Air Cleaning System for Healthy High Performance Homes

Our family's forever home has some super sophisticated systems (that sometimes require super wacky tweaks to other things in the house). Here you'll get a full tour of our fully-ducted Fantech SER150 energy recovery ventilator (ERV) and CM 3000 HEPA filter unit.

Learn more about these specific products at: http://Fantech.net

Headaches of HOMEChem: Chemistry and Microbiology of Homes

In partnership with Santa Fe Dehumidifiers, we're spreading the word on the intense dynamics going on in homes around the world. I keep it short and sweet in this 45-minute class on indoor chemistry, and you'll learn lots about chemicals, reactions, particles, and microbes, and the relationship to them of humidity and ventilation.

Come train with me in Atlanta, or online: https://buildingperformanceworkshop.com/training

Learn more from Santa Fe and Ultra-Aire: https://www.santa-fe-products.com/about-us/santa-fe-ultra-aire-webinar/

Tiny House Building Science Basics

1. Tell us about the TinyLab:

Our #TinyLab is a 210 sq. ft. house on wheels we designed and built ourselves to be the best performing home most people have ever seen. It’s supremely airtight, quiet, and comfortable, while also being equipped with the best heating, cooling, and ventilation systems in the world. We’re showing Americans how home performance works with our non-profit Proof Is Possible Tour. There’s this mythology around houses that ‘they all have problems, that’s just how they are’; it’s just not true.

2. How did the TinyLab start?

Well, the dynamics of home performance are based in physics, which is tough to explain- our colleagues have been trying for decades. But these dynamics can have real consequences for your family- they can cause sickness or even death. We thought, ‘how can we show consumers home performance?’ The #TinyLab is what all homes could evolve to be, whether they’re big or small. It’s a critical time for this, since building codes in all 50 states are requiring performance testing.

3. What are the major findings between the relationship of health and homes?

Two major health problems anyone can find out themselves for starters: dampness and carbon monoxide (CO). The symptoms of CO poisoning are ‘flu-like’, but ask yourself how many times you’ve been to the doctor with ‘flu-like’ symptoms and ever been tested for CO poisoning (never, say most people). And though we know dampness causes mold, mildew, dust mites, etc, do we think about what causes dampness? It’s usually air leakage- air leakage is the single biggest problem in most homes.

4. How do you protect yourself from carbon monoxide poisoning?

The only way to be sure is to test. Whole-home performance testing can prove if your gas stove, water heater, furnace, or fireplace are exhausting properly and creating very little CO. We have a Defender ‘low-level’ monitor in the TinyLab. Your normal CO detector won’t always protect you. If it’s what’s called ‘UL-listed’ then it specifically will NOT protect children, pregnant women, ill or elderly people from low-level carbon monoxide poisoning. And it says so right in the manual. Crazy.

5. What are 5 tips you have for any homeowner/ renter reading this?

One: Your home is a system of interacting parts, so anyone who says one product can fix it is lying or naïve. Two: Proof is Possible- act on diagnostic proof before you undertake surgery on your home and before you pay your contractors for measured improvements. Three: airtightness is good- don’t let anyone tell you we should build crappy houses that can ‘breathe’ through the cracks. Four: ventilation is critical- take stale air out, bring fresh air in. Five: Our YouTube channel is called ‘Home Performance’- you can learn tips 6 through 1000 there.

6. What specific diagnostics are recommended for homes?

Great question! Blower door testing is most important- our TinyLab’s test proves that as first-time homebuilders, we achieved the most airtight standard in the world (that’s what makes it so quiet in here). Infrared thermal photos prove our insulation works. Pressure testing proves our home is not sucking air back in through exhaust fans or chimneys. Airflow testing proves our HVAC system’s working as designed. Air quality tests prove our family isn’t being poisoned. Proof is possible. Ask for it.

To learn more about your home’s performance, download the free ‘GeniusBooklet’ at:

https://buildingperformanceworkshop.com/geniusbooklet-how-your-home-works

To see the #TinyLab as it travels across the U.S. on the Proof Is Possible Tour, see the schedule at:

http://ProofIsPossible.com

Science of Home Quarantine Pt 1: COVID-19 Pandemic Medical/Chemical Impacts Indoors

Please consider supporting our work in the frontier of making the science of homes mainstream at: http://Patreon.com/HomeDiagnosisTV

If we were guinea pigs for indoor chemistry and home performance dynamics before this Coronavirus pandemic, how much more so now that we're all spending almost 100% of our time inside our homes? In this first part of a three-part series with Healthy Indoors Magazine, hear a discussion of the home performance dynamic impacts this quarantine period is having on us all.

Featuring Dr. Michelle Sanborn, MD, Joe Medosch of Hayward Score (http://HaywardScore.com), Dr. Delphine Farmer PhD of HOMEChem, and Bob Krell of Healthy Indoors.

Resource 1: Ventilation can be as effective as mitigating as vaccination coverage of 50% to 60%! https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-38825-y.pdf

Resource 2: Is low indoor humidity a driver for healthcare-associated infections? https://www.isiaq.org/docs/Papers/Paper340.pdf

Resource 3: How Long Will Coronavirus Live on Surfaces or in the Air Around You? https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/health/coronavirus-surfaces-aerosols.html?referringSource=articleShare

Resource 4: Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1 https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMc2004973?articleTools=true

Resource 5: Why Soap Works https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/health/soap-coronavirus-handwashing-germs.html

In Part Two of our three-part panel discussion, hear a sometimes very in-the-weeds exploration of the community impacts within our buildings. Featuring public health specialist Dr. David Krause, PhD (https://www.healthcarecontractingconsulting.com), indoor environmental expert Scott Armour (https://armourappliedscience.com/), HVAC investigator and hygienist Tim Hebert (https://www.apsihc.com/), and Bob Krell of Healthy Indoors.

The final session in this panel discussion series from March 19, 2020 dives pretty deeply into technical niches of cleaning and disinfecting commercial, industrial, and healthcare facilities. Featuring IAQ and retrocommissioning expert Kristofer Anderson, PE , outbreak and chemical expert Cole Stanton (http://ICPgroup.com), and building investigator Bob Krell.

See the first-ever TV series about the science of homes at: https://HomeDiagnosis.tv

Subscribe to Healthy Indoors Magazine at: http://HealthyIndoors.com

Assess your home's health at: http://HaywardScore.com

What We Know About HOMEChem

If you only learn one video's worth of HOMEChem, this is the one to watch. Hear principal investigators Delphine Farmer and Marina Vance, joined by Lea Hildebrandt Ruiz and Richard Corsi and the rest of the HOMEChem researchers, describe the complexity they uncovered in this seminal study.

More at: http://HomeDiagnosis.tv/homechem

“Airtight" Buildings Debunked by HOMEChem

I've been telling people that the 475 High Performance Building Supply membranes I build with are airtight but vapor open for years. Turns out, sometimes I'm an idiot. Here's the real deal. Featuring Delphine Farmer and Marina Vance of the HOMEChem Experiment.

For more on Intello: http://foursevenfive.com

For more on HOMEChem: http://HomeDiagnosis.tv/homechem

The 4 P's to Solve Any Indoor Air Quality Problem

xEffortless Rocking means not trying to re-invent the wheel. Plenty of great home performance minds came before you, so take their ideas and make them your own. This one comes from Joe Lstiburek and John Straube at https://buildingscience.com/.

Heroes of HOMEChem: Atila Novoselac, Building Scientist

Meet Dr. Atila Novoselac, the Mechanic of HOMEChem. More at: https://HomeDiagnosis.tv/homechem