the air is this bad. None of it costs much, and all of it helps.
And when this smoke season finally passes and you're tired of doing this every August, a whole-home air cleaner built into your system is the permanent version of all of this. That's a conversation for a clearer week, though. This week is just about getting through it safely.
Check on your neighbors, especially the older folks and anyone on their own, with the heat and the smoke hitting at the same time. We're a family-run shop covering Nampa, Caldwell, Meridian, Boise, and beyond, and we're here at 208-455-5158 if you need us.