Indoor air quality problems

[Stormin Mormon]

That opens a thought. I was having some breathing problems in the living room of my trailer. Finally found the problem, when I opened the window AC, and it was full of mold slime. The HO place in question does have central AC. Might be full of mold.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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If I had a house that I thought had these problems, long before I moved out or started filtering, venting, etc., I would get a professional company to come in and do air samples. I don't know what it costs, but I would bet for a few hundred bucks they would find out what exactly is or isn't in the air.

As Norminn points out, it *could* be a lot of things. But since Stormin can't smell it and we don't even have a description of what it smells like, I sure wouldn't be trying to use fresh air to solve an unknown problem. To the list already suggested, I'd add mold and maybe it was a former meth lab.....

[TimR]

Before you increase ventilation air to solve a chemical buildup problem, yo u might think about two things:

How much ventilation air do you have now? Older houses in the US are not e xactly air tight, especially by European standards. Most leak like sieves. So you need to measure air changes. You need to do that anyway to size A C. Any HVAC company should have the equipment to do this. A door test woul d work, or there are some more sophisticated ones. This isn't expensive.

How much chemical buildup do you have now? There may be none. It could be an allergy or other medical problem. It could even be psychological. Wha t's in the air? Can it be measured? Check humidity too, that affects mold growth. Mold is everywhere and unavoidable, but some people are more sens itive than others. Checking for chemicals is going to be more expensive an d require a specialist, unless you get lucky and have something that shows on a PID.

[trader4]

Might be full of rednecks cooking meth in there too....

[Stormin Mormon]

That could help explain the monster truck in the driveway, and the foot prints in the butter dish?

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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Might be full of rednecks cooking meth in there too....

[Stormin Mormon]

Good questions. And, beyond my ability to detect all that stuff.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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How much ventilation air do you have now? Older houses in the US are not exactly air tight, especially by European standards. Most leak like sieves. So you need to measure air changes. You need to do that anyway to size AC. Any HVAC company should have the equipment to do this. A door test would work, or there are some more sophisticated ones. This isn't expensive.

How much chemical buildup do you have now? There may be none. It could be an allergy or other medical problem. It could even be psychological. What's in the air? Can it be measured? Check humidity too, that affects mold growth. Mold is everywhere and unavoidable, but some people are more sensitive than others. Checking for chemicals is going to be more expensive and require a specialist, unless you get lucky and have something that shows on a PID.

[clare]

VOC and CO are two totally different problems. Do we know what kind of VOC we are talking about? Formaledhyde? petroleum solvent vapours?

From household cleaners, plastics, shoes and leather goods, furniture, flooring, etc? What just changed in the house? New curtains? Painted a room? new furniture polish? a new candle or seasonal decoration? Something made in China?????

[mike]

There are a lot of factors...but... That type of vent can cause positive pressure inside the house. That blows wet air out the cracks. In winter, moisture condenses inside the walls and can lead to nastiness growing there.

Seal up the house and crack one window. Incense stick will tell you which way the air is flowing. Very sensitive to outside wind...so pick a calm day.

I've found a heat recovery ventilator to be very helpful in reducing stuffiness inside the house. If you like to tinker, they're pretty easy to build. I have a tiny DIY one stuck thru insulation in a window and an electrostatic air filter on it.