Toxic Homes
Due to lack of awareness, homes often have air quality that is very unhealthy. This happens because you can’t see or smell most indoor air pollutants, such as VOC’s, CO2 and PM 2.5, and without IAQ monitors you assume the air is safe. Bad indoor air quality is unfair to children that have no choice but to breathe the air provided in a home.
Carbon Monoxide can quickly cause harm, so we install a detector, other indoor pollutants take time, so we ignore them.
This tragic deterioration of family health has occurred during a period of time that homes have progressively been built more air tight, without providing adequate fresh air ventilation and filtration. Studies prove that pollutants trapped in homes, in the air we breathe, has become a major health hazard.
If you have children, please be aware of what VOC’s, CO2, CH2O, PM2.5, and biological contaminants, contained in the air in your home, can do to their health. Just like carbon monoxide, you can't see or smell most of these dangerous pollutants.
We Can Help Make The Air In Your Home Safe
For You and Your Children
There are many air filtration, purification and ventilation devices on the market. The problem is, there is not one device, by itself, that solves all of the different air quality problems and many of the devices don't work as advertised.
To maintain healthy air quality in a home, you need to provide fresh air and eliminate or dilute CO2, VOCs, PM2.5, viruses, bacteria, mold and other pollutants that are in every home. Many of these pollutants need to be controlled in a different manner, it requires a system.
To accomplish this, we have developed a smart, sensor controlled, filtration and ventilation system that relies on the best devices available to provide the best possible air quality and is homeowner maintenance friendly.
Awareness Is Critical
Those that love the new home smell need to know that the new home smell comes from the outgassing of toxins that are in building materials. To be healthy, a home needs devices to monitor and remove those toxins and provide fresh air in a controlled manner.
Unfortunately,
concern about air quality is too often
"Out of Sight, Out of Mind"
Studies have proven that air sealed homes being built today, without controlled ventilation, can seriously harm the health of your family.
Air Sealed Homes
Like in many states, most cities in North Dakota have adopted building codes that require homes to be tightly air sealed. With building systems, like the Zip System and house wraps, it is easy to build a home that greatly restricts the natural infiltration of fresh air.
In addition to air sealing, many states require that a "blower door test" is performed to determine how tight a home is. Many states also require mechanical ventilation to exhaust polluted air and bring in the fresh air needed to maintain a healthy home.
In states, including North Dakota, that do not require a blower door test, building officials don't know if the homes being built will be healthy or if their building requirements are creating toxic homes, it appears the latter.
Knowing homes need fresh air, instead of mandating mechanical ventilation, against a state official's recommendation, the ND Building Code Committee, made up of industry professionals, mandated in the code that homes can rely on natural ventilation sources. That is the technical code term for "open your windows". So in North Dakota, when it's -30 degrees in January, people are supposed to "open their windows" to get fresh air or live in a toxic home.
Homes Need Ventilation
Because the state adopted building codes that require homes to be tightly air sealed, while at the same time deleting the requirement for mechanical ventilation, the ND Building Code Committee increased the state's allowable air change requirement to 5 air changes per hour (ACH) from the 3 ACH mandated nationally for homes built in the same climate zone as ND.
They increased the allowable ACH so, "on paper", it would appear that homes built with the air sealing code they enacted, without requiring mechanical ventilation, would still have acceptable air quality, but it doesn't. None of this makes sense. The State doesn't require a blower door test, and even though they don't know the ACH of any home, they removed the requirement for controlled ventilation, which is endangering families.
We contacted a company that performs blower door testing in the Fargo area to find out what affect the ND code provisions, pertaining to air sealing, are having on natural air change and air quality.
They found that homes are tight, testing at less than 3 ACH at 50 pascals. This means, without question, that every home that is air sealed needs to have a mechanical ventilation system. If they don't, families living in these homes will be at risk of acquiring air quality related health problems.
Trying To Live Healthy?
Every day, we take great care in consuming heathy food and pure water, but what about the 20,000 liters of air we breathe? Air sealed homes trap CO2, VOC's, formaldehyde, PM2.5, radon, and other pollutants that, if not filtered or ventilated, are in the air we breathe.
Scientists, universities and the EPA have published many studies on the affects indoor air quality has on our health. As homeowners, we should consider what building scientists and their research have proven before we make important decisions about if and how we control the air quality in our homes, it will have a major impact on the health of our families.
Breathing contaminated indoor air is like smoking, you won't notice the damage to your health this week, next month or maybe not even next year, but it will damage your health.
CO2 And Your Health
What Is The CO2 PPM In Your Bedroom?
We performed several non-scientific experiments, in a male test subject's bedroom, to see how high the CO2 level would rise, and if having elevated CO2 levels would affect the test subject's sleep, and how he would feel during that day; comparing the affects to those observed and documented in several published studies.
To document the experiment, we placed a CO2 monitor/data logger next to the test subject's bed and then on different nights, we would create different ventilation conditions by having the heat recovery ventilation (HRV) system on or off and the bedroom door and HVAC supply vents open or closed.
On the first night, beginning with a CO2 level of 620 ppm, the ventilation system was turned off and the bedroom door was shut. Out of the normal, the test subject woke up at 2:30 AM with a headache; the CO2 level in the bedroom was a moderately high 1250 ppm, unfortunately, the test subject was also unable to fall back asleep.
The next night, starting with a CO2 level of 653 ppm, we had the ventilation system turned OFF, door closed, and also had the HVAC supply vents closed, to mimic the days that require very little heating or cooling. The subject did not wake up until 6:00 AM the next morning, which was better, however, the CO2 level in the bedroom had risen to 1530 ppm and the test subject felt tired. This was alarming, imagine how high the CO2 level could rise to with two adults and a baby in a non-ventilated bedroom.
The picture showing 431 ppm is in the same bedroom with an optimum CO2 level obtained with the introduction of fresh air. This is close to the CO2 level normally found outdoors. Studies have revealed that with increased ventilation, lowering CO2 levels in their bedrooms, students may perform up to 30% better in school, which has been witnessed by a ND State Official, involving the children of a ND family that the state provided mechanical ventilation as part of a weatherization program..
Radon
"Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind"
Radon is a cancer-causing radioactive gas that carries a greater risk of death when compared to other EPA listed carcinogens.
North Dakota is a hotbed for radon; according to the State Health Department, two out of three homes in ND have a radon level over 4 pCi/L, a dangerous level that most scientists agree causes a death rate of 1 in a 100. Unfortunately, since you can't see, smell or taste radon, it raises little concern.
Incidence rates of chronic lymphocytic leukemia and lung cancer have been associated with elevated residential radon levels. In the U.S., from 2005 to 2014, the overall leukemia incidence rate increased by 14.4% and the state of ND has had the highest incidence rate for chronic lymphocytic leukemia in the U.S.
The radon problem has been made worse in states, such as ND, that have enacted building codes that require the tight air sealing of homes, without effective ventilation or radon mitigation.
Always test for radon and never buy a home without installing a controlled ventilation system.
The incidence rates for chronic lymphocytic leukemia in the United States, among white non-Hispanics.
Gas Stoves And Nitrogen Dioxide
