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You should be worried about IAQ - indoor air quality. This is because you spend 90% of your time indoors. It is also because IAQ is far worse than outdoor air

You should be worried about IAQ - indoor air quality. This is because you spend 90% of your time indoors. It is also because IAQ is far worse than outdoor air quality. The kitchens of most homes would be closed down by inspectors if they were commercial. Correctly ventilating a home with a ERV/HRV, bathroom ventilation and oven hood (harder than it sounds because many designs are snake oil) solves the problem. Few people have gone to such lengths, not even the wealthy. The "Building Performance Podcast" has more information if anybody's interested. There's a lot of good information online from US government websites. Most American homes share a leaky wall with their garage. A garage with shelves of highly toxic substances that offgas through the wall when the weather gets hotter. I intend to design my home so it does not contain these drawbacks.

bostonvaulter2 9y ago
Is there an easy way to measure your indoor air quality?
- simongray 9y ago
  I live in Beijing and we use the air purifiers from Xiaomi to measure indoor air quality (and clean it up). It's true that eg frying bacon really makes the air quality index spike up a lot.
  - logicallee 9y ago
    Off topic but I have a ton of questions about air in Beijing - I can hardly believe what I've heard. It's kind of off-topic but if you'd have a minute, could you shoot me an email (see my profile here) or reply with yours? Thanks.
- toisanji 9y ago
  sounds like a great idea for a startup product, air monitoring device
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- dxhdr 9y ago
  Get a Dylos DC1100 Pro, works great. Put it on monitor mode and it will sample the air every hour rather than running continuously. I agree with the op's comment about kitchens. Mine is poorly ventilated and the PM2.5 count goes up 100x when cooking.
theWatcher37 9y ago
Hey so, I read your comment and have a few concerns. -you seem extremely confident in city evaluations of IAC for businesses. My city has shit OAC, water quality, etc. why would I believe they have good IAC standards? TBH i doubt they even measure it. I live in a top-5 US city by population and I honestly believe what you're saying about local government enforcing quality standards is crap. -offgassing is a thing that happens with solid objects exposed to high temperatures (container walls inside a tokamack, for example). Liquids inside a container don't off-gas on their containers unless the container leaks. Are you saying your average oil can container leaks toxic gas, or are you lying through your keyboard again?
- observation 9y ago
  You know, I wanted to reply to people including yourself a few days ago, but the way you responded put me off. Editing assertions in and out of your posts about my character is not a good way to get an appropriate response from me. Do your own research on IAQ if this topic is of concern to you.
theWatcher37 9y ago
Continuing on this, you've struck some HN chords (opinionated authoritative sounding reply with zero sources) so I have to ask: -what qualifications do you actually have -what characteristics should people be looking for in filters
sevenfive 9y ago
> Most American homes share a leaky wall with their garage. A garage with shelves of highly toxic substances that offgas through the wall when the weather gets hotter. I don't buy this... what substances exactly, and wouldn't this imply that spending any time in one's garage is extremely dangerous, given that the concentration must still be orders of magnitude higher inside than out. Also, why is bathroom ventilation important? Nothing neurotoxic there, just gross.
- Doxin 9y ago
  The problem with having toxic gasses/particulates in your home, as opposed to in your garage, is that you spend way more time in your home. Brief exposure to low levels of toxic materials is usually not a terribly big deal. Chronic exposure is much more serious, even for the same low levels. As to what substances, the garage is used by many people to store household volatiles, which will gas off no matter how tight you screw the cap on. Add to that the exhaust fumes and it makes for a fairly unpleasant atmosphere. Now to be fair this is all very likely to not be a problem in 99% of cases, otherwise it'd have been in the news already, but it's still a good idea to keep in mind when deciding how to store chemicals.
- mwest 9y ago
  You need decent ventilation in your bathroom. If the room stays too damp (steam after a shower, etc.), you'll end up with mold, some of which can definitely be neurotoxic.
  - sevenfive 9y ago
    > mold, some of which can definitely be neurotoxic. Nope. Bad for you in general. But no evidence of bathroom mold that's particularly neurotoxic. If you google it, you find mostly court cases (not a good sign).

bostonvaulter2 9y ago

Is there an easy way to measure your indoor air quality?

simongray 9y ago
I live in Beijing and we use the air purifiers from Xiaomi to measure indoor air quality (and clean it up). It's true that eg frying bacon really makes the air quality index spike up a lot.
- logicallee 9y ago
  Off topic but I have a ton of questions about air in Beijing - I can hardly believe what I've heard. It's kind of off-topic but if you'd have a minute, could you shoot me an email (see my profile here) or reply with yours? Thanks.
toisanji 9y ago
sounds like a great idea for a startup product, air monitoring device
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
dxhdr 9y ago
Get a Dylos DC1100 Pro, works great. Put it on monitor mode and it will sample the air every hour rather than running continuously. I agree with the op's comment about kitchens. Mine is poorly ventilated and the PM2.5 count goes up 100x when cooking.

theWatcher37 9y ago

Hey so, I read your comment and have a few concerns. -you seem extremely confident in city evaluations of IAC for businesses. My city has shit OAC, water quality, etc. why would I believe they have good IAC standards? TBH i doubt they even measure it. I live in a top-5 US city by population and I honestly believe what you're saying about local government enforcing quality standards is crap. -offgassing is a thing that happens with solid objects exposed to high temperatures (container walls inside a tokamack, for example). Liquids inside a container don't off-gas on their containers unless the container leaks. Are you saying your average oil can container leaks toxic gas, or are you lying through your keyboard again?

observation 9y ago
You know, I wanted to reply to people including yourself a few days ago, but the way you responded put me off. Editing assertions in and out of your posts about my character is not a good way to get an appropriate response from me. Do your own research on IAQ if this topic is of concern to you.

theWatcher37 9y ago

Continuing on this, you've struck some HN chords (opinionated authoritative sounding reply with zero sources) so I have to ask: -what qualifications do you actually have -what characteristics should people be looking for in filters

sevenfive 9y ago

> Most American homes share a leaky wall with their garage. A garage with shelves of highly toxic substances that offgas through the wall when the weather gets hotter. I don't buy this... what substances exactly, and wouldn't this imply that spending any time in one's garage is extremely dangerous, given that the concentration must still be orders of magnitude higher inside than out. Also, why is bathroom ventilation important? Nothing neurotoxic there, just gross.

Doxin 9y ago
The problem with having toxic gasses/particulates in your home, as opposed to in your garage, is that you spend way more time in your home. Brief exposure to low levels of toxic materials is usually not a terribly big deal. Chronic exposure is much more serious, even for the same low levels. As to what substances, the garage is used by many people to store household volatiles, which will gas off no matter how tight you screw the cap on. Add to that the exhaust fumes and it makes for a fairly unpleasant atmosphere. Now to be fair this is all very likely to not be a problem in 99% of cases, otherwise it'd have been in the news already, but it's still a good idea to keep in mind when deciding how to store chemicals.
mwest 9y ago
You need decent ventilation in your bathroom. If the room stays too damp (steam after a shower, etc.), you'll end up with mold, some of which can definitely be neurotoxic.
- sevenfive 9y ago
  > mold, some of which can definitely be neurotoxic. Nope. Bad for you in general. But no evidence of bathroom mold that's particularly neurotoxic. If you google it, you find mostly court cases (not a good sign).