Home IAQ Targets: PM2.5, TVOC, Ozone, Radon, CO, CO2, Formaldehyde, Temp & RH- with Jeffrey Siegel

[@timdestasiohvac]

Great video. I can appreciate the qualitative instead of quantitative approach to CO2 and using it as a marker for other iaq concerns.

[@HomePerformance]

You're next on my list buddy. Let me know when you're ready with your dehu stuff!

[@timdestasiohvac]

I gotta get past first week of october

[@superspeeder]

This is EXCELLENT practical information! So often the correct answer to scientific questions is “it depends”. Nice to see some targets identified.

[@davidhoover2446]

Thank you! Great video! Once again it’s all about helping the family in their home solve their problems by inspecting and measuring as many performance and air parameters as possible to provide a good solution. It’s really about understanding the enclosure and how it is working with that family that’s there. I have seen no one size fits all approach so commonly used in each home. Every family I have worked for has different HVAC or enclosure problems so diagnosis is needed.

[@gabrieldesantis981]

How about go to monitors?

[@HomePerformance]

Just posted a vid about two of these, refresh our channel feed!

[@DennisH__Spagetti]

Good presentation. Perhaps you could get David Penney, PhD to talk about long term chronic CO issues. The CO levels above the 9ppm but below the 70ppm. That the range where the alarms don't sound, but exposure for weeks or months lead to some very nasty health problems, like congestive heart failure, strokes, etc. Remember the prior podcast about how the plasma carries the O2 to the little toe, well that plasma also carries the O2 to the heart that pumps the blood. CO displace the O2 in the red blood cells, reducing their ability to release the O2 to the plasma - which means even the heart muscle is starved of oxygen... and the brain is starved... Or perhaps Jeffery Siegel might give some more info. (Penney's book published on CRC is "Carbon Monoxide Toxicity" catchy title.

[@HomePerformance]

Thanks for sharing, I hadn’t been aware of Penney before

[@ducagace1390]

Corbett, you are sharing great information that's back with research. I'm tired of people just giving opinion, which is almost like superstition. Good decision comes from good knowledge. It would be interesting to see an optimal way to filter and monitor polluants. I wish you the best for you and your family. Thank you and take care.

[@HomePerformance]

Thanks my friend

[@sjpropertyservices3987]

Very interesting. Thank you for posting.

[@HomePerformance]

Thanks for watching

[@powerof9915]

Co2 trends are VERY important. If your normal Co2 in your living space is less than 1000 and an "event" happens such as decreases in barometric pressure or super growth of a mold inside your ceiling or walls and the Co2 in now at a baseline of 2500 plus with the inside Co2 producers (humans and animals) are unchanged during those times then you HAVE a problem. The trends are important to let us know we have problem which warrant further inspection and testing. Co2 high enough to displace O2 is the problem as related to indoor air quality. Farmers use Co2 monitors over bales of hay to detect sharp rises which indicate mold growth.

[@DennisH__Spagetti]

When we exhale, each breath has about 27,000 ppm of CO2, an ambient CO2 at 2500ppm has very little impact on the ability for most people to exchange the CO2 with O2. UNLESS there is a pre-existing lung damage or disease. Lots of really interesting medical studies over the last few DECADES have demonstrated that CO2 has less impact on health than people sometimes suggest.

[@ronm6585]

Thank you.

[@krzysztofszyszko2873]

Is SO2 worth measuring?

[@sajadsalehi8648]

This is awesome

[@elizabethclark4892]

Thank you for all your great videos and the information you inform us with. Can you tell me if there are any alarms or detectors to purchase for the home to test VOCs, and formaldehyde or any other type of detector you feel that a home should have And what is your feelings on air purifiers and is there a certain one that prefer? I watched you video on CO detectors and plan to order the one you recommended .Thank you for your time

[@DeuceDeuceBravo]

Would love some suggestions for how to monitor or measure formaldehyde. I have a couple good IAQ monitors, but it seems like anything for reliable /accurate formaldehyde measurement is expensive.

[@HomePerformance]

Lots of options out there, but yes it's a pro sensor option: www.google.com/search?q=formaldehyde+monitoring&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS830US830&oq=formaldehyde+monitor&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgAEAAYgAQyBwgAEAAYgAQyBggBEEUYOTIHCAIQABiABDIHCAMQABiABDIHCAQQABiABDIICAUQABgWGB4yCAgGEAAYFhgeMggIBxAAGBYYHjIKCAgQABgPGBYYHjIICAkQABgWGB7SAQgzMzkzajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[@chriscermak3188]

Great video again Corbett. Any suggestions on radon monitors? I have tried a couple and they gave me entirely different readings . Thanks Chris

[@douglaslindsaychapman5188]

Watched a neighbour who was super aware of pollution, move from a 80 year old house, very few new building materials, to a new build. Still amazes me.

[@martinlutherkingjr.5582]

Why is that amazing? People move out of old houses all the time.

[@douglaslindsaychapman5188]

@@martinlutherkingjr.5582 Because the new house is off gassing like crazy. Old house was not thus safer.

[@martinlutherkingjr.5582]

@@douglaslindsaychapman5188 I see, how long does it take to off gas and what were the levels of the gases and what were they?

[@6stringsandapick]

My house now: TEMPERATURE: 71 Fahrenheit HUMIDITY: 63% Relative Humidity (RH) (it was raining for the last 3 hours and my wife had the windows open)🙄 RADON (Rn): Not currently monitored, last measurement was 1 picoCuries/Liter (pCi/L) PARTICLES SMALLER THAN 2.5 MICRONS (PM2.5): 6.4 micrograms/meter3 (µg/m3) CARBON MONOXIDE (CO): 0 parts per million (ppm) CARBON DIOXIDE (CO2): 580 ppm ODORS (TOTAL VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS OR TVOC): 560 micrograms/meter3 (µg/m3) FORMALDEHYDE (CH2O): not monitored, but I would guess it is on the high side based on construction age and materials. OZONE (O3): 12 ppb (Outdoor is 16ppb) NITROGEN OXIDES (NOX): not monitored. I suspect low as we have only the water heater that is gas operating and the electric stove is vented quite well with makeup air.

[@HomePerformance]

Good work keep it up

[@davidhoover2446]

Makes me want to add a charcoal filter to my fresh air filter on my home to reduce ozone coming in

[@christopherbenjamin9273]

Yes! I knew once he blew Corbett's mind about CO2 he would do the same about humidity. Living in a subtropical region (Atlanta) and keeping a home at 50% RH is so wasteful. If RH was harmful, Indonesia wouldn't be the 4th most populous country it would be uninhabitable. Even 80% is fine. Condensation and standing water are a problem, but water vapor is not. If it's about comfort, why would someone from Montana move to Florida and then use commercial levels of electricity to make their home as cool and dry as Montana? That would be nuts, just go where you're comfortable.

[@HomePerformance]

To be clear though, if you want your indoor air cooler than 80 you up the risk of condensation in those climes. 80% will grow plenty of mold without visible condensation FYI.

[@christopherbenjamin9273]

@@HomePerformance That's why cleanliness is so important. Mold, bacteria, or any microorganism needs food. Even if there is high humidity you won't get any growth if the home is clean. Even better if the home has no cavities such as a cmu wall with exterior insulation. Again, the tropics would be uninhabitable if humidity always resulted in mold growth.

[@DigitalBenny]

Should have asked him about his use of "conservative" sooner

[@nathanbarry9534]

I’m just a dropout, but I’m going to disagree on CO2 targets for a few reasons: 1. It’s a marker of ventilation function- If you’re not hitting the bare minimum of ASHRAE62, your general indoor air quality is likely to be bad. This is the operating principle of eCO2 sensors. 2. CO2 as an indicator of %of rebreathed air and pathogen risk- lower is better. 3. I’m still not 100% convinced about the lack of cognitive impact, and even IF it has no direct cognitive impact the measured value does correlate to cognitive impact, so lower is better.

[@superspeeder]

To be fair, Jeffrey is only speaking to the negative health effects of high CO2 levels in isolation. He also mentions that monitoring CO2 for sudden changes is very useful because it can be an indication of other things which could be of concern, as you’ve pointed out.

[@globaldemise]

100% agree. Well said. if you have high C02 you you need better ventilation.

[@DennisH__Spagetti]

Incidentally eCO2 sensors DO NOT MEASURE CO2 directly, they instead estimate the CO2 (hence the eCO2) based on other VOCs that the sensor has been designed to detect. While eCO2 sensors might detect VOCs, those VOCs are not necessarily the bad (dangerous VOCs).

[@NurseAcrobat]

Looking at the data from my airgradient indoor and outdoor air quality monitors, my indoor pm2.5 # is averaging 0.2 while outdoors is 14.2. My indoor level mostly trends up if someone doesn't turn on the vent hood while cooking. It's helpful being able to compare indoors vs outdoors to see how my filters are performing. My ERV has a MERV 13 filter box for fresh air and my HVAC air handler has two four inch thick MERV 13 filters. I mostly monitor CO2 levels to see how my ventilation is doing, turning up the ERV a little when it's about the same temperature inside as outside since natural infiltration is reduced.