This unit is primarily for an attached garage but can also be used for an unattached garage as well.
Have you noticed a leak in your home? Is your home damp? It doesn’t matter whether the leak is in your basement or in your bathroom; the fact is that it is likely to cause your home to become damp. It doesn’t matter how small the leak is. Ensure that you have it attended to as soon as your notice it.
Why you should be worried about moisture
It can be tempting to ignore that little leak in your home. However, not repairing the problem won’t make it go away. In fact, it is only likely to become worse. If you’re concerned about indoor air quality, you ought to also be concerned about those leaking pipes.
Several scientific studies have linked high levels of moisture in homes with respiratory problems. This is a result of the following agents that occur in homes with higher levels of moisture and humidity.
1. Bacteria
Bacteria loves moisture. Moisture provides the perfect environment in which they can breed and thrive. It doesn’t matter how much antibacterial products you use. They cannot compensate for the effects of a damp house. The bacterial colonies will re-establish themselves. It is therefore vital to get rid of the moisture and maintain low levels of humidity.
2. Mold
This is one of the most common concerns linked with damp spaces. Mold thrives in damp spaces. They cause a musty smell which can be used to detect their presence.
Exposure to molds can result in various health conditions. Top on this list are respiratory conditions.
Investing in mold remediation will help to get rid of an infestation. However, if you want to prevent the infestation from recurring, you should ensure that you deal with the moisture problem and maintain live levels of humidity.
3. Dust mites
Dust mites are a common allergen. Those who are allergic to them develop symptoms such as sneezing, stuffy noses, itchy eyes as well as respiratory problems. While dust mites are ever present, high levels of humidity will result in higher population of these microscopic critters.
Dust mite growth can be stopped if you keep your home’s humidity levels below 50 percent. This will mean addressing any moisture problems and investing in a system that will keep the moisture levels down.
Don’t wait for your symptoms to become serious in order to take action. Ensure that your home’s moisture levels are low for good indoor air quality.
Contact EZ Breathe today! (866) 822-7328
Finally, it’s time for the vacation that you have been planning for several months. You can finally put your feet up and relax for a few days or even weeks. Everything is booked, packed and ready to go. But wait, are you really ready for your vacation?
The prospect of getting away from it all can be really exciting. Preparing for your vacation can be exciting too. You get to plan where you’ll go and what you’ll do. However, you shouldn’t forget what you leave behind.
No one wants to come home to a mold infested home. But many homeowners forget about protecting their home from humidity and water damage for the period of their vacation. Many come back home to find that things aren’t as great as they left them.
The following tips will help you deal with indoor humidity and ensure indoor air quality while you’re away.
Want to know what to look for in order to ensure good indoor air quality? Have your home inspected. This will help you identify areas in your home that are contributing to the high levels of humidity. Your inspector will also provide you with guidance on the best way to tackle these problems.
Do you have leaky plumbing? Are there faucets in your home that are dripping? Get a professional plumber in to ensure that these leaks are fixed. This will ensure that there are no puddles to contribute to the humidity levels in your home.
If you haven’t already, ensure that you invest in a dehumidifier. Be sure to purchase one that can be set to automatically turn on when the humidity levels are too high and off when they have reached the optimum range. You can leave this humidifier running while you are away.
Dehumidifiers are designed to turn off when their trays are full of water. This protects your home from flooding and the dehumidifier from water damage. You then have to empty the tray for the dehumidifier to continue operating.
However, you won’t be around to empty the tray while you’re on vacation. You can ensure that the dehumidifier continues operating by simply allowing it to drain into the main drain.
Apply these tips to your home so you can enjoy a worry free vacation and come back to a home to find good indoor air quality.
Why Winter Makes Indoor Air Quality Worse
Homes are built to be energy- (and therefore cost-) efficient by holding heat in during the winter time and keeping heat out during the summer. Winter weather prompts homeowners to tightly seal any cracks in insulation that could allow cold drafts into the home. This, in turn, also seals off the home from any fresh air and raises the concentrations of allergens, pollutants and chemical concentrations in the home.
Add Stack Effect…It gets Worse!
The same force that causes hot air balloons to rise in to the sky is present in all of our homes. This “stack effect” draws air up from the lowest levels through floors, doors, windows, and up from the basement and/or crawlspace commonly called “chimney effect”. This stack effect or chimney effect is very powerful during the winter heating season actively introducing basement/crawlspace air up into the living environment contaminating the quality of indoor air.
40% of the air we breathe in the living spaces was once basement/crawlspace air!
Effects of Poor Indoor Air Quality
Immediate effects of poor indoor air quality can show up after just a single exposure and include headaches, dizziness, fatigue, and itchy eyes, nose, and throat. Asthma and chemical sensitivities can also be aggravated by exposure to indoor pollution. Allergic responses to pollutants in the air can last for months on end as the air quality continues to worsen. Chronic sensitivities may also build up after repeated exposures.
Although it remains uncertain what levels or periods of exposure are necessary to bring on serious health effects from indoor air pollution, long-term effects of indoor air pollution include respiratory disease, heart disease, and cancer.
Improving Indoor Air Quality
The EPA recognizes two basic strategies to improve indoor air quality: source control and ventilation improvements.
Improving indoor air quality through source control involves removing the sources of pollution. Gas emissions, like those from a poorly maintained stove, for instance, can be adjusted in order to lower their emissions; asbestos can be sealed or enclosed. Often, source control is a more cost-conscious way to remedy poor air quality, however source control is not always possible or practical.
Increased ventilation is an easy and effective way to control poor indoor air by bringing fresh indoor air into circulation. Especially because most heating systems do not bring fresh air into the home. Whole home ventilation systems not only create a path of escape for the myriad of pollutants trapped inside our homes, but also make room for better air to be introduced. Solution by dilution. Increase the amount of fresh air entering the building envelope is an effective way to improve the quality of indoor air
You can easily check to see if your home might have ventilation problems. Condensation on walls or windows, stuffy air, moldy areas, or dirty heating or cooling equipment are all indicators. Odors (which are most notable upon entering the home from outdoors) are also an indication of poor ventilation.
When performing many home improvement or hobbies, it’s especially important to be aware of the need for proper ventilation. Without ventilation, pollutants such those emitted during painting, welding, sanding, or even cooking, can add toxic elements into your home environment.
To learn more about the benefits of ventilation click here: https://ezbreathe.com/about/why-ez-breathe/
What is the indoor air quality in your home like? Many people believe that their homes are the safest places to be. However, studies by the EPA and even more recent research by scientists at George Washington University will tell you otherwise.
According to the Environment Protection Agency (EPA), indoor air quality in most homes is worse than outdoor air quality by over 3 times. The findings by George Washington scientists back this up. These scientists collected dust samples from homes throughout the US over a period of 20 years and discovered high concentrations of various toxic chemicals in the dust.
Toxic homes
If you think you’re protecting yourself from exposure to toxic chemicals by staying indoors, then you’re wrong. There are even more sources of toxins in the home than outside. These don’t only diffuse into the air, but are also absorbed by dust particles.
Some of the toxins that you should be most concerned about include:
These chemicals are commonly found in vinyl flooring, food packaging, vinyl blinds, fragrance products, as well as personal care products. These toxins have been known to affect the reproductive system and cause toxicity. They have also been known to cause hormone disruptions.
These chemicals are present in electronics, baby products, furniture, as well as polystyrene building insulation. They have been known to cause nervous system and reproductive toxicity as well as hormone disruption.
These are common in every day products such as cosmetics, lotions, shampoo, cleaning products and reusable water bottles. They have been shown to cause toxicity of the reproductive system as well as hormone disruption.
These are present in perfumes, cleaning products, candles, air fresheners and other personal care products. The effects of fragrances on our health are yet to be known.
These are present in water and stain repellant treatments that are used on upholstery, clothes, shoes, carpets, food papers and non-stick cookware. These chemicals are known to cause toxicity of the liver, reproductive, digestive and nervous systems.
Cleaning your indoors
If you want to reduce your level of exposure to these chemicals, then dusting would be a great place to start. However, it isn’t enough. You need to get these chemicals out of your home. The problem is that they are in so many products that we use every day.
A great solution would be to invest in a whole home ventilation system that circulates fresh outdoor air into the home, and polluted indoor air out.
Indoor Air Quality – 3 of the Most Common Household Air Pollutants
According to EPA, you may be surprised to know that indoor air is much more polluted than the air outside. There are a wide variety of household pollutants that are responsible for this. The following are the most common pollutants that are compromising your indoor air quality and putting the health of your household at risk.
1: Mold
This is a fungus that produces spores that become airborne when the fungus is disturbed. These spores land on various surfaces around the home to establish new fungal colonies. Mold infestations are often the result of high levels of humidity.
Mold spores are difficult to control once a mold infestation has established itself in your home. They can trigger allergic reactions and worsen asthma symptoms. You may experience sneezing, red eyes and skin rash. We Can Help! Contact Us! (866) 822-7328
The best way to deal with mold is by getting rid of it. This is possible through mold remediation. You can prevent the establishment of an infestation by ensuring that humidity levels in the home are controlled and the home is ventilated. This is possible with a whole-home ventilation system.
2: Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
These compounds are chemicals that evaporate into the air. They are present in paint thinners, glues, adhesives, finishes, upholstery and many other items in the home. VOCs can cause serious health problems including damage to the central nervous system, liver and kidneys in the long term.
It is difficult to control the levels of VOCs in the home because they are present in many of the products we bring into our homes. You can opt to limit bringing such products into the home and instead rely on natural or organic products. You should also ensure that the home is well ventilated to keep concentrations of VOCs at a minimum. The EZ-Breathe family of home systems can provide the relief, and best indoor air quality possible.
3: Carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide is one of the biggest pollutants. It is often released as a result of common activities in the home including cooking and heating the home. Carbon monoxide is odorless and colorless. It can be deadly in high concentrations.
You can reduce the levels of carbon monoxide in the home by venting stoves, heaters and dryers. You should also ensure that the entire home is well ventilated to reduce the concentration of carbon monoxide in the home.
Investing in a whole home ventilation system can help to reduce exposure to the above mentioned air pollutants and improve indoor air quality a great deal.
As a homeowner, chances are you strive to make your home a healthy and happy place to be. But too often, humidity levels in a home are too high, especially in the basement. As a result, mold and mildew can begin to grow.
What does this mean for your family? For adults mold and mildew could agitate existing allergies and lead to more serious health problems. But with an EZ Breathe ventilation system, you can rest assured knowing that you are making your home a happier and healthier place to be.
Trying to take care of the moisture in your home can be a daunting task. Running dehumidifiers everywhere, cleaning filters and emptying water buckets become daily chores in order to keep your home dry and clean. But with the EZ Breathe Ventilation system, you won’t have to worry about that. There are no filters that need to be cleaned, nor do you need to worry about any heavy bins of water that need to be emptied.
The air is not continuously being recirculated throughout your home, but is instead substituted for fresh air. Because the same air is not continually reintroduced into your home, you don’t need to empty a bucket or clean a filter.
The EZ Breathe Ventilation system can replace a dehumidifier, air purifier, and ionizer in your home. Additionally, you run the system for as little as $2 to $4 a month. So not only will it help to free your home of odor, mold, mildew, and allergens, but it can do so at a negligible monthly cost. All you need to have in your home is a heating and cooling system, and EZ Breathe to make your home perfect for your family.
As you either start a family or your family grows, you may be looking to other areas of your home to grow into. Whether you want to create another living space or an additional bedroom in the basement, improving the air quality of the space is paramount. Mold and mildew are terrible for your health; especially when you are thinking about your children spending time in the new space, you need to be sure to eradicate them from your house.
Mold in particular is an allergen that can cause harm not only to those who are allergic but, depending on its type, on anyone exposed to it. Therefore, you should take the necessary steps to make your home mold and mildew free, not only for you but for the sake of your family. Especially if your basement has sump pumps, there is alway water in the basement. EZ Breathe will continuously clean the air in the entire space, keeping your basement dry and clean.
Especially if you or a loved one suffers from allergies and asthma, installing the EZ Breathe Ventilation system helps to make your home a sanctuary. Keeping the air inside the home clean, it can help to reduce the allergens in your home, which could irritate anyone with asthma. If your family member has the condition, you understand how important it is to both control it and prevent asthma attacks, which could be life threatening. The EZ Breathe Ventilation system will make your home not only healthier, but also safer.
If you want to breathe a little easier knowing that you are not only helping to take care of your family but your home as well, the EZ Breathe Ventilation System is your answer. It will make your home more comfortable, while also allowing you to take comfort in knowing that you’re breathing clean air. To learn more about our system, please contact us.
By midmorning, the smell of hot peanut oil dissipated and inside the tightly sealed laboratory known as Building 51F, a pink hamburger sizzled in a pan over a raging gas flame. Overhead, fans whirred, whisking caustic smoke up through a metallic esophagus of ductwork.
Woody Delp, 49, a longhaired engineer in glasses — the Willie Nelson of HVAC — supervised the green bean and hamburger experiments. He sat at a computer inside a kitchen simulator, rows upon rows of numeric data appearing on his screen, ticking off the constituents of the plume sucked up the flue. A seared hamburger patty, as he sees it, is just a reliable source for indoor pollution.
“I can claim Alice Waters’ influenced the recipe,” he said. “It’s all fresh and local.”
But Dr. Delp and his colleagues aren’t really interested in testing recipes. They are scientists at the Energy Department’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the morning’s experiment concerned another kitchen conundrum, a fight against physics: how to remove harmful contaminants caused by cooking.
Simply put, cooking is an act of controlled combustion — you set oil, fat, and carbohydrates on fire. As a health hazard, incinerating hamburgers and green beans may pale in comparison with lighting wood or coal fires indoors, the leading environmental cause of death and disability around the world. Yet frying, grilling or toasting foods with gas and electric appliances creates particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, and volatile organic compounds. (Acrolein, which most cooks recognize as the smell of burnt fats or oils, was used in grenades in World War I because it causes irritation to the lungs and eyes.)
Emissions of nitrogen dioxide in homes with gas stoves exceed the Environmental Protection Agency’s definition of clean air in an estimated 55 percent to 70 percent of those homes, according to one model; a quarter of them have air quality worse than the worst recorded smog (nitrogen dioxide) event in London. Cooking represents one of the single largest contributors, generating particulate matter (formally known as PM2.5) at concentrations four times greater than major haze events in Beijing.
“Because we’re used to the smell, we don’t think of it as an issue,” said Jennifer M. Logue, 32, an air quality engineer at the Berkeley Lab. “When you live in a small building, you cook a lot and don’t use your range hood, which may not be very effective anyway, then you’re probably going to have a problem with pollutants from cooking.”
Recently Dr. Logue estimated the long-term health effects expected from hundreds of chemicals found in average homes. Her 2012 study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, used a common epidemiological metric known as disability-adjusted life-year to show that the population-wide health impact of indoor pollutants is on a par with that of car accidents, and greater than that of traditional concerns like secondhand smoke or radon.
“It’s well over violence,” she said. “It’s not a small risk.”
Federal policy and financing tends to focus on research outdoors — air quality, drinking water, wastewater, hazardous waste sites and soil contamination. “We haven’t had that regulatory driver for the indoor environment, and yet the indoor environment is probably the most important environment in terms of human health,” said Richard L. Corsi, an engineer and professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
“If you look at just the dose of toxic chemicals we take into our bodies during our lifetime that are of environmental origin, it’s dominated by the air that we breathe and the surfaces that we touch indoors,” Dr. Corsi said.
The Berkeley Lab’s research is driven, in part, by renewed efforts to tighten building envelopes and save on energy costs. Airtight buildings keep outdoors out, but they also trap contaminants. Efforts to mask odors — incense, candles, and air fresheners — exacerbate the hazard. After all, indoor combustion creates more pollutants that linger in tightly sealed spaces; and, formaldehyde, for example, is formed when ozone reacts with gases, especially scenting agents, plug-in air fresheners and cleaners.
Since people aren’t likely to stop cooking, the lab aims to come up with science-based ventilation standards. “People don’t need to radically change their lifestyles,” Dr. Logue said. “We need to change the building codes so that everyone gets a venting range hood.”
Current ventilation standards — the V in HVAC — represent a best engineering judgment. There’s never been much science involved in determining how well range hoods and other ventilation systems should work in terms of human health. Existing metrics for performance, most notably the Energy Star rating, measure energy use, not the impact of the appliance on human health.
And while it’s difficult to rid a home of the semi-volatile organic compounds that leak out of, say, a couch over a long period of time, volatile compounds from fire and water vapor can be removed with an effective kitchen fan. “A lot of homes don’t have that,” said Brett Singer, the lab’s director. “Secondly, a lot of the ones that do, people don’t use them, and thirdly, even if they have it and even if they use it, a lot of them don’t work very well.”
When they tested seven different commercially available range hood designs, Dr. Singer and Dr. Delp found that the airflow and the amount of burner exhaust and cooking contaminants whisked away — the so-called “capture efficiency” — varied from 15 percent to 98 percent. (Dr. Singer refers to recirculating hoods, only somewhat jokingly, as “forehead greasers.”)
Inside the kitchen simulator, fresh air whooshed through the room — an exchange rate of about 12 times per hour, nearly 40 times the amount circulating in an average home. But the experiments hadn’t generated much appetite. One lab assistant, Omsri Bharat, passed on the burgers because she is a vegetarian, and the other, Marcella Barrios, a science teacher, admitted to having packed a lunch.
Dr. Singer is optimistic that new scientific standards might even change habits inside actual homes. “We want people to cook,” he said. “The health of America will probably get better. We just want to make sure all those pollutants, vapors and moisture from cooking get vented outside.”
Peter Andrey Smith
The New York Times
How is the quality of air in your home? Everyone would like to believe that the air they breathe in their homes is of high quality. However, research has shown that indoor air quality of most homes in the US falls far below the quality of air in the outdoors.
Our homes are full of pollutants. They are in the electronics we buy, the plastic packaging, the floors, the carpets, the sofa, the fabric of our curtains and practically anything that is produced commercially. There are also various pollutants around the home that aren’t in obvious places e.g. basement mold.
If you want to improve indoor air quality, you can start by answering the questions below:
Not many people realize that the state of their basement affects the quality of the air in their homes. This is the result of stack effect, which results in the rising of air from the basement into the rest of the home.
If you’re experiencing moisture problems in your basement, you’re also likely to have a mold or mildew infestation. You are also likely to be affected by microbial growth. Mold spores and bacteria can spread to the rest of the home in the air that rises from the basement into the rest of the home.
Yes, rodents and insects affect indoor air quality. Their fur and particles from their feces can easily spread in the air that circulates in your home. These particles are allergens that can cause or exacerbate allergic reactions. You may experience worsening of asthma symptoms or the development of various other respiratory conditions as a result of the presence of these allergens.
Many people write this off as a problem with immunity. However, it is most likely the presence of allergens and disease-causing organisms in the air you breathe in your home.
Addressing issues of air quality
It isn’t enough to invest in HEPA filters that will get rid of small particles. You need to ensure that you have fresh air circulating in your home. You can achieve this by investing in a ventilation system that circulates fresh air from the outdoors into your home. These systems ensure that you are not breathing in the same stale air. They get rid of allergens and gaseous toxins to ensure better air quality in your home.
Why Winter Makes Indoor Air Quality Worse
Homes are built to be energy- (and therefore cost-) efficient by holding heat in during the winter time and keeping heat out during the summer. Winter weather prompts homeowners to tightly seal any cracks in insulation that could allow cold drafts into the home. This, in turn, also seals off the home from any fresh air and raises the concentrations of allergens, pollutants and chemical concentrations in the home.
Add Stack Effect…It gets Worse!
The same force that causes hot air balloons to rise in to the sky is present in all of our homes. This “stack effect” draws air up from the lowest levels through floors, doors, windows, and up from the basement and/or crawlspace commonly called “chimney effect”. This stack effect or chimney effect is very powerful during the winter heating season actively introducing basement/crawlspace air up into the living environment contaminating the quality of indoor air.
40% of the air we breathe in the living spaces was once basement/crawlspace air!
Effects of Poor Indoor Air Quality
Immediate effects of poor indoor air quality can show up after just a single exposure and include headaches, dizziness, fatigue, and itchy eyes, nose, and throat. Asthma and chemical sensitivities can also be aggravated by exposure to indoor pollution. Allergic responses to pollutants in the air can last for months on end as the air quality continues to worsen. Chronic sensitivities may also build up after repeated exposures.
Although it remains uncertain what levels or periods of exposure are necessary to bring on serious health effects from indoor air pollution, long-term effects of indoor air pollution include respiratory disease, heart disease, and cancer.
Improving Indoor Air Quality
The EPA recognizes two basic strategies to improve indoor air quality: source control and ventilation improvements.
Improving indoor air quality through source control involves removing the sources of pollution. Gas emissions, like those from a poorly maintained stove, for instance, can be adjusted in order to lower their emissions; asbestos can be sealed or enclosed. Often, source control is a more cost-conscious way to remedy poor air quality, however source control is not always possible or practical.
Increased ventilation is an easy and effective way to control poor indoor air by bringing fresh indoor air into circulation. Especially because most heating systems do not bring fresh air into the home. Whole home ventilation systems not only create a path of escape for the myriad of pollutants trapped inside our homes, but also make room for better air to be introduced. Solution by dilution. Increase the amount of fresh air entering the building envelope is an effective way to improve the quality of indoor air
You can easily check to see if your home might have ventilation problems. Condensation on walls or windows, stuffy air, moldy areas, or dirty heating or cooling equipment are all indicators. Odors (which are most notable upon entering the home from outdoors) are also an indication of poor ventilation.
When performing many home improvement or hobbies, it’s especially important to be aware of the need for proper ventilation. Without ventilation, pollutants such those emitted during painting, welding, sanding, or even cooking, can add toxic elements into your home environment.
To learn more about the benefits of ventilation click here: https://ezbreathe.com/about/why-ez-breathe/