Breathe In, Breathe Out. Breathe In, Breathe Out.

(not a picture of Bush).........(is a picture of an English country house)

​When Gavin Rossdale wrote Machinehead and included the lyrics that inspired the title of this post, he was in all likelihood talking about indoor air quality.  Right? 
 
OK, probably not.  But Bush’s mid-90’s disinterest in indoor air quality doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about it today.  So let’s do a quick overview of what indoor air quality is, why you should care about, and a few ways to make it better.

What is Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)
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IAQ is, at its simplest, how healthy or unhealthy the air you’re breathing is while indoors.  Imagine two scenarios, (1) it’s 1993 and you’re at a crowded club watching Bush perform before they were huge stars and when smoking inside was still legal, and (2) it’s 1994 and Bush is now a huge success.  You happened to meet Gavin after a show and he invited you out to his house in the countryside to hang out for the weekend, windows open and the breeze is blowing in.
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​I need to tell you that when I sat down to write this, there was no intention of this becoming a post heavily featuring Bush or Gavin, but I wrote the title, and now we’re here.

In scenario one, the club is crowded and full of smoke, so it’s pretty easy to imagine the quality of the air inside being terrible.

In scenario two, you’re out in the country with fresh air blowing though the house, so it’s pretty easy to imagine the quality of the air inside being fantastic.

Why you should care

In scenario one, even if you weren’t smoking, you were breathing in smoke.  It was passive, and obviously bad for your health.

But TJ, you say, my house isn’t a club in the mid-90’s.  Right.  But that doesn’t mean the air you’re breathing inside is as clean as you think it is.
 
Here are some reason’s why:

• The EPA has conducted studies that have found that the levels of a dozen common organic pollutants are 2-5 times higher indoors than outdoors.
• If you have recently painted, remodeled, or rebuilt your home, you may have voluntarily lowered the quality of your air by inviting VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) into your space.  The EPA has conducted studies that show the levels of VOCs inside your home can be 10 times higher than the levels outside.
• If you cook with gas, you are actively lowering the quality of your air (no judgement from me, I have a gas cooktop).
• If you cook, you are creating VOCs by heating cooking oils and foods that contain fats, especially when using high heat and/or creating a char on the food.
• We all know that mold is bad.  Mold is often seen around water, in places like showers or baths.  Most mold in homes isn’t visible though.  It can hide behind walls and in ducts.

Health effects:

• The health effects of poor indoor air quality can vary widely depending on a number of factors including level of exposure and length of exposure.  If you were in the middle of the club watching Bush every night for years, you would likely experience more severe effects than if you were there one night and stood next to an open door to the outside.
• The effects could be mild and include throat, eye, and nose irritation; they could be moderate and include headache, nausea, or loss of coordination; they could be severe and include organ damage or cancer.

How to make it better

Now that we’ve established what IAQ is and why you should care, let’s focus on ways to make yours better.  As you might expect there are small and large ways to make a difference.

The small ways:

• Do a deep clean of your home.
• Change your air filters regularly.
• Have your ductwork cleaned.
• Consider upgrading your air filters to ones with a higher MERV (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value) rating (the higher the number the more particulates it filters out of the air).
• Run your exhaust fan while you’re cooking, even better if you start the fan five minutes before you turn the heat on.
• Use a humidifier/dehumidifier depending on the season.  If you can, try to maintain an indoor humidity level of 30-50%.  Anything higher than 60% will give mold and bacteria a high opportunity to grow.  Anything lower than 30% will dry out the air and your body.

The large(r) ways (in order of how I would recommend tackling them):

• Install an air exchanger onto your HVAC system.  An air exchanger does exactly what it sounds like.  It takes indoor air and replaces it with fresh air.  The benefit of this over say, opening your windows, is that you can run it all year and the air gets filtered through your HVAC unit (allergy sufferers rejoice).
• Replace gas cooking with induction.  I know, I know “gas is better.”  That was my opinion when we put a gas cooktop in our kitchen.  Every time I cook though, I can’t help but think about the tiny bit of gas I’m inhaling.  Induction technology has come a long way, and sometime soon, we’ll make the swap.
• Upgrade your exhaust hood.  I’m in a lot of houses and see a lot of kitchens.  Some people I meet have hoods and don’t use them.  But more often, I see kitchens that either don’t have them at all or have a recirculating hood, which is basically useless.  Exhaust hoods are rated in CFMs (Cubic Feet per Minute), which measure how much air they move.  The higher the number, the more air is moved.  A range of 400-600 CFM is reasonable, and if you’re making this upgrade, spend your money on the quietest unit you can afford.
• Install make-up air.  Make-up air is tied to your exhaust hood.  In some jurisdictions, especially the ones we work in, make-up air is a requirement when your exhaust hood is over 400 CFM.  When you reach that threshold, the make-up air unit gets installed and automatically replaces the air being removed from the space with fresh air from outside.

If you’re interested in learning more about indoor air quality, there is lots of great information online.  A good place to start is the EPA website.

​And bonus, once you’ve made some IAQ upgrades, you can finally reciprocate and invite Gavin to your place for a breath of fresh air.
 
Bye for now.