4 ms·
When I was in elementary school, one of my classmates ended up missing school for a while because of a bad heater and carbon monoxide poisoning. That freaked me
by maxlybbert 7y ago
When I was in elementary school, one of my classmates ended up missing school for a while because of a bad heater and carbon monoxide poisoning. That freaked me out. But everything I read was that this was a relatively new problem because newer houses were less drafty than old houses. It wasn’t clear to me (at the time) whether old houses were draftier when built, although I have to assume they were (otherwise carbon monoxide poisoning would have been just as common when those houses were new).
I even remember wearing sweaters indoors when I was young. I assumed that was an effort to save money during the so-called Energy Crisis (better described as a shortage of cheap oil), but it may have just been the natural reaction to inefficient heaters and the building standards at the time.
- ghostly_s 7y agoYes, building standards have changed dramatically in the last 50 years. In particular, plastic "house wrap" vapor barriers are standard now, which is a product that had be precedent. There is a tremendous amount of air exchange even through a well-built 'solid' wall with no vapor barrier.
- dangravell 7y agoA vapour barrier is different to an air barrier... An airtight membrane is not necessarily vapour tight.