Seven Tips for Keeping a Healthy Home

Posted by Andre & Erika Lacroix on

Seven Tips for Keeping a Healthy Home- EZ BreatheSeven Tips for Keeping a Healthy Home

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control has put together seven tips for keeping a healthy home:

1. Keep it Dry

Prevent water from entering your home through leaks in roofing systems, rain water from entering the home due to poor drainage, and check your interior plumbing for any leaking.

2. Keep it Clean

Control the source of dust and contaminants, creating smooth and cleanable surfaces, reducing clutter, and using effective wet-cleaning methods.

3. Keep it Safe

Store poisons out of the reach of children and properly label. Secure loose rugs and keep children’s play areas free from hard or sharp surfaces. Install smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and keep fire extinguishers on hand.

4. Keep it Well-Ventilated

Ventilate bathrooms and kitchens and use whole house ventilation for supplying fresh air to reduce the concentration of contaminants in the home.

5. Keep it Pest-free

All pests look for food, water and shelter. Seal cracks and openings throughout the home; store food in pest-resistant containers. If needed, use sticky-traps and baits in closed containers, along with least toxic pesticides such as boric acid powder.

6. Keep it Contaminant-free

Reduce lead-related hazards in pre-1978 homes by fixing deteriorated paint, and keeping floors and window areas clean using a wet-cleaning approach. Test your home for radon, a naturally occurring dangerous gas that enters homes through soil, crawlspaces, and foundation cracks. Install a radon removal system if levels above the EPA action-level are detected.

7. Keep it Well-Maintained

Inspect, clean and repair your home routinely. Take care of minor repairs and problems before they become large repairs and problems.

You can download the PDF version of these tips here.

For more information on what the EZ Breathe Ventilation System does click here.

Primary Sources of Indoor Air Toxins and Allergens

Posted by Andre & Erika Lacroix on

Primary Sources of Indoor Air Toxins and Allergens- EZ BreathePrimary Sources of Indoor Air Toxins and Allergens

Pity the poor bathroom fan.

Infrequently the concern of most homeowners. Seldom the recipient of adequate investment by builders. In most dwellings, it’s not uncommon for the vents to be furred with dust. Yet it can dramatically improve the comfort of a home or apartment’s atmosphere, and in some cases even help the occupants live longer and better. In fact, some experts on the subject leave theirs running constantly in certain seasons.

Click here for more related information on how EZ Breathe removes allergen triggers in your home.

This whitepaper will address several sources of indoor air contamination, some of which are well known. Others will be less so. For example, few people realize that one of the most common comes right from their stovetops: Spaghetti.

Download the whitepaper today.

“Why Is My Basement/Crawlspace Damp?”

Posted by Andre & Erika Lacroix on

“Why Is My Basement/Crawlspace Damp?”

"Why Is My Basement/Crawlspace Damp?"- EZ BreatheWe 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!

Thanks,
Tim Chapin, HHS, CRMI
EZ Breathe Ventilation
866-822-7328

Important Information for YOU from the Indoor Air Quality Association Annual Meeting

Posted by Andre & Erika Lacroix on

Good Information on UV Light and Air Quality
From the 18th Annual Indoor Air Quality Association Meeting

March 17, 2015

At EZ Breathe we often get questions from our customers, and the public, about specific technologies in the areas of ventilation, air quality, and healthy homes. We encourage those questions, and we constantly attend conferences to learn, as well as to teach others. One of the things we want to accomplish with our blogs is to inform and educate you on what we are learning!

I’m sure many of you have heard about UV Light being used for air purification. You may have even seen it at a home and garden show, or in a magazine, or on TV.

For some time, we at EZ Breathe have been watching UV light being used in commercial, medical, and residential buildings for the purposes of increased air quality. It is a fascinating subject, with a lot of promise, and there are several sessions at the conference.

In fact, I just attended a session “The NADCA White Paper: Ultraviolet Lighting Applications in HVAC Systems”. Thanks for enlightening me Dan Stradford, presenter!

What a bowl of alphabet soup! Here is a quick preface to the acronyms I’ll be referencing:
NADCA = National Air Duct Cleaning Association

HVAC = Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (I could jump on my soap box about the “missing V in most residential HVAC companies”, but that is for another day.)

UVC = The type of ultraviolet light that is used in these type of systems

UVGI = When UVC is used for germicidal purposes

Quick facts:

1. UVGI deactivates or kills microorganisms by disrupting their DNA. This includes bacteria, molds, etc.
2. I was amazed to learn that UV light has been used to reduce microorganisms all the way back to around 1900!
3. UVGI is used to make drinking water safe in much of the world.
4. In HVAC systems, it is primarily used in two ways:
a. On coils and drip pans to kill microorganisms on surfaces
b. In duct work to kill the same on surfaces in the duct work, but primarily to kill them as they pass through the air stream when the blower is operating.

UVGI can be effective, the following will determine how effective it will be:

1. Temperature
2. Humidity
3. Particulate in the air stream
4. Cleanliness of the lamps themselves
5. Age of the lamps
6. Proper placement of lamps
7. Reflectiveness of the surfaces
8. Speed of air flow
9. Number of lamps
10. The microorganism’s ability to withstand the UVGI
11. Intensity of the lamp
One thing that was stressed was the importance of the training of the people who install, and maintain these UVGI systems. This is not something that should be done by untrained people. Bad installation or maintenance can actually do harm to your HVAC system components, and can cause at least short term harm to human skin or eyes if improperly installed or maintained. If you inspect or replace your own bulbs, you really need to be properly trained.

In conclusion, we at EZ Breathe are going to continue to stay abreast of UVGI. It is being used widely in commercial, and hospital/medical facilities. There are residential applications available, and they are worth considering. If you want to talk about YOUR indoor air quality needs, please give us a call.

Off to another session!

Tim Chapin, HHS, CRMI
EZ Breathe Ventilation Systems
866-822-7328

For more information on EZ Breathe’s Balanced Air Ventilation System, click here.

“60 Minutes” Report on Formaldehyde – What YOU should know!

Posted by Andre & Erika Lacroix on

“60 Minutes” Report on Formaldehyde
Aired March 1, 2015

On March 1, 2015 “60 Minutes” aired a segment on the formaldehyde levels found in a particular company’s products. This article is not about that company, but about formaldehyde.

Some might have seen the report, or heard about it, and did a quick memory check,
“Did I buy laminate flooring from company xyz?”
Answer, “No”
(Sigh of relief)
“Whew, I’m good.”

Not so fast…

Formaldehyde is classified as a “known carcinogen.” But that doesn’t make it illegal to use. Formaldehyde is in all kinds of products we take into our homes, from the no-iron coating of threads in our clothes to the glues holding wood together in our floors to the shampoos we slather in our hair.

Formaldehyde is in a LOT of products, and is used in processes most Americans probably use:

Pressed wood products
Paneling
Some foam insulation types
Adhesives
Permanent press clothing
Combustion including tobacco products
Etc.

Probably none of us are living a “formaldehyde free” life.

Formaldehyde is a “Volatile Organic Compound”, VOC, which means it is a gas at room temperature. If formaldehyde is present in a product you bring into your home, it will be released into the air.

What’s most concerning are the levels of formaldehyde trapped inside your home, your individual response to those levels, and ways to manage/limit the amount of formaldehyde our families are exposed to.

3 STRATEGIES TO REDUCE YOUR EXPOSURE TO FORMALDEHYDE

1. LIMIT THE AMOUNT OF VOCS, including formaldehyde that you bring into your home/building. This is worth pursuing, the less formaldehyde you bring in the better. Pay attention to labels! http://greenhomeguide.com/askapro/question/are-engineered-wood-products-from-decorative-flooring-llc-decor-flooring-a-low-voc-product-what-is-the-e0-grade-of-gb-t9846-1-9846-8-2004

2. INCREASE VENTILATION. Ventilation is an excellent strategy for reducing formaldehyde levels. Simply moving the air with a fan is NOT ventilation, ventilation includes removing contaminated/stale air, and replacing it with fresh air. In fact, if you blow a fan on a product, let’s say a laminate floor, as was the case of the 60 minutes episode, you may indeed increase the rate it “off gasses” the formaldehyde.

In order to effectively reduce formaldehyde, and other VOCs, you must provide a path of escape from your home/building. This is only half of the solution; you must also replace the toxic air that is being exhausted with fresher, cleaner air. This increased air exchange will reduce VOC levels throughout your entire home further protecting you from the health concerns associated with formaldehyde as well as other indoor toxins and allergens.

Another strategy would be to allow the product(s) to off gas outside of the home for a minimum of 30 days, so that contaminants don’t become concentrated to unhealthy levels inside your home, limiting the exposure to your family and pets.

3. MONITOR TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITY. A reduction in temperature and humidity will reduce the off gassing of formaldehyde. The higher the temperature, and humidity, the more formaldehyde off gassing will occur. The second article cited above actually recommends using temperature and humidity to determine your personal tolerance to the product in question.

When it comes to indoor pollutants and odors, EZ Breathe has been working to reduce and eliminate odors, pollutants and allergens (including formaldehyde), since the very first unit was installed! Ventilation is our middle name!

Thanks,
Tim Chapin, HHS, CRMI
EZ Breathe Ventilation Systems

EZ Breathe GREAT QUESTION….Settings?

Posted by Andre & Erika Lacroix on

Settings, Settings, Settings….
One of the most common calls we get at EZ Breathe happens the first winter that a customer has an EZ Breathe in their home…
It usually goes like this: “Hi, I bought my EZ Breathe earlier this year, and we LOVE it. BUT, it stopped working, what do I do?”

I personally love this call!

What has happened? Well, the standard setting on the humidistat dial in most cases, is 35 – 45%. That is the optimal range for human comfort according to a lot of different studies.
35 to 45% is also a range that is NOT hospitable to:
– Bacteria
– Viruses
– Fungi (mold)
– Mites
– Respiratory infections
– Allergic Rhinitis and Asthma
– Chemical Interactions (Arundel, ET AL, and other studies)

And those are the kinds of things we don’t want to have visit, or stay with us.

So what is the answer?

It depends on what you want to achieve. Some customers are only concerned about maintaining a comfortable, moisture, mold and odor free basement/crawlspace. If that is you, then leaving the humidistat at 35 to 45% year round is fine. Set it and forget it.

If your concerns are overall home air quality, and being as inhospitable to the items listed above as possible, then perhaps setting the humidistat at 20% year round is the answer. Fan speed adjustment is a choice to consider.

On the subject of it being too dry, that is certainly a concern. Humidifying upstairs may be necessary. Definitely don’t over humidify, you want to be in that 35 to 45% range upstairs, and properly maintain the humidifier so that it doesn’t produce an environment for fungal or bacterial growth. EZ Breathe will help distribute the humidified air more evenly throughout the house.

Hope this helps!

A gift certificate for Question of the Month goes to: Theresa C., Ohio.

Thanks, and keep the questions coming!
Tim Chapin, HHS, CRMI