CO2 Monitoring and Home Ventilation: DON'T Make This Mistake

Greetings! This is a PRACTICAL guide to home ventilation and CO2 monitoring for those of us who DON'T have a state of the art HVAC system. It's perfect for those in apartments or on a budget. I’ll teach you practical tips to ensure your indoor air quality is healthy in any climate, and help you avoid the mistake I made when I was new to ventilation (hint: dehumidify!). I’ll also give you a realistic CO2 threshold to shoot for. Then I’ll recommend a good CO2 sensor (the aranet4) and show you how to use it.
P.S. These tips are great for people with MOLD SENSITIVITY/ILLNESS!
Intro - 0:00
CO2 concentration threshold - 1:49 and 6:37
How to reduce CO2 levels and ventilate safely - 2:12 and 3:58
The NUMBER ONE ventilation mistake - 2:37
How to measure CO2 levels - 5:50
Healthy humidity threshold - 7:10
Products I recommended:
Aranet4 CO2 monitor: amzn.to/4aCvfIA
Santa Fe Compact70 Dehumidifier: amzn.to/452YmUC
Above are affiliate links, which means I earn a small commission if you make a purchase through them. This helps support the channel at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!
Breezometer outdoor air quality:
www.breezometer.com/air-quali...
Please like, share, subscribe, and comment! Thanks so much for watching.

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

Update: since making this video, MY VENTILATION STRATEGY HAS EVOLVED, and I now use an energy recovery ventilator (ERV) year-round instead of a heat recovery ventilator (HRV) and fresh air intake. -Here’s my how-to video about the ERV installation: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eZ-vqH2ueMernK8. -And one about why I chose an ERV instead of an HRV: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gprTpaaXgNKkbpI. I do also still use a dehumidifier in warmer months. If you want to understand how to determine whether it’s humid enough outside that you should exercise caution when ventilating, watch this video of mine: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gIC9ZoeQYtSUhpo.

[@AkosLukacs42]

Seeing the actual co2 and humidity levels in my home, and neighbours burning any stuff due to energy prices lead me down this rabbit hole of ventilation.

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

Same! It’s funny - I didn’t choose to be interested in this - I became interested out of necessity, from unhealthy conditions. I feel like a lot of us are in similar situations.

[@michaelswain328]

Working from home for me means working in unventilated spaces. I found this channel to find affordable ways of diagnosing and fixing air quality issues in my work space.

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

Great to hear! I work from home as well. Out of curiosity, what tips have you found particularly helpful?

[@MilesLabrador]

Came to the channel for the heat recovery ventilator, staying for quality content! Thanks for the video, this was super insightful.

[@MilesLabrador]

Also, Hank Green was the one who got me to look into CO2 sensing more. I'm pretty sure I saw it through one of his quarantine tiktoks haha

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

I absolutely love that! Glad you’re on the same wavelength.

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

I love Hank Green! I've been watching SciShow for like 10 years! @@MilesLabrador

[@josegrcia4671]

Thanks for the video, this was very informative.

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

More than happy to help!

[@provendesign6114]

I gotta say i really appreciate your channel. It's so hard to find someone that actually cares about air quality, or even knows as much as I do. I have slight variants of your DIY ventilator and HRV siting in two windows of my home right now. The reason I'm interested and extremely invested in air quality is because about a year ago I hired a handyman to take care of mold in my attached garage. Well, the man ran an ozone generator which permeated throughout my house and basically made my house uninhabitable for a short time, and unhealthy to live in without extensive ventilation. Ozone reacts with all the plastics, glues, and just about everything causing them to offgas VOCs. So in order to return to the home, I had to ventilate like crazy, constantly, and monitor air quality levels. I noticed that the CO2 levels get pretty elevated when my ventilation is not running full blast - even with AC running on full.

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

Your comment means a lot to me! I'm so sorry your home was exposed to such high concentrations of ozone. It's unfortunate that some people, who likely mean well, are so misinformed about ozone. Your journey sounds difficult, and it sounds like you've learned a lot along the way. I've been toying with the idea of featuring certain subscribers of mine's healthy home stories. My intention is to offer encouragement and support to people who have gained knowledge and wisdom from difficult home health situations, and to celebrate them. Would you want to be featured? If so, please email me at [e-mail]. Thanks!

[@provendesign6114]

@@HealthyHomeGuide I'm interested, sending you an email!

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

Great to hear! I’ll be on the lookout for it.

[@Outside-In.]

I am very much into air quality myself, and love educating and helping people to know about the fake monitors that china is producing. Ozone generators are used to get rid of odors in the home or vehicles, and I have used them myself, but anyone that comes to your home to do such a treatment should have told you that after the treatment, you cannot enter your home for at least 12 hours, and even then, continue ventilation for about 24 hours to make quite sure all the ozone is gone. Ozone is very nasty stuff, and can cause severe health issues, I know from personal experience so why I mention that. You never mentioned the monitor that you use for knowing CO2 levels, and is one of the reasons why your story is intriguing to me, because it sounds to me like you have a much more serious issue in your home than ventilation. You say that if you do not run your ventilation at full blast, you get high levels of CO2?, something is very wrong with that. You should not have to run your ventilation system at full to keep your CO2 levels is check, and if so, there could be at least three reasons for that... 1. You have something in your home that is putting off an excessive amount of CO2... - 2. You have 20 or more people living in your home... - 3. You are using a fake monitor that is giving you false CO2 readings... I have often thought of using a box fan in a window with simply a Hepa filter taped to the inside to filter the air as it comes into the house, but the one described in this video also sounds like a great option, but anything to be able to filter the outside air coming in would help, but of course - not needed if the outside air is fine and not contaminated... If you suspect that your air quality monitor is not registering correctly, and possibly fake, it is quite simple to test for that. All you need to do in most cases is to put rubbing alcohol or cologne or perfume in your hands and rub them together, and then move your hands around the monitor, and if it is fake, the CO2 levels will go crazy. The reason I say "in most cases", is because I am getting ready to do a video review of a fake monitor that does not react to Alcohol, and what I finally found to trigger that CO2 reading was weird, but definitely NOT CO2. I use actual CO2 gas to test monitors, and the one I am getting ready to review will not react to CO2 gas or Alcohol, so the Chinese are getting even smarter about how to fool people into believing their monitors are real and to be trusted. I wish something could be done to stop the sales of these fake monitors, but I keep creating videos to do my part to inform people of these fake devices. I truly hope you don't have one of those fake ones, and causing undue stress, as that is happening allot these days with air quality monitor sales on the rise. Where fake monitors use to cost around 20.00, are now going over 100.00 in price, and I believe that is to more confuse people, because if it is expensive, it must be real.... Not true - Not true, and Amazon is selling a great number of these fake monitors. I hope you can start getting your CO2 levels to stay between 600-800ppm without the need of running your ventilation system full blast - because that just shouldn't be happening.

[@laroccad18]

I just moved into a upstairs apartment in a old 30's apartment. I do not have access to the furnace so filtration through central air is not up to me. Your videos are teaching me exactly what I need to do on a budget! Thank you for this and please don't stop! I have subbed and will like each video useful to me!

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

You're absolutely the target audience for my content! I'm so glad you've found my videos to be useful.

[@laroccad18]

@@HealthyHomeGuide Very much so! I am also close to the Canadian wildfires and we occasionally get some heavy smoke when the wind blows our way. So anything to make this time a bit more safe is worth the work! Here is a topic of question, what would you do for window air conditioner units? Better way to filter them without losing cooling efficiency? Better ways of cooling than a window ac unit? Any thoughts are welcome!

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

@@laroccad18 I'm close to the Canadian wildfires as well (those ones in Eastern Canada)! Most window or floor ACs do not pull air from outside - instead they recirculate indoor air, as you may know. What I did this year is have a MERV-8, 2" thick filter covering the intake vent(s) of my AC (I have a portable floor unit). I taped them on. This is definitely not recommended by the manufacturer, and I'm not officially recommending it to you, but it's what I do. MERV-8 isn't a strong filter, so doesn't impact airflow all that much, and I think it's strong enough to filter out most of the stuff I wouldn't want to be sucked into my AC (mold).

[@laroccad18]

Same here! I am Michigan based. So sometimes it blows over the great lakes and makes it to my area. Correct on the not pulling from outside. My main concern with them is one is an older unit that came with the apartment and I cleaned the unit as best I could. But I am not sure what's inside without taking it apart further. Also not wanting to recirculate the crap in the air. I'll look at the 2 inch merv filter and see if they are worth it! Just curious but do you have a discord or anything for a community like this? Would be very interested in joining and bouncing ideas off each other! I enjoy solving problems and this old apartment has lots of them!

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

@@laroccad18it sounds like you have the right approach! I wish you well. A discord (or something similar) is a great idea! I think that once I have more subscribers on here, I’ll think about starting a discord.

[@Outside-In.]

Finally - seeing people concerned about CO2 levels is refreshing for sure, but also CO is very very important as well. In my opinion out of all the monitors I own and test, the two most important readings to know is CO and CO2, and a third option would be Particulates, but more importantly CO and CO2. I love the idea of filtering the air that comes into the home from outside. I would think a box fan in a window with a Hepa filter taped to the inside would work as well, but maybe a little more not stylish LOL... But anything to filter the air coming in would help of course. Great video, and great also to finally find a channel that goes into a little more detail about air quality, as I was starting to think that my channel was the only one. The Aranet looks like a great monitor and would love to do a review of that one, and test, and tear-down, but wow - the price... People keep asking me about doing more videos, but I guess we do what we can - when we can, so am sure you can understand that, as buying all of these monitors can get quite expensive ;)... If I had the money back that I have spent on monitors for testing, review and comparison, than I could finally have one of those very very expensive monitors to use in testing more budget friendly monitors, but hopefully that day will come... Keep up the great work in keeping people informed. Liked and subscribed... 👍👍

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

I'm glad you found my channel! I'm looking forward to checking out yours, I subscribed. You're absolutely right about CO. I have a low level CO monitor and without it, I'd feel a lot more paranoid because so many people are poisoned by CO each year. Yup, fresh air is unbelievably important for numerous health reasons. These days, I use an ERV for fresh air so I can continue to ventilate no matter the outdoor temperature and humidity! I have videos on that too. Aranet monitors are QUALITY. Hope you get the opportunity to test one. Thanks again!

[@Outside-In.]

@@HealthyHomeGuide Thanks for the reply - much appreciated. So many people discount CO or CO2, which is unfortunate, as You are so very right.... Many people die each year from CO poisoning, and I myself nearly died from CO and CO2 poisoning about 6 years ago when I lived in North Carolina, so why doing videos on air quality and pushing CO and CO2 is so important to me. It is incredible to get a comment where someone says that you probably just saved my life, and I did get a comment from a Lady who said that I saved her mothers life, so it is comments like that that makes it all worth it. It is incredible to know that there is someone else here in KZbin land that feels the same as I when it comes to air quality, so now I don't feel so alone in this push for knowledge on Carbon Monoxide and Carbon Dioxide ;)... Was hoping to get the Aranet as my next monitor to review, but I just found out that all my lower ball joints on my truck are bad, and it is going to cost roughly 1,000.00 to get if fixed, so that eliminates the possibility for now LOL. I drive the Amish, so safety is of the utmost importance to me. A persons life is much more important to me than making money, so I will just have to wait until I get a lull in safety issues that will allow me to save enough to get the Aranet. Thanks again for your reply and God bless in all you do. 👍👍

[@alschenk1433]

I became interested in CO2 levels because my inside house plants always do very well, friends and family that visit comment on my wife and I having a green thumb. So, I was just curious on what the CO2 levels were in my home, since we don't do anything out of the ordinary on caring for house plants. You do a great job in your videos, appreciate them!

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

I’m glad you appreciate my videos ☺️

[@patricknelson]

Answer: Started working from home and keeping my office door closed. Got a newish house with a really good seal and just a single HVAC register in that room, so closing the door meets some air resistance. Turns out it was not only getting hot and stuffy, but also the air quality would deteriorate quite a bit. Got one of those CO2 sensors to help gauge and yep… when closed, and especially when talking/meeting on Zoom, would have PPM’s >1.4k. Down the rabbit hole I go.

[@TrustLoveCompassion]

calibrating a window ajar all the time is effective along with calibrating the open door between the cool room and the living space is also a grreat solution to keep an even sub 800 co2

[@TotallySafeAir]

We use Aranet exclusively for CO2 Monitoring for our customers- we think they are the best!

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

Nice! Aranet is truly the best.

[@michaellavelle7354]

@@HealthyHomeGuide Their use of Bluetooth for communications is a deal killer for the commercial HVAC industry. Otherwise the product could be very useful.

[@Xixo]

here in the desert is opposite with the RH that you mentioned, the air become too dry when you ventilate, fortunately is easier to humidify than too dehumidify

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

Right, exactly. Energy recovery ventilators (ERVs) can help with that issue in deserts, btw. Also, depending on what desert you live in, you may also experience a time of the year in which it can get quite humid too so that’s also something to be aware of.

[@hecticstairs]

noticeable reduction in migraine headaches after adding dehumidifier and air purifier now i want to try what videos here are saying for further improvements

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

I totally agree - my own symptoms are majorly reduced with dehumidification and air purification especially. Hope you enjoy my videos!

[@emiliorangel497]

I got sleepy from CO2 concentration in the car while driving and hit someone. Wasn’t serious but my inability to stay awake. Prompted me to research a lot. Thank you for sharing your tips for the home!

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

Thank you for commenting this! I actually recently made a short about how CO2 concentrations can rise to high levels in vehicles if the recirculate setting is on and how that can make you drowsy. People need to know about this.

[@Clyde-2055]

Emil, have you tried rolling down the window a bit ?😁

[@emiliorangel497]

@@Clyde-2055I always do now! It’s the company car I drive weekly and normally alone so it took showing a newbie the route and him pointing it out to start tho… I just got use to it and didn’t notice. Window is always half down now.

[@squeaky_honda]

I got very sick at constant 3000+ ppm. How it happened: I rented a tiny room. The landlord cut the heating during winter. So I sealed all drafts, and ended up poisoning myself with co2. I'm very diligent about having fresh air since then, and my health is easily the best ever, for a couple of years already. Newentor sell a cheaper co2 meter that is precise enough.

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

Damn, that sounds awful. Yeah, CO2 can build up incredibly quickly in a small space.

[@chaos.corner]

One thing to bear in mind is that many ACs can have the fan turned on without the heat pump running to help recirculate air around your living space.

[@DaveNougaret]

If in summer you’re using the intake air filter and the dehumidifier ??? Blowing in air and out cracked windows and the dehumidifier has to try to keep up which I’ve heard is expensive to run ?.

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

I agree with you. I actually now use an ERV for ventilation - I have some videos about it.

[@junglecat4480]

waking up with heavy breathing and headache. the air is stuffy and I'm scared to die in my sleep. thanks for the video!

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

I’ve been there. That’s not a fun place to be.

[@arielrodriguez6980]

I have the Airthings View Plus and the Co2 is usually 1000-1500. Unfortunately there is not a device to lower it.

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

The only way to lower CO2 concentration is to bring outdoor air into your house, because outdoor air generally has a lower CO2 concentration than indoor air. I made a video about it here if you're interested: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bmHVaqStf7WWiqssi=3iWdVlPH7UjGqXZH

[@David.Elfstrom]

Health Canada's guide "Residential indoor air quality guidelines: Carbon dioxide" published 2021-03-19 establishes 1000 ppm CO2 24 hour average as the maximum recommended, and gives many references to supporting information for why.

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

Awesome, thank you for bringing that to light David!

[@BettysLife1933to2009]

We are looking at CO2 levels in our house, because the VOC levels spike into the thousands early morning and late evening and we can’t figure out what is making that happen. Was wondering if the CO2‘s affect your VOCs or vice versa. we have no new flooring, furniture or paint be started when we sprayed a lot of Lysol in our house on Christmas with family and friends there. Doesn’t matter if we are home or away. The top two floors of house have high VOCs and CO2 levels our basement level which is partially below. Ground is not affected by these. We have also tried to turn off the HVAC and see if that would help, but it doesn’t affect it the level still spike about nine or 10 AM and 7 to 10 PM.

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

This is a great question! Before I answer you, I want to clarify that CO2 level shouldn't directly affect VOCs, HOWEVER, since CO2 can be used as a marker for how well-ventilated a space is, when CO2 is elevated, VOCs also tend to be elevated. Conversely, both CO2 and VOC concentrations tend to decrease when outdoor air is brought inside (ventilation). Since the spikes you describe happen whether or not people are inside the house, that narrows it down some. I'm wondering if the sun could be shining into your windows and heating up some sort of material that is then releasing VOCs. When sun is low in the sky in the morning and evening and shines in windows more directly. That kind of explains the spikes, maybe? Another theory would be gases released from cooking but you said this happens even if no one is home. It's an interesting conundrum. Does it happen on cloudy days? Do you live near any intersections or factories?

[@BettysLife1933to2009]

Probably at least 5 miles from the intersection. We do live near a lake (100 yards away), but it has always been there and no known changes to it. This only started happening in December on Christmas. We had about 15 people over for the day and everyone was feeling sick (Flu), so when everyone left we sprayed our house down with lots of Lysol. Ever since we get the morning and late afternoon/evening VOC spikes. We've noticed it is a little better when it rains. And slightly worst when we have colder temperatures outside. We have moved our View Plus monitor around the house and it seems to happen all areas (North/South/East and West) of both the main living area ant the upstairs bedrooms. Only our basement which is partially under ground with a underneath garage doesn't test elevated. We put the View Plus device on our front porch one evening and it was not elevated at all (outside the front door was 100 ppb and inside the front door was 1041 ppbs. We are at a total lost, we have tried exhaust fans, multiple air purifiers (on top of our whole house air purifier and dehumidifier). Even the Ultimatum running on high in the same room doesn't seem to affect the VOCs. This has been going on now for over 6 weeks so our breathing and health is affected. Thanks for your suggestions and please let us know if you have any other thoughts to try or do?@@HealthyHomeGuide

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

@BettysLife1933to2009 I’m wondering if when your heating system kicks on (during cold weather, as you said) and heats up surfaces, or when sun shines through windows onto surfaces, it is vaporizing the residue that the Lysol left behind. That would also explain why it’s not as bad when it rains. It’s possible. Lysol contains lots of VOCs. Sometimes the simplest explanation is the correct one. If it’s that, you might benefit from cleaning your home with something non-toxic without added fragrance to get rid of the Lysol. If it’s not that, then here are other questions: 1.) Do you smell anything during the spikes? Is there any indication besides the spike on the View Plus that there is an issue? I’m not a huge fan of the View Plus, by the way - I didn’t find it to be particularly accurate. 2.) Do you live in an apartment that shares walls with other apartment units?

[@dennisstone9893]

Why my concern over CO2? C19, obviously. Anyway, how do you like the sante fe dehumidifier? how loud is that machine?

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

I absolutely love this Santa Fe dehumidifier. It has worked almost nonstop this whole summer and I haven’t had a single mechanical issue with it. The only issue is it is somewhat loud. It’s not super loud, but it is annoying. My advice would be to keep it somewhat away from where you spend a lot of time, but still in the vicinity.

[@dennisstone9893]

@@HealthyHomeGuide yea, i notice this particular class of dehumidifiers are placed among other hvac machines. had not seen one standing in a common room.

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

@@dennisstone9893 I don’t have a ducted system to distribute air through my house, so in order to dehumidify my living space, the dehumidifier needs to be in the living space, with fans to circulate the air through my house.

[@dennisstone9893]

@@HealthyHomeGuide just curious that you didnt in the context take one of those HD dehumidifiers, which I presumed were quieter than the sante fe one. I got one here as its an old house. it's by no means quiet.

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

@@dennisstone9893 Because those cheaper dehumidifiers have very poor quality filters. So when they intake air, they suck mold spores inside. Then, the mold spores grow in the damp environment in the dehumidifier and get blown out and ruin your indoor air quality. Santa Fes have a MERV-13 filter (keeps out mold spores!), and are built robustly enough to run continuously and draw air through the strong filter.

[@arielrodriguez6980]

The Aranet 4 is nice but for the money I like better my the Airthings View plus that measures more than humidity and co2?

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

I used to own a few Airthings View Plus units, and found them to be inaccurate, likely due to the calibration method they use. I have a professional CO2 monitor, and my View Plus units were consistently around 150 ppm off from it. I got a refund. I try to stay away from all-in-one devices because I haven’t found one that measures every air quality metric accurately.

[@arielrodriguez6980]

@@HealthyHomeGuide Just for fun I ordered the Aranet4 to test side by side my Airthings. The only issue is if one is much lower or higher which one do I trust? They use the same NDIR sensors.

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

@@arielrodriguez6980 nice! I would trust the aranet4. It uses a much more accurate calibration method. I’ve also compared my aranet4 readings to an expensive, professional CO2 monitor and they’re always quite close.

[@arielrodriguez6980]

@@HealthyHomeGuide my Aranet4 displays anywhere from 100-300 difference as far as higher. The temperature and humidity is the same or off by a point.

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

@@arielrodriguez6980 Makes sense! I noticed that as well. You can test by bringing your devices outdoors. Give them 15 mins or so to equalize before looking at measurements. Outdoor CO2 concentrations should be around 420 ppm depending on a few factors.

[@jamessang5027]

Will growing in door plants lower the CO2 levels and raise oxygen levels ?

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

Unfortunately not. It would take around 400 plants to offset the CO2 produced by a single human.

[@Wildernut]

Peer-reviewed papers state cognitive decline, as well as cardiovascular disease. Starting at 500 and it’s linear. Being about 420 outside and rising, it’s going to be increasingly difficult to dilute indoor CO2.

[@TrustLoveCompassion]

85% of chi = prana = lifeforce comes from air

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

Fascinating, thanks!

[@Mojo_DK]

Another hack. Buy some plants with leafes that have a high surface area.

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

You'd need more plants than can possibly fit into a home to clean the air as well as ventilating. Hundreds.

[@Mojo_DK]

@@HealthyHomeGuide Yeah plants alone are definitely not a solution, but they are a nice addition.

[@VenturaIT]

your neighbor's meat smoke is a big problem, you should probably move in that case

[@robert7100]

I think you had a little too much zaa making that thumbnail

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

I hate that you’re right

[@Yutani_Crayven]

That's way too many unnecessary gadgets & appliances.

[@HealthyHomeGuide]

I actually totally agree. Since making this video, my approach to ventilation has evolved, and I now use an energy recovery ventilator (ERV) year-round instead of a heat recovery ventilator (HRV) and fresh air intake. -Here’s my how-to video about the ERV installation: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eZ-vqH2ueMernK8. -And one about why I chose an ERV instead of an HRV: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gprTpaaXgNKkbpI

[@MrLaurent007]

Alex is a hottie🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰