Radon Action Month
Listen to the Interview with EZ Breathe Owner Erika Lacroix on Fix It Home Improvement with Jacy Elsesser! Continue reading “EZ Breathe On Radon Mitigation”
Indoor Air Quality Becomes A Primary Concern During The Pandemic
Indoor air quality becomes a primary concern during the pandemic
Erika Lacroix, president of EZ Breathe, talks about the importance of maintaining healthy indoor air quality levels at home during the pandemic.
Indoor Air Quality – These Myths Will Surprise You Birmingham, AL
Indoor air quality is an important aspect of any home or office. If it is poor, it can cause health problems in people and make it hard to breathe. There are several myths involving indoor air quality, and it is important that you know the truth. Take a look at these three indoor air quality myths:
- You can improve indoor air quality just by removing the source of odors
A strange smell may be a sign of poor indoor air quality. For example, musty smells can indicate the presence of mildew or mold. While it is important to remove the sources of the odor, there are many other things that are odorless and can contribute to poor air quality.
- Increased moisture, such as relative humidity above 60%, can contribute to bacterial and mold growth.
- Fragranced products, such as perfumes and air fresheners, can pollute the indoors and trigger sensitivities in some people.
- Facial tissue boxes release dust clouds whenever someone takes a tissue.
- Dust from pesticides, roads, and heavy metals can be tracked inside and become airborne
- Air pollution is only outside
Many people think that air pollution is only outside. However, this is not the case. The air inside your home has come from outside, which means that many of the pollutants that have been moving through the air outside will make their way into your home.
In addition, homes have their own pollutants and air problems. Common problems include bacteria, viruses, pet dander, dust, and mold. All these can be found inside and can cause health problems. In some cases, they can cause serious health issues in people who are at higher risk.
- Adding ventilation will drive up energy costs
Ventilators can help with poor indoor air quality. They can provide the same amount of fresh air as opening a window. However, many people believe that they will drive up energy costs. There are many available that allow for the exchange of air without driving up energy costs.
One example is the EZ Breathe. This ventilation system helps control indoor air quality and eliminate any pollutants from within the home. It removes polluted air and replaces it with air from outside the building. This system is energy-efficient, so you don’t have to worry about higher costs.
These are just three of the myths surrounding indoor air quality. If you suspect that the air in your home or office is poor, contact a professional for assistance.
Contact the professionals at EZ Breathe Systems today! (866) 822-7328
5 Sure Tips for Improving Your Home’s Indoor Air Quality New Jersey, NJ
5 Sure Tips for Improving Your Home’s Indoor Air Quality New Jersey, NJ
Indoor air quality denotes the quality of air within buildings and the surrounding structures, especially with respect to the health and wellbeing of the people who occupy these buildings. Being aware of the importance of good indoor air quality and controlling some of the elements that pollute indoor air can help in reducing the risk of indoor air-related health problems.
Controlling the quality of indoor air is also very important given that some of the health risks associated with poor indoor air quality may be experienced immediately while others may take even years to be detected. Therefore, understanding and controlling the quality of the air that you breathe can help you prevent the short- and long-term problems that are associated with poor indoor air quality.
Ironically, according to the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States, six out of every 10 buildings and homes have poor indoor air quality and therefore expose their occupants to the risks associated with airborne pollutants. Thus, much more needs to be done to improve the quality of indoor air in homes and other buildings. Below are five tips that can help you improve your home’s indoor air quality.
1. Ensure That The Building Has Good Natural Ventilation
Natural ventilation includes windows, doors and various types of vents such as door vents, window vents, and ridge vents among others. These openings facilitate air circulation, ensuring that the indoor environment has fresh air and just the right amount of humidity at all times. Thus, it is important to have an adequate number of windows and doors as well as numerous vents on your building to guarantee good natural ventilation.
2. Install Reliable AC Equipment
Air conditioning equipment such as fans and dehumidifiers and are a good investment to help you improve air circulation and control the amount of moisture in the building at any given time.
3. Keep your AC Equipment Clean
Simply installing different kinds of AC equipment is not enough to help you have a good indoor air quality. To be effective, the devices need to be cleaned and maintained regularly to ensure that they do not gather dust and that they operate optimally at all times.
4. Have House Plants To Help You Purify Your Indoor Air
Some house plants such as Epipremnum aureum have been proven to be effective in purifying indoor air by removing a number of air pollutants including formaldehyde, xylene, trichloroethylene, and benzene.
5. Choose Furniture And Items Such As Carpets Carefully And Keep Them Clean
Some furniture items and carpets release air pollutants long after they have been made. Hence, it is important to ask about the types of materials that the items are made of when buying. It is also critical to keep furniture and carpets clean to avoid the accumulation of dust and other airborne substances on these items.
Contact the professionals at EZ Breathe Ventilation Systems today! (866) 822-7328
Another Great Testimonial
Check it out! Another great EZ Breathe testimonial:
EZ Breathe Ventilation Systems Improves The Health Of Your Home | Washington, D.C.
The air quality in your home can impact your health. It is important to invest in a ventilation system that can filter allergins in order to have the healthiest possible indoor air quality. Let’s face it, 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:
- Do you have moisture problems in your basement?
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.
- Do you have rodents or insects in your 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.
- Do members of your family experience frequent bouts of illnesses or allergies?
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.
Contact EZ Breathe Systems today! (866) 822-7328
How To Keep Your Indoor Humidity Managed While Away | Boston, MA
How To Keep Your Indoor Humidity Managed While Away
You’ve waited for a long time for this! You have scheduled time off, and now 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.
- Have your home inspected
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.
- Have your plumbing fixed
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.
- Invest in a dehumidifier
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.
- Let your dehumidifier drain directly into the drain
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.
Moisture Inside Of Windows | New York, NY
If your home suffers from drippy, wet condensation on the inside of windows during cold weather, you’ve probably noticed it can make a real mess of everything below. In the 20 years I spent as a professional home inspector, I’ve noticed all sorts of so-called DIY “solutions” for this problem, from rolled up towels strategically placed to catch drips on the window sills below, to very creative attempts at channeling water with what can only be described as a built-in gutter connected to the bottom of these persistently wet windows! Needless to say, while amusing, these well-intentioned attempts rarely provide any long term benefit.
Truth be told, if you really want to stop window condensation, you first need to understand why it happens. Let’s start with an example most can relate to. Imagine sitting outside on a warm summer day with a glass of ice-cold lemonade at your side. The outside of that glass will be wet with condensation. Why? Because warm air holds more moisture than cold air, and as the warm summer air that strikes that cold glass and gets chilled, it releases the moisture it held and voilà – you’ve got condensation!
This same thing happens inside a home when conditions are right. If water forms on the inside of windows, there’s likely a combination of causes allowing that to happen. These include high humidity, poor insulation and a lack of good passive and mechanical ventilation. They all combine to let moisture form and rise up through the home causing a wide variety of potentially unhealthy and unpleasant conditions from water damage, to mold and more.
Building science tells us that this movement of moist air is part of the “stack effect” where warmer air enters a structure from the lower floors, often through a crawlspace or basement, and then rises up through the building – cooling as it goes – and releasing much of that moisture along the way. It’s a powerful force, but one that can be overcome with steps to reduce moisture at all its sources.
Given that we can’t fight physics, the best way to stop condensation from forming on the inside of windows is to reduce the humidity that allows that moisture to form in the first place. That includes addressing the most common ways excess moisture gets into the home, improving windows to be able to reduce the temperature differential between outside and inside, and improving the ventilation needed to move the moisture out. Some of these steps are simple, some take more time, expense and planning. But all will help reduce or completely eliminate moisture from forming inside your windows and can be accomplished individually or all at once.
Is Your Crawl Space Damp? Here Is What To Do Next | New York, NY
Is Your Crawl Space Damp? Here Is What To Do Next
We at EZ Breathe get this question regularly. We also get this statement often: “Well that is just the way basements are, and the way they smell.” Of course this is timely in much of the country right now… snow is melting, or has melted. Rain is falling…and more water in the soil outside our homes leads to….
When we are talking about DAMP, let’s be clear, we don’t mean WET. If you have liquid water that trickles across your floor at times, or even pools or floods your basement/crawlspace, that is WET, and it needs EZ Breathe, and some other work. Between EZ Breathe and our extensive family of distributors, we can help you solve WET basement problems.
When we are talking about DAMP, we are talking about air borne moisture, “feels damp”, condensation on cold surfaces, usually accompanied by musty odors.
For more related information about the crawl space conditioner system, click here.
Why is your basement or crawlspace damp? Very simple, even in the absence of liquid water entering your home through the foundation, research has documented “as much as 15 gallons per day of water vapor entering a basement space via vapor transmission through unsealed walls, floors, cracks, and openings and by evaporation from wet surfaces.” (Powell and Rogers, Kansas State University, “Dry Basements and Crawlspaces”.)
And that water vapor can wreak havoc in our homes! What can it cause/exacerbate?
– Mold
– Structural issues
– Bugs, spiders, etc.
– Health issues
How do we handle water vapor in the rest of our homes?
– In the bathrooms, we vent it to the outside
– In the kitchen, we vent it to the outside
– Our clothes dryer? Yep, vent to the outside
Has anyone ever told you to put a dehumidifier in each of your bathrooms, in your kitchen, and behind your dryer?
So you see, it is simple, a great way to handle excess water vapor in our homes is venting it to the outside…and that is what EZ Breathe has been doing for over 12 years!
EZ Breathe On The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show
Erika LaCroix, President of EZ Breathe Ventilation was on air with the hosts of The Money Pit, a Home Improvement Radio Show — talking about basement ventilation and how EZ Breathe helps homes like yours.
Click the Sound Cloud play button below to hear the interview!