How Perfect Can a New Home's Chemistry Get? Healthy Indoors Minute

Even with their newly-finished home still obviously off-gassing, and with a massive amount of wood finishes and structural materials certainly emitting formaldehyde, this high performance forever home is testing like a decades-old, well-established house as told by chemist Alice Delia of Prism Analytical. Through the selection of low-emitting materials where possible AND 24/7 ventilation of the spaces, the Lunsfords have achieved their goal of a sanctuary with limited chemistry.

Learn a ton more at: http://HomeDiagnosis.tv/atlanta-homestead

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Test your own home: http://pati-air.com

How to PROVE You Build a Healthier Home

Modern homes are not just vulnerable to moisture damage, rot, and microbes- now we also have to worry about the health of the air, and contaminants including viruses. Homeowners are seeking homes with proven safety and breathability- but what does that mean, and how do you deliver it? In this fiery one-hour course, learn key methods for measuring, fixing, and communicating the health of the homes you work on every day.

To learn a LOT MORE, visit our main site: https://BuildingPerformanceWorkshop.com

See the systems developed by Santa Fe and Ultra-Aire: https://www.santa-fe-products.com/

Watch the first-ever television series about the Science of Homes: https://HomeDiagnosis.tv

How to Fix Summertime Heat on Your Top Floor

Hi Corbett-
Finally, I have two solid quotes for air sealing. I have one new concern, however. My finished attic gets really hot in summer, and the A/C dedicated to this attic rarely is able to cool the space below 82 degrees.  From what I have read, besides implementing some kind of reflective roofing material, the only way to keep an attic cool is plenty of airflow.  So, if we air seal the attic and add insulation (which I have read holds and radiates heat in summer ?), is this air sealing initiative going to make my attic unlivable in the summer?
Thanks!
R.L.

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Hey there R-
First thing to do is stop thinking about your top floor as an attic of any type.  Yes, it used to be an attic, but now it's supposed to be inside the enclosure, so let's call it what it is- your valuable living space.
Not only will airsealing NOT going to make your top floor (finished attic) hotter in summer, it is in fact the ONLY THING that will make it cooler up there.  What's happening is called reverse stack effect: your air conditioners are creating cooler, drier, DENSER air, which sinks to the bottom of the house. All the air conditioning wants to be in the bottom of the house at the same time, so it creates a higher pressure down there, and there's a low pressure at the top of the house.
The cool, heavy air escapes through gaps and cracks in the bottom of the house, and the house now needs air, so it breathes in at the most depressurized (and also hottest) place- at the very top.  So all the air that's in your top floor rooms is coming from the attic spaces and the roof cavity.
Lastly, it's a total myth that attic ventilation will keep an attic cool- #1, attic ventilation is actually for venting MOISTURE, not heat; and #2, you don't actually care how hot it gets in your attic, since it's not part of your house.  The roofing manufacturers used to void their warranties if the attic got too hot, but they don't do that anymore.  You're free!
For a more detailed look at attic airsealing, watch this:

PODCAST #48 PRODUCTS WILL SAVE US: Keith Aldridge on Future Solutions in Stuff

Today we talk with Keith Aldridge, VP of Business Development for Advanced Energy, on what the programs get wrong, why human QA will disappear, and what your clients really want. Recorded at the ACI Regional Home Performance Conference in San Diego, CA.

To download this episode or hear more, subscribe in iTunes or visit BuildingPerformancePodcast.com