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David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH of Ruby on Rails fame) gave a great talk recently on air quality: https://youtu.be/MRqh8oLY7Ik https://youtu.be/MRqh8oLY7Ik Appar

David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH of Ruby on Rails fame) gave a great talk recently on air quality: https://youtu.be/MRqh8oLY7Ik https://youtu.be/MRqh8oLY7Ik Apparently his wife was showing signs of Formaldehyde poisoning after they moved into a newly constructed home. This motivated him to investigate the air quality in their house and he bought industrial-level air testing equipment to figure out what was going on (since many of the consumer-grade devices were wildly inaccurate). He also did a deep dive into the research on how air quality impacts cognitive and creative performance. Fascinating talk, worth watching.

iceninenines 8y ago
I had to take a matress back because they must've over-applied bromine-based fire-retardants... it was overpowering and stunk up the spare room for weeks. In new construction and furnishing, it's vital to not just buy random/cheapest supplies/products because they will kill you from lead, VOCs, PBAs, bromines and so on. Green, non-eco-washed substitutes wherever possible because every purchase matters. Ignorance of what you're buying is no excuse.
keithpeter 8y ago
Just reached 4:30 sec and he has mentioned lack of ventilation in their house, which I know to be a common problem with new build housing through dealing with condensation problems. UK: most of the bog standard double glazed windows have a little vent up at the top so you can open a fairly small slat and get a small air gap. 35min: his risk priorities are mould, particulate matter, volatile organic chemicals, co2, on the grounds that CO2 is easier to manage
- 0db532a0 8y ago
  The problem is that if it’s cold enough outside that you need double glazing, then opening the slats would negate the benefit. Heat exchangers really are the only solution here, but of course the UK seems to be at least a century behind on residential building standards compared to anywhere else I’ve lived in Europe.
  - fulafel 8y ago
    The idea is to minimize heat loss from conductivity through the windows, but accept the heat loss that comes with venting air. Old single-pane windows were missing the vent probably because a) old building codes let you have less ventilation or b) the old windows were leaking air around the frames in addition to conductively leaking heat through the single-pane glass.
    - keithpeter 8y ago
      Acoustic isolation is a motivator for double glazing in some locations. And the vents are small (6mm by 30cm full open). Most Victorian era houses have 'air bricks' in various locations (terracotta bricks with a small grid of holes in them) and the houses were pretty leaky. UK government is moving to remove * cooking on open gas from the building regulations for new homes in a few years (big methane/burning fume generator). Eventually as post above parent says we will move to more rational ways of heating the houses. Piping an inflammable gas to millions of houses has always struck me as a bit strange.
      - 0db532a0 8y ago
        I really hope they don’t. One, electric cooking is shit however you wrap it up. I have found a large correlation between people being okay with electric cooking in places I’ve lived and also not cooking/not knowing how to cook. That’s probably the only way electric cooking has become so prevalent in the UK. Who would want to anyway if stuck with electric? Two, I do not want to have to wait hours for the tank to heat up again after someone takes half a minute too long in the shower. The power just isn’t there when it comes to electric water heating. I am very glad to live in a house with a combi gas boiler right now where the whole house can have a shower on demand, straight after each other if need be. Until we all have massive heat pumps or some other way of getting high-power heat from domestic electric, it makes complete sense to me for us to pipe gas around while most of our domestic energy usage in the UK goes to heat.
        dangravell 8y ago

iceninenines 8y ago

I had to take a matress back because they must've over-applied bromine-based fire-retardants... it was overpowering and stunk up the spare room for weeks. In new construction and furnishing, it's vital to not just buy random/cheapest supplies/products because they will kill you from lead, VOCs, PBAs, bromines and so on. Green, non-eco-washed substitutes wherever possible because every purchase matters. Ignorance of what you're buying is no excuse.

keithpeter 8y ago

Just reached 4:30 sec and he has mentioned lack of ventilation in their house, which I know to be a common problem with new build housing through dealing with condensation problems. UK: most of the bog standard double glazed windows have a little vent up at the top so you can open a fairly small slat and get a small air gap. 35min: his risk priorities are mould, particulate matter, volatile organic chemicals, co2, on the grounds that CO2 is easier to manage

0db532a0 8y ago
The problem is that if it’s cold enough outside that you need double glazing, then opening the slats would negate the benefit. Heat exchangers really are the only solution here, but of course the UK seems to be at least a century behind on residential building standards compared to anywhere else I’ve lived in Europe.
- fulafel 8y ago
  The idea is to minimize heat loss from conductivity through the windows, but accept the heat loss that comes with venting air. Old single-pane windows were missing the vent probably because a) old building codes let you have less ventilation or b) the old windows were leaking air around the frames in addition to conductively leaking heat through the single-pane glass.
  - keithpeter 8y ago
    Acoustic isolation is a motivator for double glazing in some locations. And the vents are small (6mm by 30cm full open). Most Victorian era houses have 'air bricks' in various locations (terracotta bricks with a small grid of holes in them) and the houses were pretty leaky. UK government is moving to remove * cooking on open gas from the building regulations for new homes in a few years (big methane/burning fume generator). Eventually as post above parent says we will move to more rational ways of heating the houses. Piping an inflammable gas to millions of houses has always struck me as a bit strange.
    - 0db532a0 8y ago
      I really hope they don’t. One, electric cooking is shit however you wrap it up. I have found a large correlation between people being okay with electric cooking in places I’ve lived and also not cooking/not knowing how to cook. That’s probably the only way electric cooking has become so prevalent in the UK. Who would want to anyway if stuck with electric? Two, I do not want to have to wait hours for the tank to heat up again after someone takes half a minute too long in the shower. The power just isn’t there when it comes to electric water heating. I am very glad to live in a house with a combi gas boiler right now where the whole house can have a shower on demand, straight after each other if need be. Until we all have massive heat pumps or some other way of getting high-power heat from domestic electric, it makes complete sense to me for us to pipe gas around while most of our domestic energy usage in the UK goes to heat.
      - dangravell 8y ago