Tag Archives for " humidity "

The unintended consequences of turning down the thermostat this winter

According to the Energy Information Administration and their Winter Fuels Outlook report, it will cost 27 percent to 28 percent more than 2021/2022 to heat your home with oil or gas.  If you heat with electricity, prices may rise by as much as 10 percent, because much of our electricity is generated from oil and gas. (Newsweek.com)

When you have a fixed or unstable budget, the decision to lower or turn off heat during the winter is not easy.  The other components of our budgets–food, housing, transportation and medical care–aren’t as flexible as those extra blankets, mittens and hats, so down the thermostat goes.  This is where what you don’t know might hurt you.

It’s not only the air temperature that changes when the heat source turns off.  Air holds a certain amount of water vapor, also called humidity, and warmer air can hold more water vapor than cooler air.  When the air cools, water vapor in the air will tend to condense on any surface that is lower than the dewpoint temperature.  That’s why you see condensation on windows and around door frames in winter: these are the points that tend to conduct cold temperatures from the outside, and moisture from the air is condensing on them.  Persistent moisture is mold-feeding moisture, and before you know it, there is a mold problem.  Even worse is that mold could be forming in places you can’t readily see, like inside walls, attics and basements, because the air temperature has dropped and cooler air just can’t hold the moisture of warmer air.   Cooler air can easily reach humidity levels of 80% or more, giving that “damp” feeling and over time, exposing the home to mold growth.  

There is a myth that when a room is not being used, it’s best to turn off heat (close registers) and close it off from the rest of the house (close the door) to save money.  If this is done without any ventilation or air circulation, it’s also a recipe for mold, because without air circulation, water vapor in stagnant air will be absorbed by furnishings and allow mold to take root.  If you need to limit heating in your home, try to leave doors to unused rooms at least cracked and leave a fan running in the room, because dynamic airflow limits moisture ingress due to evaporation. For more on finding and fixing areas prone to mold in the winter, check out our article.

If high humidity is not a problem, low humidity might be.  Low humidity can damage all kinds of decor in your house by shrinking and drying, from wood flooring, wallpaper, and furniture to fine instruments like pianos and guitars and artwork.

Then, there’s your body.  Stress due to cold is a real problem for the elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions like asthma or heart disease.  It also makes people more likely to use alternate heating methods that could be unsafe.  Small room heaters are often known to tip over and cause fires, and electric blankets can actually cause burns.   Falling asleep on a bunched-up blanket is a common cause of burns, according to Bell, a plastic surgeon who treats many burn patients. He explains that when a hot blanket rests on the same body part for an extended period, the skin can burn. “These burn accidents usually happen because someone has fallen asleep on a bunched-up area of the blanket,” he says.  Unfortunately, people with diabetes are more vulnerable to burns from electric blankets because their condition makes them less sensitive to heat. “Electric blankets are also not recommended for infants, young children or anyone who is paralyzed or incapable of understanding how to safely operate them,” says Bell.  People with urinary incontinence also should not use electric blankets because wetness and electricity don't mix. (ul.com)  If you do use an electric blanket, follow all the safety guidelines of UL Solutions (previously Underwriters Laboratories) so that you don’t become one of these statistics!

When home heating costs rise, air quality can also worsen due to particulates in the air.  In Europe, the impacts of inflation and fuel scarcity due to the Russian-Ukrainian war is particularly hard on middle and lower income families, and they turn to alternative sources like burning wood, coal and even garbage in indoor stoves.  These stoves impact indoor and outdoor air quality.  Indoors, reloading a stove that is already burning fills the air with particulates, and combustion gasses can leak out of improperly-sealed doors and exhaust pipe fittings, exposing inhabitants to dangerous levels of carbon monoxide and particulates.   Outdoors, European cities that typically have poor air quality during the winter may have even worse this winter. A recent study from Greece showed that wood burning was responsible for almost half of the cancer-causing air pollution in Athens and a new study from New Zealand has showed an increase in serious respiratory infections when wood smoke built up in an area. (TheGuardian.com)  If you live in one of these areas, it doesn’t matter whether you are the one burning wood–you will still be breathing its effects. 

If you feel financial pressure to lower the thermostat this winter, here are some practical ways to keep the air warmer and less humid in your home (Prof Cath Noakes from the University of Leeds):

• Move seating away from cold windows
• Use thick curtains at night, but allow the sun to come in during the day
• Ensure radiators or ventilation registers are not covered or blocked by furniture
• Ventilate using high-level windows can reduce cold drafts
• Ventilating after a shower or when cooking can prevent moisture buildup which can lead to damp and mold.

It’s sometimes harder to detect high humidity in the winter because of the lower temperatures, so don’t take a risk–keep one or more humidity sensors in your home for monitoring it.  Our bipolar ionizers like the Germ Defender, Air Angel or Whole Home Polar Ionizer actually deter mold even if humidity temporarily goes too high, making them great investments for all seasons. 

Finally, if you have a warm home, sharing it with your elderly, disabled or disadvantaged friends for a meal or a few hours could make a huge impact in their lives.  Helping them to purchase safe heating appliances and understand how to keep humidity at manageable levels also will help them to live healthier.  Warmth is not always about containment, but allowing it to radiate to others. 

The Science of Dust

Dust.  It’s not just harmless dirt that builds up on fan blades until we can’t turn the fan on any more for fear of clumps flying everywhere.  It’s a combination of skin cells, pollen, dead bugs, bacteria, soil, dander and various fibers. (iaq.works)  Dust also carries SVOCs, or semivolatile organic compounds, that are emitted from materials and products like plasticizers from plastic products and flame retardants from upholstered furniture. "Unlike VOCs, that you can smell and that warn you of their presence, SVOCs are called stealth chemicals. They are odorless, ride on dust, and are insidious underminers of our health, "  says Marilee Nelson, co-founder of Branch Basics.  (wellandgood.com)  Then, there are the dust mites, which are microscopic organisms that feed on dust.  All in all, dust is even more disgusting than it looks!

My all-time least favorite chore as a kid was dusting.  It didn’t require a load of physical exertion, so it must have been the sheer tediousness of moving the same stuff to dust around it week after week.   We used lemon-scented Endust in the 70’s and 80’s, which actually should have made me a little giddy (it had odorless mineral spirits and 1,1,1-trichloroethane with a propellant blend of butane and isopropane, of which inhaled 1,1,1-trichloroethane acts as a central nervous system depressant and can cause effects similar to those of intoxication)...yikes!  (chemeurope.com)  Why haven’t we invented a way to keep the dust off permanently?    

I guessed the answer had something to do with static electricity.  Apparently, the “mechanism of particle adhesion” works against us in allowing dust to settle on furniture and objects in our homes.  According to Keyence.com, producer of static eliminators and ionizers, “When dust is carried on air currents generated by air conditioning and similar devices, the dust takes on a positive or negative static electric charge due to contact with various objects. Dust that has a positive electric charge will be attracted to objects that have a negative electric charge, and vice versa. The greater the amount of dust in the air, the larger the amount of dust that clings to objects within the room.

Also, if sources of dust (mainly people and clothing) are electrically charged, the dust that is generated from these sources is electrically charged as well. This attractive force generated by static electricity is known as “Coulomb force.” 

The solution to particle adhesion is to eliminate the static electricity from the object’s surface and from the air up to a few millimeters from the object’s surface.  This is easy to do using a static eliminator, which charges the air with ions.  This removes the static charge from the particles and prevents them from reattaching.  There are also lots of “anti-static” polishes on the market, however, their toxic ingredients may or may not be disclosed.

Also, the answer to dusting less also has to do with humidity.  Humidity does not reduce the literal amount of dust in your home; instead, humidity causes dust particles to adhere to one another, making them too heavy to travel through the air. Thus, dust particles are still present in your home, but the ideal humidity level makes dust particles quicker to settle and easier to clean.  

In addition, when the indoor humidity level is between 40 and 60%, dust mites are unable to thrive and spread. Dust mites prefer extremely humid atmospheres because they absorb moisture from the air in order to survive.

So, apparently there are two things that tend to keep dust (and dust mites) down to manageable levels: ionized air and the right humidity.  We fully endorse both!  Most of the HypoAir air purifying products include a bi-polar ionizer, which has the capability to kill germs at a distance by attacking them with the same ions that control the dust.  We also like to talk about keeping your home at the right humidity to fight mold growth and germ dispersion.  It’s a win-win!

With ionization and the right humidity in place, getting rid of the remaining dust should be manageable.  Cleaning experts give these tips to get the most out of your cleaning tools and time:

Get rid of feather dusters and dry cotton cloths, because they are simply flinging the dust into the air.  Also, don’t use damp cotton cloths, because they leave streaks of dust behind.  The best tool is a microfiber cloth (again, microfiber is better at holding a slight “charge” to attract dust) and your favorite all-purpose cleaner, like one of the following: 

• HypoAir’s TotalClean, a non-toxic multi-purpose cleaner you can use throughout your home

• Force of Nature, a non-toxic hypochlorous cleaner that can sanitize or disinfect surfaces depending on the concentration

• Branch Basics, a non-toxic plant and mineral based cleaner

For wood surfaces, you can add some drops of a non-damaging essential oil to the spray bottle, so that wood surfaces don’t dry out and retain a nice shine. Orange oil is great for this purpose.  Since many ingredients are not disclosed on commercial dusting sprays, it may be tempting to make your own DIY dusting spray, and there are lots of recipes on the internet.  However, look at the ingredients closely, because vinegar is a key ingredient in many recipes, and it can damage many surfaces in your home.  

If an area has more dust than usual, or to avoid switching cleaning cloths too often, you can use your HEPA vacuum cleaner with a soft head attachment to “pre-dust”.  Of course, standalone HEPA filters running part-time or full-time will cut down on a lot of dust.  

Keeping the dust down in your home can lead to less allergies, sickness, and over time, better overall health because of the way ultra-fine particles can penetrate our lungs and migrate to different areas in the body.  With the right conditions (ionized air and the right humidity) and tools (microfiber cloths, non-toxic cleaners and a HEPA vacuum), regular dusting can be manageable, kind of like flossing your teeth.  Reveal the beautiful side of your home and get dusting!

Q: Do Air Handlers Belong in the Attic?

A: It depends!

(Don’t you love that answer?!)  Every one’s home is different, as well as where their home is built (climate), so there aren’t hard and fast rules, but we can surely show you the pros and cons of putting your air handler in the attic.

First of all, an air handler is part of a split system central AC unit.  In these systems, there are two distinct parts: one contains the condenser that changes the refrigerant from a gas to a liquid to release the heat from inside the house (the condenser is usually located outside), and a second part that contains the evaporator (which absorbs heat from the house air) and a blower to move air through ductwork to different rooms.  This second part is called the air handler and because it’s not super quiet and can take up a good amount of space, many people install their air handler in the attic.

The attic may or may not be a good location for your air handler.  Here’s how to know: is your attic conditioned, or unconditioned?  Conditioned attics are considered part of the building envelope and they are insulated.  Conditioned attics don’t have to be “finished” per se with drywall and nice flooring, but they do need to be air-sealed from the outdoors.  Air handlers CAN belong in conditioned attics. 

Unconditioned attics (also called vented attics) are exposed to exterior temperatures through ridge vents, gable vents, soffit vents or powered vents.  There is no “air conditioning” so humidity, dust, insects and extremely high or low temperatures are all present in an unconditioned attic.  Air handlers DO NOT belong in unconditioned attics.  Why?  

• For one, the air handler is responsible for moving the air you breathe, and even a small leak in it or the ductwork will pull humid, dusty, unconditioned air from the attic into your home.  
• Extreme temperatures cause your air handler to work less efficiently, which translates to higher heater and cooling costs.  
• The air handler is an expensive piece of equipment that can cost thousands of dollars; to minimize breakdowns and maximize its life, it’s best to place it in a clean, moderated environment!
• Accessing and crawling around a dirty, dusty attic makes routine maintenance or needed repair work more difficult.
• If the condensate drain plugs up and overflows the pan under the unit, guess where that water will go?  Onto and through your ceiling!

“Conditioned space” in your home costs money, because it is part of the square footage that realtors count when valuing your home.  For this reason, homeowners and many builders prefer to stick the air handler “out of sight and out of mind” in the attic or worse, in an unconditioned crawl space.  Now that you know better, if you have the opportunity, give your air handler an “upgraded” installation spot in your home.  Here are some tips for finding that spot:

• The air handler should be centrally located in the home in order to minimize ductwork run lengths to all rooms.
• Closets are better than the attic, but without enough room to do maintenance on your unit, small closets are not ideal.  Without room to walk or reach around the unit, HVAC technicians will have a hard time making good sealed connections with ductwork, and if anything needs repair, it takes longer to do it, possibly requiring removal of the whole unit.

It’s tough to understand how this air handler and ductwork were installed in such a small space.  (Source: energyvanguard.com)

• A large utility space is ideal.  You will not want carpet or hardwood below the unit, so that any water leaks can be cleaned up easily.  Good lighting also makes it easier for you to check on the unit from time to time, and to change any filters.  

When replacing your air conditioning unit, we hope you will give serious thought on where to locate the new air handler.  Giving it preferential space inside your home will give you quality air for years to come.  It’s important, however, to make sure that:

• This room or large closet has its own air supply and return, because when air gets sealed behind closed doors (and you will want to close the door to isolate the unit acoustically), mold can develop.  This can be accomplished by placing a grille in the return of the air handler, and placing a supply grill in the wall or through the ceiling with a “jump duct”. This article from renowned building scientist Joe Lstiburek shows the flaws of different locations and how to overcome ventilation issues.
• Locating an air handler next to a gas appliance such as a gas hot water heater can be problematic, unless it is a “sealed combustion” unit.  The air handler will cause the room to be under slight negative pressure while the fan is on, which can affect combustion and venting of the water heater.  
• If your furnace is a gas furnace, you’ll need to make sure it also gets adequate combustion air.

If you can’t bring it inside your building envelope, you may consider a unit that doesn’t require big air handlers–namely, mini-split units.  One external compressor/condenser can supply several indoor units (evaporators), which are typically hung on the wall, with only small refrigerant and drain lines running between the inside and outside.  Where there’s a will, there’s usually a way!

Can my indoor air quality affect the food I eat?

Do you ever look at the food on your countertop, whether it’s an apple pie or bowl of potatoes, and wonder, how did that food go bad so fast?  It’s a common problem, even more so in warmer climates, so we thought you’d like to know how your indoor air quality affects your food!

Admittedly, not all spoilage comes from your own air.  It’s been recognized that food processing plants need to have better air contamination control during the food production process.  “Primary  air  pollutants  in  the food  industry  are marked,  being,  in addition  to  microorganisms, suspended particles, combustion  products (nitrogen oxide,  carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide,  sulfur oxide) and volatile organic substances.” (2019 Meat Industry Conference Paper)  The contamination of food products is dependent on:

• air’s microbial load, and 

• on the duration of exposure to the air, whether during specific technological processing stages (e.g. cooling) or during storage (from book: Hygienic Design of Food Factories, chapter 14: Managing Airflow and Air Filtration to Improve hygiene in food factories).  

Air in slaughterhouses and sausage production facilities, for example, is more than 10 times more laden with yeasts and molds than dairy processing facilities, because of contamination that can come in on the product (animal feces).  The second point is that the product contact with air needs to be limited in order to limit its contamination.  Air  quality  is  particularly  important  in facilities for  production and packaging of butter, if this is manufactured in open-type mixers, since these devices can also incorporate up to 5% of the surrounding air into the product [Varnam  A  and Sutherland  J  P  1996 Milk  and  Milk  Products: Technology,  Chemistry  and Microbiology 1st ed, Chapman and Hall, London, p 451].

Another factor that causes spoilage during food processing is humidity.  There are three ways that humidity affects the food: 

• Condensation on equipment and food can accelerate microorganism growth

• Dry foods can absorb moisture that will lead to microorganism growth

• Packaging like paper and metal start to degrade, leading to spoilage

These insights into how food gets contaminated in factories are good for application in the home because although we can’t much control how it gets packaged, we can certainly control how it’s stored and prepared at home.  So let’s dive in…

The three main biological pollutants that cause food spoilage are bacteria, yeasts and molds. (online course)  Bacteria, yeasts and molds, which are typically small in size, can hitch a ride on larger particles like water droplets or dust.  Where do these come from?

The bathroom.  It’s not pleasant to think about, but “Germs will more likely spread after you flush, when bits of fecal matter blast into the air in aerosol form, a phenomenon known as "toilet plume." From there, Kelly Reynolds (a public health researcher at the University of Arizona) said, the "bits of fecal matter settle on surfaces, contaminate hands and then get spread to the eyes, nose or mouth." (USAToday.com)  Here are some ways to limit the spread of germs from the bathroom to the kitchen: 

• Close the toilet lid before you flush.

• Wash and dry hands before leaving the bathroom

• Use an ionizer like the Germ Defender in the bathroom, to kill germs in the air and on surfaces.

Pets.  Similar to the slaughterhouse scenario, many of us have furry animals (pets) walking around in our food-processing facilities (kitchens).  Where these pets have been and what they have on their fur and feet can be really disgusting!  Worse, homes with litterboxes in the kitchen, or allowing pets to walk on the counters, is like placing a toilet in the kitchen or even on the countertop!  It’s just not pleasant to think about.  If you have pets and you have a kitchen, think about these reforms:

• Bathing pets regularly so that bacteria and mold are minimized

• Not allowing pets to walk on countertops

• Keeping litterboxes in another area of the home away from the kitchen if possible

• Spraying pets’ fur regularly with a safe anti-microbial spray like Remedy Mold Treatment Spray by CitriSafe.

• Always wash your hands after touching your pets and especially before food preparation!

The refrigerator.  What?  How can the refrigerator work against us when we’re talking about food spoilage?  Actually, I’m not talking about inside the refrigerator, although that can be a problem (more on that later).  Here, let’s talk about what happens in the “guts” of the refrigerator, where the heat is actually released through the coils.  The speaker is Jeff May, a renowned air quality inspector.  

“I was sitting in my kitchen, and every once in a while, I’d start to wheeze, but just couldn’t understand why. One day, I realized every time the refrigerator turned on, I would have trouble breathing. Our refrigerator was only three years old, but in those days, the drip pan was accessible from the front. When I removed the grille and took it out, there was a pearl onion that somehow bounced into it. The onion had an inch and a half of Penicillium mold growing on it. So, every time the compressor turned on, it would blow mold spores out into the room. Every frost-free refrigerator has a heating cycle. The cooling coil gets full of ice, and you have to melt that ice in order for the refrigerator to cool. The water from that melt goes into a pan at the bottom. The heat from the compressor is supposed to evaporate the water, but very often, the water persists. There’s just not enough heat. So, if there’s any dust in that pan, mold growth ensues. And if you’re allergic to cats and dogs, and somebody had a pet in the house before you moved in, that refrigerator can be a perpetual source of allergens just from the dust that accumulated on the coils when the pets were there. We’ve had people who have just simply cleaned their refrigerator, and all of their allergies went away.” (Jeff May, during interview with author of moldfreeliving.com)

Now for the inside of the refrigerator: Ok, it seems like a no-brainer that you shouldn’t leave spilled food lying around in the fridge because it can contaminate other food by direct contact.  But using your fridge properly also prevents spoilage:

• The real reason there is a Fruits and Veggies Drawer: it controls humidity in the drawer and prevents certain foods from ripening too fast.  If there is a vent or slot on the drawer, this is used to adjust the humidity and air flow (because ripening fruits also produce a gas called ethylene, which will cause other fruits exposed to it to ripen).  Closed vent or no vent = high humidity, and Open Vent = low humidity.  For a quick way to remember what to put in the “Crisper Drawers”, remember this rule of thumb: “rot-low, wilt-high.” Fruits that are prone to rot belong in the low-humidity drawer, while produce that's prone to wilting needs to be enclosed completely in the high-humidity drawer. (for a full explanation see article at epicurious.com)

• Don’t put meat, cheese, milk and eggs in the door shelves!   The door of the refrigerator tends to stay at a higher temperature and these items will spoil more quickly (with nasty consequences) when stored there.  For more on where to store what food, this article helps a lot).

The FoodKeeper App from the FDA is a useful tool to determine how long to keep, and when to throw out specific foods.  It is also helpful to know why you need to preserve foods by refrigerating or freezing them right away (within  2 hours of cooking).  Bacteria are not killed by these colder temps, but their growth is slowed down or stopped.  Some bacteria and their endotoxins (toxins released by the bacteria through its life cycle and during death) are highly resistant to heat, so thoroughly re-heating them before eating does not kill the toxin! (check out our post on endo-and exotoxins here).  Staphylococcus aureus is one example of such a bacteria, and it can cause some serious food poisoning, even death.  

The dishwasher. Wait–the dishwasher is supposed to clean my dirty dishes, how can it be polluting my kitchen air?  If you have ever cleaned the vent on your dishwasher, you will know how absolutely filthy this spot can be.  Food residue, along with moist, steamy air will cause a thick slime to grow.  The rest of the dishwasher needs a deep clean too (not just using a bowl of vinegar and/or baking soda), but the vent especially is the area where escaping steam will carry bacteria into your kitchen air. 

Finally, keeping proper humidity in your home is super-important not only for your sinuses, but for food preservation too.  Some fruits and veggies should only be stored on the counter (check them out here), so the proper humidity will help them to stay fresh longer.  

Now you know how good air quality in your home means better food (especially in your kitchen).  By reducing the bacteria-load in the air, reducing exposure to the air, and keeping proper humidity in the air, you can waste your precious foods less, and enjoy them more!

Catch it EARLY

No, I’m not talking about a movie, or even a sale.  I’m talking about water leaks.  After recently dealing with a leaky faucet (what a pain), I figured that there must be something to help me detect the leak in the first couple hours after it starts, instead of days later.  I’ve seen leak detectors that can detect as little as 1/16” of water, but that still requires placing it in the right place and hoping that the leak will puddle there first.  When I opened the doors to the area below my sink, what I sensed first, before seeing any water, was the high humidity.  Even without standing water, high humidity can cause mold to grow in virtually any area that it contacts.  

Here are my requirements for these remote hygrometers (humidity sensors):

• Use a common, easily accessible battery

• Place it anywhere in your home

• Low cost of sensors to enable more monitoring places

• Wireless alarm through phone app

• Enabled with history to show trends of rising humidity

Bingo!  There are a few systems that fit this bill and more.

Govee is a brand known for its LED lighting and smart home appliances.  Regarding their WiFi digital thermometer hygrometer, they have great reviews on the ease of setting up the WiFi Gateway, and adding all of the sensors to the app.  The sensors can remain connected up to 230 feet away, and the gateway can connect up to 10 sensors ($170 on sale).  Let’s see, I could use one: under each bathroom sink (2), kitchen sink (1), behind the washing machine(1), next to the water heater (1), next to the HVAC air handler (1), behind the refrigerator (1), under the dishwasher (1) in bedroom closets (2-3).  Other people have used them for greenhouses, humidors, and as room sensors to balance their HVAC systems.   I easily found places for 10+ sensors in my home, and with the discounted price, they are cheaper than buying the smaller 3-sensor pack ($115) and adding more sensors separately. 

YoLink is another smart appliance manufacturer and their temperature/humidity devices have a few differences.  For one, the wifi connection can be sustained up to ¼ mile, which is over 5 times the distance of Govee.  The YoLink can monitor extreme temperatures, which is useful if you want to place one in your attic or in your freezer (in case of a power outage). It is also compatible with Alexa.  There are  2 sensors and a hub in this pack ($70), and the hub can monitor other YoLink devices such as water leak sensors and door/window sensors. This unit runs on LoRa (Long Range wireless technology), which uses less power and transmits for longer distances than traditional bluetooth technology.

Switchbot’s hub and sensor ($48) are similar to Govee, using bluetooth to relay data from the sensor.  The humidity range is from 20% -85% (no tropical rainforests allowed!).  The ability of the hub to pair with other smart devices like plugs (to turn on the dehumidifier, for example!) makes it very useful.  

The Internet of Things (IoT) is making our lives less prone to worry in more ways than one.  Can it train my dog not to splash water on the floor?  Maybe not, but with sensors in other places maybe I’ll have the “bandwidth” to do it myself!

How to equip your college student with better air quality

If you’re a parent with a son or daughter in college, of course you want to see them succeed!  It can get costly, though.  From helping with tuition, room and board and everything else, it seems like “clean, fresh air” should be a free part of the package. Unfortunately, that may not be the case.  Many colleges and universities are housed in old buildings that did not give thorough consideration to air quality when they were designed, built, or renovated.  In many cases, you are paying for the privilege of  studying there, with living as only an afterthought!  

The problem with poor air quality in the university setting is that it affects the very thing young adults go there to do: learn.  Contaminants in the air work against their body in the following ways.

High CO2 due to inadequate fresh-air ventilation decreases the ability of the brain to metabolize oxygen.  In other words, the brain becomes oxygen deprived!  This can affect learning in terrible ways.  In a Havard study in 2015, 24 participants spent 6 days in simulated offices to control for CO2 and VOCs.  Days were designated by the research team, but blinded to the participants and analysts, to be one “High CO2” day of 1400 ppm CO2, two “Conventional” days representing the average office building conditions of about 940 ppm CO2, one “Green” day representing better ventilation with conditions of approximately 740-750 ppm CO2, and two “Green +” days representing 100% outdoor ventilation (approximately 550 ppm CO2). Cognitive scores were 61% higher on the Green building day and 101% higher on the two Green+ building days than on the Conventional building day. On average, a 400-ppm increase in CO2 was associated with a 21% decrease in a typical participant’s cognitive scores across all domains after adjusting for participant (data not shown), and a 20-cfm increase in outdoor air per person was associated with an 18% increase in these scores.  This shows that for lack of fresh air in their dorm room or classroom, your student could be missing out on their chance to absorb all the material presented, with lower test scores as a result!  Here are some ways to “open the windows”, so to speak:

• Add a Window Ventilation Filter to their dorm room.  It’s easy to install and remove, and filters out pollution, pollen and dust. 

• For more info on how to measure CO2 in your dorm or classroom, check out our post.  If the classroom or lecture halls turn out to be high in CO2, advise students to check with their student advisor on advocating for more ventilation.  

VOCs: Most dorm rooms come equipped strictly with the basics -- a bed, desk, chair, light and garbage can, plus a small amount of storage space in the form of a dresser and/or closet. (howstuffworks.com) Therefore, moving into a new dorm room usually means getting new bedding and new accessories like rugs, wall hangings, and more storage like dressers or bookshelves.  When these things are purchased new, VOCs from off gassing can increase dramatically if the doors and windows are kept closed for most of the day.  In the study discussed previously,  a 500-μg/m3 increase in TVOCs was associated with a 13% decrease in the cognitive scores.  Once again, fresh air ventilation is really important to keep VOC levels in check. 

• Use a portable VOC sensor to check for levels in the dorm room or wherever it’s suspected that VOCs may be high (like a newly renovated area).  

• Install a  Window Ventilation Filter in the dorm room to get fresh air dilution. 

• The Air Angel neutralizes VOCs with the catalytic molecules emitted by its AHPCO cell. Being portable and requiring very little maintenance, it can travel anywhere they go: on weekend sports events, home, and on vacation.

• The Germ Defender/Mold Guard's optional carbon filter adsorbs VOCs emitted by newer items as they off-gas.

Indoor humidity plays a major role in our health: when it’s too low, disease transmissions are more likely, and when it’s too high, mold growth occurs and different mold-related conditions spike.  We can think of many reasons to keep humidity in the recommended range of 40-60% so that your loved one’s health is not at risk!  Sadly, sometimes it takes severe illness and even death to prompt renovation of problem buildings (see this article about the University of Maryland).  Here’s how to equip your student against high humidity and the risk of bacteria, viruses, and mold-related illness.

• It’s super inexpensive to put a portable humidity sensor in their suitcase or next care package.  Ask them to message you with a photo of the sensor when you’re talking with them in the dorm room, or whenever else it seems to be high.  

• If the humidity remains high, you can speak to the dorm manager, but also equip your student with a dehumidifier.  Amazon and big box stores can even deliver one from an online purchase.  Since the average dorm room is only about 228 square feet, and larger dehumidifiers come with complaints of extra noise and heat, you’ll want to keep it small.  This economical one by Eva-Dry only covers about 150 square feet (1200 cubic feet), but two of them plugged into different areas will help keep moisture under control.  Here is a review of other models that work great for dorm rooms. 

• The Germ Defender/Mold Guard is perfect for small, humid spaces, and does triple-duty in a dorm room: 1) Even though the bathroom is typically always humid, mold doesn’t have to grow there… I can testify that one Mold Guard stopped mold growth when I couldn’t get a leaky shower valve repaired right away.  2) This unit also deactivates viruses and bacteria in the air and on surfaces across the room with polarized ions. 3)  Finally, it has an option for a carbon filter to adsorb stinky odors like running shoes and sweaty clothing!

• Use an Air Angel to prevent transmission of germs and mold growth. This unit is portable and requires very little maintenance, in fact only a replacement AHPCO cell once a year.

Finally, if your college student has not adopted good cleaning habits by now, we can’t help you! (just kidding, but we can supply you with the right goods, read on!)  Statistics on bacteria in dorm rooms are pretty gross: the average women’s dorm rooms had over 1.5 million colony-forming units (CFU)/sq. in. of bacteria, while men’s dorm rooms had an average of over 6 million CFU/sq. in. (collegestats.org).  The same article breaks down the types of bacteria and where they are most concentrated, and while not all of them were bad, most of them were.  It’s time to clean up, because it’s hard to know which is worse: being sick in college or having a sick roommate who will soon infect you.  For those who do clean, equip them: 

• Once again, Germ Defenders and Air Angels are passive sanitizers that help in activate germs between active cleaning.

• A bottle of TotalClean goes a long way!  Since dorm rooms are small, heavy-scented chemical cleaners can be super-irritating and not always welcome to their roommates’ sense of smell.  TotalClean is unscented, non-toxic and very effective against dust, dirt, and germs on many different surfaces, even windows and mirrors. 

• Small pump bottles of non-toxic hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes stationed around the room and on desks help between hand-washings. 

Of course, similar to sending them off to grade school, you can’t be there 24/7 to help your college student make smart choices, but at least by this point you can give them tools to monitor and correct their own air quality for the healthiest and most productive school year.  Viva la college!

Wall covering products that resist mold and mildew

When my kitchen faucet caused a leak under the sink and mold spotted the drywall behind it, I thought, with what material can I replace the drywall to make it less mold-friendly?  Under the sink is a dark, damp area where water can intrude again.   Searching my local big hardware store, all I came up with was fiberboard that had a melamine coating on one side.

Doing some more research online, however, uncovered several more options.   These are not only for under sinks, but garages, basements, utility closets, porches, and anywhere that moisture can be an issue.  

Using large panels instead of smaller cladding units (tiles, boards, etc.) minimizes labor, opportunities for water ingress, and also dust, which is always an inhalation hazard for the installers and anyone else in the area.  

Interior Cladding

Trusscore is a new PVC product that not only resists moisture, it reduces installation time, labor and cost when compared with drywall.  Trusscore panels are ½” thick, so that they are the same thickness as drywall.  They are so named because of the truss-like structure inside to give them strength with flexibility (they bend enough to facilitate installation inside channels without creasing).  Once you see this product being installed, who would ever want to go back to the labor intensive, dusty, mold-prone drywall process again?  I really like the clean simplicity of this product.  My major concerns with having it in residential spaces were:

• VOCs and off-gassing: how much harmful pollutants will it pass into your indoor air?
• Penetrations, because inevitably, someone will want to hang a picture or shelf on it, and then you have visible, difficult to patch holes in it.  
• What about changing the color? 

However, the company has integrated solutions into each of these problems.  

• Trusscore addresses IAQ here: “Trusscore Wall&CeilingBoard, RibCore, and NorLock products are all low-VOC compliant, including low formaldehyde, meaning it won’t off-gas and ensure a safe and healthy space for occupants. In addition, the installation of Trusscore products does not require potential VOC sources like glue or paint for a finished installation.  Each product has been tested according to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Standard Method v1.2 testing standard. This is the leading VOC standard used to evaluate VOC emissions from building products such as flooring, suspended ceilings, insulation, wall panels, paints and coatings, and wall coverings. The CDPH standard is referenced by some of the most widely used green building rating systems and green construction codes including USGBC LEED, CalGreen, and more.”  Still, in a fire, I would RUN out of any area that was covered in PVC...I’d say this is definitely not the material to cover any space where welding or high heat hobbies occur.  Also, I would hesitate install to it in high ambient heat places like Las Vegas or the southwest US (it’s plastic, after all)!  
• Trusscore makes slatwall, which makes it easy to hang things (especially useful in garages and utility rooms)
• All the panels come pre-finished in a durable white or gray coating, and painting guidelines can be found here (Painting requires special primers so that the paint will stick).  The benefit of painting: if you can paint it, you can also patch it!

Duramax PVC Wall Panels are very similar to Trusscore, but they come in 16” widths instead of 48” widths.  They also do not have any slatwall systems, recommending instead to use hangers similar to drywall hangers to permanently hang anything.  The cost of Duramax is less than Trusscore ($2.70/sf vs. $3.60/sf). They do not have any VOC emissions information on their website or MSDS other than protection guidelines against dust generated while installing it.

MSD panels have a variety of natural and futuristic textures (brick, tile, wood, stone, etc.) for a moisture-resistant cladding for interior walls.  The video on this page contains a little bit construction, a little bit artistry as the installers hang the panels and patch the seams to make the brick wall look completely congruent. As an artist, I do like these for the realistic looks they form.  Unfortunately, they are in Spain!

EverBlock and EverWall products are like giant Legos (with these why would you want to “grow up”?).  Everblocks are made of High-Impact Polypropylene Co-Polymer (“no-break”) with UV Inhibitors added for outdoor use.  EverBlocks are recyclable. They don’t offer much insulative quality (R-2 equivalent), but they are hollow and internally reinforced.

Formica lives on!  Formica HardStop has the great variety of colors and patterns of traditional Formica, but instead of the traditional fiberboard backing that is susceptible to moisture ingress, HardStop has a fiberglass backing that makes it more durable and water-resistant. It can be applied to drywall, plywood, and particle board (which are susceptible to water) or to cement or cement board. HardStop panels are thin and flexible like the original Formica, so they do need a structural element for reinforcement behind them.  They also require adhesive (looks messy to me!).

DriCore Smartwall is a similar system that incorporates an insulated layer on the back of the panel.  Very genius, however, the system uses drywall in the panels, and wood cleats to install it and has wood interlocking sections within the panels.  Here is a video on the installation of DriCore Smartwall, which also uses patch material to make a seamless wall.

Exterior cladding

The more I read about building science, the more I see imperfections in “the way we always did it”.  There are many traditional finishes for commercial and residential buildings, but the gold standard calls for a “rainscreen” type structure that applies the cladding to a hidden track system, so that air can reach behind the rainscreen and dry things out.  Think about a rain fly for a tent, or a double roof system.  The air buffer separates water and extreme heat or cold from the exterior of the house, making for a longer-lasting house!  In his article “The Perfect Wall”, building scientist Joe Lstiburek defines the elements of this wall and how they are constructed to resist rain, snow, humidity, air intrusion, mold, heat and cold, etc.

Here are some products that work as rainscreens:

• Nichiha: this company was founded in 1956 in Japan but now has an office and factory in Georgia.  Their cement fiberboard siding comes in architectural panels or premium planks and uses a hidden track system.  It is an upgrade to “Hardy Board” and the many imitations of it, because it “floats” on the track system with that air buffer behind it.
• Ceraclad is a triple-coated ceramic and cement rainscreen with its own installation system. The panels are self-cleaning, with a photocatalytic coating that actually purifies the air!  The coating decomposes car exhaust and other pollutants in the air (NOx and SOx) and turns them into NO3 harmless polyatomic ions leaving the air cleaner.  According to the website, a building with 10,000 sf of external Ceraclad coating is the equivalent of 68 poplar trees!  10 Ceraclad panels are the equivalent purification to 1 poplar tree.  The coating also inactivates viruses and bacteria at its surface. 
• Knight Wall Systems provide the hidden tracks to install your rainscreen.  They have three different types of attachment to accommodate many different types of cladding.  Although mainly commercial, this system could be used for high-end residential homes as well.
• Monarch Metal offers cladding systems with all kinds of finishes including HPL Phenolic, stone, fiber concrete and more.  Their hanging system contains high quality “Z-clips” which are similar to french cleats that allow you to hang the facade without screwing into the face of it, also interlocking panels as you install them.

These are just a sample of ways to get less mold growth in damp areas, relying on 1) materials that don’t sustain mold and 2) siding that incorporates ventilation.  It’s building science at its best!