Indoor Air Quality

I just experience my first blower door test. A blower door test is where you seal up a doorway , then blow air through a hole in the seal with a large fan. Somehow it measures the air exchanges per hour of the building being tested. This give you an idea of how tight or loose your home is.

But the real cool part came in when the test guy took a tool that shows infrared of leaks in the building. Pretty cool. Great way to see where your house is leaking so you can go buy a caulk gun and fix the problem!

Pretty photos:

 







   

So yeseterday I thought I'd pulled off quite a coup. I went to another blog yesterday; the author of which was someone I had just met. I was curoious about her blog. One post discussed the kinds of emails she hated to receive. One kind of email she hated to receive was from someone trying to get her to write something for them for free; a way to get free content under the guise of providing her with amazing exposure.

So, I commented, sharing my blog post about the nastiness of some blog strategies used for marketing.

I figured this amazing tactic, linking my blog post to hers, was so clever that, in our little blog strategy world,  it should at least count as much as an original blog post.

You see, we have blog post quotas.  And our Blog Nazi keeps her Blog Nazi Boot planted firmly in our collective behinds in order to make sure we all perform at least to quota.

Well guess what? Blog Nazi, while acknowledging that what I did was positive, would not budge on my quota. Not an inch! So here I am, making stuff up again!  What good is that!?!??

On second thought, if B.N. DIDN'T have a large boot, and DIDN'T exercise it's influence, and just left us bloggers alone, you would be alot less informed about indoor air quality!

Maybe we should get paid per post. Maybe that would be a better motivater than a boot!

Maybe not.

Sound gross? OK, I meant the Mayo Clinic. They're serving up some great information for allergy sufferers. Controlling excess humidity and dust are keys to controlling dust mites. An air purifier can help with airborne allergens and dust in general. They may not trap alot of actual dust mites.

Still, they recommend keeping the place clean, and that's where an air cleaner with a clean air cleaner filter can help.

And, humidifiers can help with skin irritations and respiratory problems.

Don't want to listen to Aprilaire bloggers? Who wouldn't want to listen to the experts from the Mayo Clinic?

It's really hazy and foggy today here in Madison. Why? Because it is reeeeally humid outside. And yet it's unseasonably cool. These are unusual conditions for the middle of June, but cool, humid days do happen every year in Summer; more so in the Spring and Fall.

It's times like these when a dedicated dehumidifier can really help with that clammy basement, or those evenings when you're trying to get to sleep,  but sticking to the sheets isn't helping. It's too cool to run the air conditioner, but dehumidifying will help your comfort level.....and your mood.

Maybe. Sure, there are room air purifiers with HEPA filters and fans that can do a decent job of cleaning the air in one room.

Then there are

GadgetS!!!!

As much as I hate to give these guys a link, there it is.

Do you really want to protect your family with a gadget?

If you want a cute toy, go to Toys R Us (or online) and buy a cute toy. If you want effective air cleaning, do your homework. If you insist on a portable, buy the most you can afford in HEPA filtration with a FAN! If you want air cleaning in every room, buy an air cleaner installed with your HVAC system.

Dehumidify and Ventilate are the two best ways to control or prevent the growth of Mold.

Yes, mold is a nasty thing, especially if you are allergic. AIr cleaners can trap some airborne mold spores but the real key is to dehumidify and ventilate properly.

Of all the information out there about HEPA filters and air purifiers that help rid the air of unwanted allergens, it seems clear that you can benefit from a healthier home environment by using a high-efficiency air cleaning system that will reduce airborne contaminants.

There are plenty of manufacturers' claims about how best to clean the air in your home. Portable air purifiers , or even larger HEPA filters can be pretty effective at cleaning air in one room.

Of course, we believe that for homes with forced air HVAC systems and duct work, using an air cleaner installed within this system, is a more comprehensive and efficient way to clean the air, because it works throughout your house. As your system blower operates, air movement takes place throughout your house and airborne contaminants flow through your return air ducts where an air cleaner captures them before the air is recirculated through your system and back throughout your home.

But let's get beyond the obvious health benefits for a minute. If you're in the market for cleaner air at home and doing your homework to make the best decision, but still struggling with which way to go, consider this.

A high efficiency air cleaner installed with your system also keeps your system cleaner, which keeps it running more efficiently, which in turn saves energy! It also prolongs the life of your HVAC system, which saves you even more money!

Here's proof. This photo compares two air conditioner A-coils; both 10 years old. One from a system that used an Aprilaire air cleaner (left); the other used a standard 1" furnace filter.





A-coils are messy, expensive things to have cleaned; even more expensive to replace.


So consider whole-house air cleaning and also consider preserving your expensive HVAC system and saving energy!

Great tips are here or summertime  Energy Savings.

We're still waiting for it to get warm enough in Wisconsin to worry about running the air conditioner!!!

Did you know that it is possible to shave a degree or two off your cooling temperature if you dehumidify properly. Also, a dedicated dehumidifier can work wonders on those days when it's damp, but not hot enough to run the air conditioner.

I get Google alerts everyday of Aprilaire products being talked about online. Today I received one that turned out to be a Craigslist posting; someone selling a five-year old Aprilaire humidifier for fifty bucks. Great deal, eh?

I don't think so.

Yes, fifty bucks is alot cheaper than having a new humidifier installed.

And yes, it's true that there really is very little that can go wrong with an Aprilaire humidifier, so a five-year old unit is likely to perform just like new if it's been properly serviced throughout that five years.

Big "IF"! But why risk that? YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!

My advice is spend the money to do it right. It's not that expensive to get the peace of mind and up-to-date technology of a brand new unit. Do it right and call a qualified Aprilaire Indoor Air Quality Specialist in your town. Yes, you'll spend a few hundred bucks. But you'll have better comfort for a lifetime.

Plus, while they're at it, you can have your entire system cleaned and checked for the season; something you need to do anyway in order to keep a very expensive system running efficiently and safely.

I love Craigslist;  use it alot to buy and sell. Heck, if I was that guy with an Aprilaire humidifier that I wanted to sell, I'd probably do the same thing. But as buyer, no thanks.

Of all the reasons to dehumidify, energy savings is not typically one of them because a dehumidifier can drain alot of electricity. HOWEVER, you can be more comfortable without over-cooling your home, so that can save energy!

Also, I found a really good quote that tells of another way a dehumidifier can save:

".....if you do not get excessive indoor moisture under control, the costs of resulting damage and adverse health effects can be much higher than the costs of dehumidification'.

read the entire article .

 

My last post talked about turning your humidifier off in the summertime. I had said that you don't have to.

Our resident humidifier expert, Dennie Plomedahl set me straight. Here's the real story.

If you have an Aprilaire humidifier using an automatic control you don't have to do anything. It will only operate when the conditions call for it (probably NOT the summer time!).

If the automatic control uses a manual override, then you simply turn the control to the off position until you're ready to use it again in the Fall.

Thanks Dennie for setting the record straight.

I remember last winter writing about how dry it is in hotel rooms. That led to an interesting conversation about what to do when you travel. That led to some humorous conversation about when you travel and stay with friends. Only stay with friends who have a whole-house humidifier!!!!

Well, it's allergy time and the same problem exists. What do you do when you travel?  Here's a great article with some tips. And yes, it recommends portable air purifiers, which we say are not very effective. Well. they aren't as effective as continual whole-house air cleaning, but they do work and if you're traveling, they might just help.

Otherwise, call your friends and tell them to install Aprilaire whole-house air cleaner or you'll cancel your visit!!!!! ;)

In Wisconsin we have two seasons. Winter and Mosquitoes. Here in Madison, we have Winter and Road Construction.

Hey, it's finally starting to be warm in Wisconsin! 85 degrees today!!!!! That's big news.

I've already started to feel the cold, clammy wetness in our basement. Time to start the dehumidifier.

Most people in the northern states who have basements understand that even when you crank on the air conditioner and things seem comfortable in most of the house, the basement is still damp and musty. So the air conditioner alone isn't doing the job and we add a dehumidifier in the basement.

But did you know that the dehumidifier can be installed to work WITH your HVAC system and therefore dehumidify the whole house. 

An in the south, where basements aren't very common, you can still benefit from a whole-house system because it has the capacity to remove more moisture than most portable room dehumidifiers. And in the south, excess humidity is a year-long problem.

In Wisconsin? Yeah, well we're talking 2 or 3 months of really warm weather. Glass-half -full angle: we don't have to bother putting winter clothes away!

A few have asked me recently, with the Swine Flu outbreak, can a high efficiency air cleaner safeguard my house against the flu?

The real answer is NO! Our Aprilaire Model 5000 Electronic Air Cleaner is the best installed whole-house air cleaner on the market and it DOES trap virus-sized particles. Because if this, there is the potential, if a virus particle attaches itself to a piece of dust that is airborne , that the virus will be permanently trapped and will not re-enter your living space.

In that way, the air cleaner might help reduce the spread of the virus. BUT THERE IS NO WAY IT WILL TRAP IT ALL! A virus that someone leaves on a hard surface may never be airborne so the Aprilaire air cleaner cannot help that---- NO air cleaner can!

Take all the precautions that the pros tell you about the spread of the flu.

I have not purposely avoided Twitter, but I haven't scrambled to start using it either.

I just found out you can search Twitter without participating. Just go to http://search.twitter.com and search for words or subjects and you can see what,  if any buzz is out there right now.

Here's one on Indoor Air Quality .

Gee, I might have to start Tweeting, or Twitting, or Twhatever......

Since the beginning of time, or at least since people started being sick,  people have invented and used home remedies to cure various ills. I always thought it interesting that for any particular home remedy,  those who use it will swear by it and those who haven't tried it tend to think it's bogus.

This would be a great topic of conversation! Anyone out there want to share home remedies that work? Or even some that don't?

We could have a contest! Anyone sending back the wackiest story about a home remedy wins. I'm the judge. I decide when the contest is over. I'll send the winner free Weather Station for your home.

Here is a great article on home remedies to allergies that are proven to WORK!

Not everyone needs to humidify. Not everyone needs to DEhumidify. There are many factors that affect the Relative Humidity (RH) in your home. The real key is CONTROL and knowing what the right range of humidity is for your comfort and health.

The trusty Weather Channel's online sister, Weather.com has a cool little calculator to show you the humidity levels for your house right now.

And there's also a great chart showing the damaging affects of too much or too little humidity in the home. And the accompanying article  quotes experts in the medical field to help validate the strong need to control the amount of humidity.

Check it out.