Healthy Indoors Magazine
Issue link: https://hi.healthyindoors.com/i/971754
34 | HOUSE WHISPERER —April 2018 70% there's probably a rave going on somewhere in your home. 3. Particulate Matter (PM): PM aka dust is looking to be a larger and larger health issue, so we should measure it. PM2.5 (2.5 microns and below) is where the really harmful things start to happen because it can get into our lungs, and it's where currently avail- able sensors are useful. I'd love to see it go smaller, since PM1 can go directly into our bloodstreams. For example, diesel exhaust contains tons of very small, and very toxic PM. 4. Total Volatile Organic Compounds (tVOC): This one will be controversial. Most would want car- bon dioxide next, as it's a proxy for how fresh air is. Many tVOC sensors pick up CO2. They also pick up carbon monoxide (CO) and many common household chemicals. tVOC sensors are multi- functional. While we have to be detectives to fig- ure out what the specific cause is, a tVOC sensor will broadly tell us if IAQ is good or not. If VOC levels consistently spike at night, it's probably CO2. If the VOC sensor goes off consistently in the basement near the furnace and water heat- er, it should be checked for carbon monoxide. If VOC levels spike during cleaning, the cleaner is probably loaded with VOCs. One sensor can be tremendously useful, even if it requires putting on our Sherlock Holmes cap. Those four proxies, particularly if you have multiple monitors, are likely to help you catch the health thief, and continued monitoring will help ensure that he remains banished from your home. If you really push me, I want carbon monoxide monitoring to be next thing these devic- es track. CO is the only common pollutant that can kill you in short order. Every home that has any type of fossil fuel burning device in or near it should have a CO detector. And tracking low level events is tremendously valuable to avoiding adverse health impacts of CO ingestion. How to Keep the Health Thief from Returning Catching the health thief is only the first step, as now you have to figure out how to keep him out. That's where Home Performance work comes in. It involves gaining control over heat, air, and moisture flows both in and out of a home and within a home. Gaining control almost always involves making a home airtight first, just like it is crucial that a good boat doesn't leak. Once it's tight and you control air flowing in and out of the home, you can control the air within the home through filtration, dehumidification, humidification, and adding outdoor air as needed to replenish oxygen levels. Doing all of that is part of a Home Performance project. You can learn more about those in this column and on my websites and YouTube channel. Once the project is completed, you can use the "se- curity camera" footage from your IAQ monitor to show the improvement from the project, and to ensure that the Health Thief stays banished. If you suspect a Health Thief in your home, buy a se- curity camera and catch him! Nate Adams is the founder of Energy Smart Home Perfor- mance in Cleveland Ohio and of NateTheHouseWhisperer. com. Rather than focus on energy efficiency, Nate focuses on solving the root causes of client problems like uncom- fortable rooms, mold, wet basements, and icicles. As a fan of radical transparency, he has published the most detailed case studies in the industry on these projects. Nate is currently writing The Home Comfort Book, a guide showing people how their homes really work and how to truly solve problems, instead of putting band-aids on bullet wounds. It is meant to create consumer demand for this work rather than the traditional supply focus that has been taken for forty years. His writing has been published in numerous outlets in- cluding GreenTech Media, CleanTechnica, the Journal of Light Construction, Green Building Advisor, and more. Learn more at: http://energysmartohio.com/ i