Building Science, Healthy Home Evaluator, IAQ Testing, Residential Ventilation

Indoor Air Quality is Critical for Health – Run your Ventilation System

 
When you’re trapped at home almost constantly, the air you are breathing needs to be good air, clean air. There are a few basic things you can do:

  • Make sure the filter in your air handler is clean. Filters are rated by their ability to catch particles. The higher the MERV rating the smaller the particles it can capture. But please note that not all systems can handle really restrictive HEPA filters;
  • Make sure the filter slot is covered and sealed. If it isn’t, the effectiveness of the filter drops dramatically;
  • If you have a ventilation system – even a bathroom fan – run it a lot; constantly if possible. You want to dilute the pollutants in the house;
  • If it’s a noisy fan, you might want to change it for a quieter one. You shouldn’t be able to hear it at all;
  • Make sure it vents all the way to the outside – not just to the attic;
  • But you have to shut down ventilation under extreme conditions when outdoor contaminants are much greater than indoors (e.g., smog alerts, intense humidity and heat, high pollen, forest fires). For dilution of pollution strategy to work, the outdoor air has to be less polluted than the indoor air;
  • If you have a sophisticated ventilation system like a Heat Recovery or Energy Recovery Ventilator (HRV/ERV), make sure its filters and core are clean;
  • Try opening windows on mild days;
  • And you might consider a room air cleaner like http://www.RabbitAir.com. This is just one of a multitude of these devices;
  • Oh, and while you’re at it, you might want to have your house tested for radon;
  • Check out your Hayward Score (https://www.haywardscore.com/) (“I like that this practical health score for homes that actually incorporates occupant health experiences….we so often assume IAQ is bad inside when empirical health of residents is a vital factor to identifying a real problem or not.” Sam Rashkin, DOE).

And if you want a little entertainment and a fictional trip to Cape Cod this summer, you might want to check out a signed copy of my novel: Death at the Edge of the Diamond.

Salty Air Publishing

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