Healthy Indoors Magazine - USA Edition

HI October 2017

Healthy Indoors Magazine

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Healthy Indoors 33 "Energy Star" houses currently under construction. This work is occurring after he complained to Energy Star and they said "action" had been taken. You can read the letters he received from Energy Star. He's a very motivated guy. Very few homeowners would go to that level of trouble, which is why you don't hear much about it. Consumers are not protected by certifications. Transparency of outcomes, both good and bad, are what it will take to fix this. Getting what you really want At the end of the day, we all want a comfortable, healthy, long lasting, and efficient home. If you have a truly com- fortable and healthy home, I can almost guarantee you it will be efficient, and hence green. Efficiency is a natural outcome when you design to make a home healthy and comfortable, a strong theme you'll see in our work. Green certifications are of little value if the house is un- healthy or uncomfortable. What really matters are results. Again, whoever you choose to follow or work with, make sure they aren't afraid to publish their results. Here are a few metrics we use to judge our work, the first 3 are objective, the last is subjective. • Air Leakage — Before, predicted, and after. Air leakage, which is measured by a blower door, is hands-down the most important factor behind most comfort, health, and moisture problems. We make predictions about where we think a project will end up. Accuracy of predictions is very important for reasons covered in the book. • Energy Use — Before, predicted, and one year after. Energy use is a proxy for success. It is a poor goal in and of itself because people care less about saving a few dollars a month than they do about having a healthy, comfortable home. But if you're truly comfortable, the odds are good that your house will use less energy. Our clients usually save a few hundred dollars a year. • Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) — Homes should be healthy, we spend a LOT of time in them, and if air quality is

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