Where does house-dust come from?

Question

I mean is it the people, books, does it come from outside?

Answer 1

Where did all this dust come from? If you’re like most folks, you’ve probably had that thought at one time or another – maybe while cleaning or just before you start in! It seems amazing that so much dust can gather in so short a time inside a protected environment like a house or office, but once you understand how dust forms and where it comes from, it’s actually pretty amazing that we don’t have more dust.

Outdoors, the atmosphere is filled with various kinds of dust, from windblown soil to pollutants. Ash from volcanoes, ocean salt, pollen and minute bits of decaying organic matter make up outdoor dust, which can circulate globally. The entire environment, from plants to animals, is constantly shedding dead cells. Industrial plants and vehicles add to particulate matter in the air, and seasonal fires add more ash.

Though the air in our homes appears clear and clean, unless you are using an air purifier or some other means of filtration, the air coming in from outside brings in a tremendous amount of dust. However, that’s just part of what makes up house dust.

It is estimated that humans lose 30,000 – 40,000 dead skin cells each and every minute. Furniture fabric, bedding, and clothes release fibers every time they are used or disturbed. Pets also contribute to house dust by shedding skin cells and hair. If your home is carpeted, there are even more fibers being released into the air.

Dust mites can be found nearly everywhere there is dust.

Answer 2

Where Does Dust Come From

Answer 3

House dust comes from primarly two sources, your vacuum cleaner and the outside air entering the home. Dead Skin, hardly, lots of dust in a house with only one occupant. or no occupants. So the skin idea is out.

On the vacuum cleaner, you vacuum carpets, and that beater bar pounds the carpet, the motor sucks up the air surroundin the beater bar and it passes a bag or a dustless and about 80% of the dust is removed, primarly the big particulate, the small stuff becomes airborne and eventually settles on tables, flat surfaces and so on.

On the entry of outside air, that air enters a lot of homes thru open windows. The outside air is very dusty even though one would think otherwise, it is indeed dusty. That 80% furnace that combusts natural gas is another source of outside air entry. What goes up the chimney in cubes of air enters the house from outside, the dusty air, thru every crack and crevis but indeed it gets into the house.

So you can rid of much house dust by installing a 90% furnace that uses outside air for combustion thru a pipe. And use a vacuum with a hepa filter on its exit. Plus keep those windows closed. And use an Electrostatic filter in your furnace to remove even the finest smallest particulates.

Answer 4

I hate to tell you this, but most house dust comes from you shedding dead skin cells. Then there is also hair.

Answer 5

Questions: if the dusts come from outsid, Summer time should be more dusty than Winter time when windows are closed, rooms with windows should be more dusty than rooms without windows, areas near the windows should be more dusty than other areas, correct? But the truth is that above mentioned are not true. Who can explain?

Answer 6

Some of all of the above. People have dander, and dust mites eat that. And they create- you guessed it! Dust!

Books, too, can collect dust. So can curtains, blinds, and vents.

Answer 7

Invisible dust bunnies. They set up camp under all my beds and are immune to extermination.

Answer 8

no joke if you and whoever you live with start wearing body lotion, you won't have as much dust.

Answer 9

It is in the air. The same air that we breath. And for some reason I think there is more of it in my house.

Answer 10

alot of it is your dead skin that comes off when you itch or just falls off.