Questions tagged [air-quality]
The air-quality tag has no usage guidance.
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How to insulate and wall off basement partition for best long-term air quality outcomes?
Background
Project description: U.S. heating zone 5, in a 1960s ranch-style house with basement matching original home footprint, we're partitioning the empty half of the basement (no mechanicals, ...
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What kind of sill cap/threshold is this?
I'm fighting some air infiltration from under my exterior doors. I've noticed that this sill cap / threshold is unlike any I can find in stores, as it has an indented channel in the middle. Is ...
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Do dirty air filters trap more or less dust and dirt?
I read the following on the internet:
Letting air flow past a dirty filter introduces a lot of dust and airborne particulates into your ductwork and your home’s air.
I found the following comment ...
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Air Changes Per Hour to Filter Smoke
My neighbor has an old wood-burning stove, which he recently started burning a couple of weeks ago. With the way our houses are positioned, the smoke is blowing towards my house and seeping in. It's ...
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Air exchanger "fresh air to house" wye - should I leave it open or closed?
Background
Just bought a house with a passive air exchanger: no internal fans, just motorized dampers moving air with the furnace fan. We have a thermopump, electric furnace and whole house bypass ...
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Moving into a home that had dogs, and I'm allergic... what should be on my to-do list?
In about a month, I'm moving into a house that had 1-2 large dogs. I'll allergic to dogs, and I'm curious what steps I should take to prep the house before I move in. There is also a room (living room)...
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How to Airseal and Insulate Texas Homes
I am interested in what I can do to help improve the energy efficiency of older Texas homes.
I am looking to purchase one in the new year but it is my understanding that in 2012 the energy efficiency ...
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Lack of kitchen ventilation and oil stains in vent
I noticed an oil stain on the air intake vent cover in my kitchen ceiling which leads to the garage.
My theory is that this is due to the lack of ventilation in the kitchen as we don’t have a hood or ...
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VOC increase when were lowering humidity!
UK house owner here.
One of our ground floor rooms has a damp issue from below, due to poor damp proofing. We can't fix the problem immediately until we have finance.
Apart from a musty smell and ...
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Guidance on proper ventilation for tools in a small indoor workshop
I am currently looking to set up an extra bedroom for an indoor workshop with the following:
3D printer, FDM and resin
Laser engraver/cutter
Airbrush booth
CNC router
I have an enclosure for the 3D ...
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Ramifications of replacing whole-home air purifier filter with different brand
I would like to install a whole-home air purifier as I live in a city that does not have the best air quality. However, each company has different filters - some filter more than others and the costs ...
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Will these measures lower my water's iron levels? [closed]
I recently had a well installed and had a professional come out and perform a water sample. It turned out that the water from the well is high in iron. This wasn’t a surprise to me since my mother, ...
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Should my air conditioner be running its air directly through internal spaces?
Should a newly installed “ducted” split system be running its intake air directly through internal spaces, or should I demand that the system be sealed so that it only draws air from living spaces?
I’...
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Why is my air conditioner causing rapid high CO2 levels?
I am wondering if anyone knows why when I turn my recently installed high-efficiency air conditioner on, CO2 levels rocket up in my house? (In just 4 hours they go from around 500ppm to 1200ppm, and ...
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Is this asbestos insulation in my attic? [duplicate]
Too scared to go back up here, had found a bunch of spores moving around too when I entered. I have video versions too of these photos, but it looked like giant dust particles were floating around. ...
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How much will an ERV improve the air quality in my geothermal hvac system? [closed]
I'm in the design phase of installing a ground-source closed-loop geothermal hvac system. After doing some research, I became interested in adding an ERV -- our house doesn't have a tight enough ...
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How can I ventilate an underground garage to make it safe to work from?
I live in a townhouse. We have an attached garage which is underground and with no windows. it gets air by either the attached stairways which leads home or by the garage door which leads to the ...
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Do wall ac/heater units bring in fresh air?
I live in an apartment with a combined wall AC/heater unit, like the type that you often find in hotels. Does this bring in fresh air when operating, or does it just recirculate the air inside the ...
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How can I filter smoky air coming from outside when the only opening is a window? (How to improve this system)
We live in a small single room apartment just under the roof in a city center. Many of our neighbors burn wood and coal (among other things: it often smells of burned plastic). The toxic smoke comes ...
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199
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Poor air quality in a small room
Due to covid, my workplace has permanently closed its HQ. As a function of such, we now all work from home. Only catch is I don't have an office and I have kids!
To remedy this, I turned a "...
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Why are some HVAC UVC air cleaners listed as "return air models"?
I would like to install a UV Air cleaner, but most of them seem to be listed as return air models.
Due to the .. odd nature of my furnace setup, I would really like to install this in the plenum that ...
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Artificially lowering CO2 concentration
Is there any way to realistically lower CO2 concentration in living rooms?
Today only way to lower CO2 concentration is to basically bring the "fresh" air from the outside.
But this is ...
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Is there a difference between combining two fans in parallel and buying one with twice as much CFM?
I want to build something like an "air purifier". I'm considering a box where I have a big filter and I send the air from one side to the other.
I want to maximize the air flow through the ...
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Does there exist a standard for furnace UV lights?
When you're replacing neon light tubes you don't think twice about compatibility. The distance between the two pairs of pins on opposite sides of the tube is a fixed standard, the voltage (in one ...
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Propane vs. Natural Gas - Indoor Air Quality?
I've seen plenty of articles about gas stoves and the impact on indoor air quality. Specifically, there are reports of much higher CO2, NOx, PM 2.5 particulates, and formaldehyde, relative to electric ...
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Any reason to not use a concentric vent for HRV/ERV air exchange?
Planning to install an ERV (Energy Recovery Unit) and have been advised that a concentric vent is easier to install and the risk of short circuiting output and input is negligible. My feeling is if I ...
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Air-sealing basement slab weeping tile access for radon
I have a pretty high levels of radon in the basement (~400 Bq/m3 when windows are not open), so I want to seal obvious entry points, one of which is what looks like a 10 inch weeping tile cleanout ...
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3k
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Tiny Fibres/Dust Everywhere [closed]
I dust/clean/vacuum once a week which does make a difference to overall cleanliness/tidiness. However, even after cleaning, that very same day, there seems to be a new layer of dust/tiny fibres ...
user137594
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how should I determine the requirements for my specific crawlspace encapsulation?
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Low humidity and mild climate year round.
I don't have any problem with mold or humidity in my vented crawlspace, but it is musty and I want to prevent that musty ...
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Using air humidifier wick cleaned with home detergent - Any health concerns?
I have been using humidifier with rotating wick, and used to clean it with domestos detergent.
This detergent as said by manufacturer contains:
Non-ionic surfactants <5% - particular type not ...
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What is the best method and tool to detect harmful non-carbon-monoixde gases?
I recently cleaned my home's air filters and discovered a significant increase in well-being.
Previously, staying at home during the weekend for more than 1-2 hours resulted in fatigue and dizziness,
...
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How does one clean these filters after 6 months?
There's a great project on This Old House that uses 4x MERV 13 filters to purify the air on your house (even against covid-19 they say)
Question; When it has been running in your house for 6 months, ...
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1k
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When would you want/have/need to put in a post filter in an electrostatic air filter system?
The HVAC system has an Electrostatic air cleaning system and it uses a prefilter and has a slot for a post filter. I've been reading online that only the prefilter is good enough to get the job done ...
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Is this black material in my HVAC air duct mold?
I live in an apartment complex in the southeastern United States. The apartment complex is made of brick so is probably fairly old, but my apartment was renovated just before I moved in. It has ...
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Do I need to worry about random nameless HEPA filters containing asbestos? [closed]
I bought a cheap "DIY" air purifier with HEPA filter. I think it was this one > https://smartairfilters.com/cn/en/product/hepa-filter/
Then I started reading the history of HEPA filters ...
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When it's smokey out, why does more smoke get into the house in the mornings and evenings?
We've had thick smoke outside our home for several days now due to the fires on the west coast. We're doing what we can to filter the inside air and keep excess outside air from coming in (covered ...
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What are the options for filtering fresh air entering a building (especially outdoor air with wildfire smoke)?
I'm confronting once again the California wildfire season. The outdoor air quality is poor right now and it's spreading all over. If we bunker down in place I'm worried about the air conditions inside ...
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Air Flow using Vacuum and High Air Pressure Air
I am investigating container homes. Something about the modularity appeals to me.
Regardless, I am thinking about one of the challenges that they face is to get adequate air flow without cutting ...
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Is it normal to smell sewer gas from a plumbing vent?
We have a second floor room that is centered on top of the house - but this means that the windows of this second story are ABOVE the plumbing vents from the first floor. These plumbing vents are a ...
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Basement Smell in Utility or Bathroom?
In our house, we have a partially below grade basement. Occasionally, our basement will smell like sewer gas (farts) but I can not determine where the smell is coming from.
The basement does have ...
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Air purifier/humidifier - strange yellow substance
I have had this Sharp air purifier/humidifier for the past 6 months. After cleaning the humidifying filter today I have noticed a strange yellow slimy substance on the filter "fins".
I have ...
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Possibly Asbestos Contaminated Washer! What do I do?
So a while back, while my mom and I were moving out of our last place, I may have stowed a bunch of stuff from the attic away in plastic trash bags, as the attic was apparently insulated with asbestos,...
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retrofit an installed HVAC system
My day care center, located in a 100+ year old house and only licensed for 28 kids, had an HVAC system installed about 15 years ago. Can it be set to vent ALL indoor air and send only cooled outdoor ...
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Since moving into a new house we are constantly ill including both my dogs. Is this house the cause?
We moved into a brand new council house just under 2 years ago in the UK and since then we have had nothing but problems with our health. I am disabled so already had health issues but they have ...
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How can I darken a bedroom yet let air in as much as possible?
Of course one could use a vent but this is not feasible for me. Is there a low-tech solution, like some kind of a specific curtain?
I could also cover my window with an opaque board, letting some ...
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Choosing air-conditioner's BTU power for humidity
Recently, I've been cut off of access to sun and fresh air to my apartment. It is completely sealed now, with no windows or sun to the walls or roof. Ever since, humidity has grown a lot, and mold is ...
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Ventilating a room with no forced air without opening windows?
I would like to ventilate my bedroom because air quality monitors show CO2 levels rising above 2000ppm every night.
I have two windows in the room, both with blackout blinds, but I prefer not to open ...
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How to permanently get rid of old cigarette smell from previous resident?
We have recently moved into a rental apartment (built early 1990s). The previous resident was a smoker, and there is a distinct smell of cigarette smoke. She lived there for 15 years. The apartment ...
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What is the difference between the filter on my furnace and an Air Exchanger?
I live in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle area) and the allergy season has started for me. It is so bad that I am thinking about getting an air exchanger for next year. The house I live in was built in ...
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How can I get rid of the bacteremia in the floating in the air! [closed]
How can I get rid of all that chemical bacteremia floating in the air!
