A Breath of Fresh Air
How fresh is the air in your home? If your home is drafty, the air is really fresh. While fresh air contributes to a healthy home, it costs money to heat and cool all that air. With each energy crisis, the government and the building industry code officials have made progress in making our homes ‘tighter’, in other words less drafty, and much more energy efficient. New building and energy codes have focused on more insulation, building wraps and higher efficiency heating and cooling equipment. Unfortunately for our homes and our health, ventilation has been largely ignored in residential building and that has led to a dramatic decrease in the indoor air quality of our homes. This has been reflected in an increase in allergies, asthma, mold, headaches and other health issues.
Less fresh air means that we get a build-up of indoor air pollutants. These pollutants include formaldehyde, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), chemicals, pesticides, molds and excess humidity. Formaldehyde and VOCs are released from furniture, carpeting, stains and paints. Pesticides can come into our home on our shoes and from pest control products, plants, and produce. Pollutants are released from the combustion from oil, gas and kerosene appliances. Household products for ‘freshening’ and cleaning fill the air with chemical fragrances and toxins. Moisture is released by the people, plants and animals in our homes and by activities like cooking, showering and laundry. While moisture in and of itself is not ‘bad’ (especially in a dry climate), excess humidity can cause considerable problems like mold, mildew, condensation and dust mites.
What can be done to improve the air quality in our homes? There are two main strategies: reduce the pollutants introduced into the home, and increase ventilation.
Reducing pollutants can be achieved by choosing non-toxic household cleaners, furniture and carpeting manufactured without formaldehyde (which is getting easier and easier as more manufacturers are changing the glues and products they use) and low or no VOC paints, adhesives and stains. Air cleaners can be used to reduce some pollutants, mostly allergens like pollen and dust, but beware that some cleaners actually release ozone as a by-product and are not recommended. Changing the air filters on your furnace every season and using a HEPA filter vacuum can also be beneficial.
Increase ventilation by using your bath fans, vent hoods and windows. Every time someone bathes or showers the bath fan should be run for a minimum of 30 minutes. Your kitchen vent hood must vent to the outside and should be run whenever you are cooking both for moisture and combustion pollution removal. Humidity levels should not exceed 36-38% for a healthy home. When the weather is appropriate, open your windows to flush out the air in your home. Even in the winter it can be beneficial to turn off the heat and open several windows on a warmer day for ½ an hour. Just don’t forget to turn the heat back on when you close the windows.
Ventilation can also be mechanized and automated to improve the air quality and reduce reliance on every day actions. Whole house fans can be programmed to run on a schedule. A garage fan can be put on a motion detector to turn on when vehicles enter or leave to reduce carbon monoxide. Some new homes are being built with Energy Recovery Ventilators (ERVs). ERVs continuously bring in fresh air while capturing much of the heat energy of the outgoing air and transferring that energy to the incoming air which reduces the amount of energy required to warm the incoming fresh air. ERVs can also be added to an existing home to improve the ventilation.
Some pollutants are biological and some pollutants are chemical in nature, but without adequate ventilation they build up in your home and can be detrimental to quality of life and your health. Healthy air strategies can become second nature with fans on timers and awareness of potential hazards. Here’s to your family’s health!
