4 ms·

I had the opposite experience. Bought an AirThings and it made it clear that co2 gets high with windows closed and the heat on. We live in a nice suburb near t

I had the opposite experience. Bought an AirThings and it made it clear that co2 gets high with windows closed and the heat on. We live in a nice suburb near the water so outside air is clean. I now crack the windows open and co2 stays reasonable. I feel much better. Before this, I was anal about insulation and making sure windows were closed when the heat was on. Now I know that's not the right calculus. I could have figured out that I feel worse in the winter at home and feel good the moment I step outside. But having the numbers shown to me really drove a change in behavior

jchw 4y ago
I had a somewhat similar experience. However, before living in an area with clean air in a house, I previously lived in apartments and was well aware that the CO2 (and PM2.5) levels were unideally high. I feel like the author should maybe ask a medical professional about anxiety, unless they're just being a bit melodramatic.
- JPKab 4y ago
  They have anxiety issues, no question about it.
dathinab 4y ago
With perfect insulation theoretically you need to put in a lot of additional care to make sure the air in an apartment stays right (and fungi doesn't start growing, etc.). This include some system for automatic air exchange (which also keeps the heat in and isn't prone to fungi and isn't loud/distracting and doesn't draw a lot of energy; not easy to get right at all). Guess what basically is non existing in close to all modern apartments I have seen... Instead they tell you you have to "appropriately" air you apartment and skipping over the fact that this might mean 3 times a day 30min no matter what temperature is outside (on dais you stay home all day).
- cardanome 4y ago
  30min is excessive and counterproductive because it will cool down your home too much. around 5 minutes with windows fully open and heating closed will do the trick. You want to maximize air exchange while minimizing heat loss. This is common wisdom in Germany but the rest of the world seems to either prefer to heat the outside air instead of insulating their houses or must live in very sticky rooms. I just can't imagine not ventilating a room regularly.
  - dathinab 4y ago
    > around 5 minutes with windows fully open and heating closed will do the trick. no it won't not at all it's a common misconception especially in Germany EDIT: jut to be clear it does work if you do the 5m airing often enough, but this is where the problem comes in it is fundamentally unpractical. I mean I can measure it tomorrow (through after long airing after sleep). most ideas about insulation circulating in Germany are only half thought thru and sometimes do more environmental harm then good (depending on the building).
    - cardanome 4y ago
      I have a CO2 monitor myself. 5min of airing will reliably bring a room of 1.5k ppm back to 500 ppm CO2. Of course it would depend on the size of the room and windows but I would be very surprised if you got vastly different measurements. And yes, you obviously need to do it multiple times a day but that is a given. That is a problem with how fast CO2 builds up again though.
      - medler 4y ago
        It depends a lot on the outdoor airflow situation. I live in a 6th floor apartment in a windy area, and cracking a window for 2 minutes gets me below 500 ppm every time. At my parents’ house, I have to leave multiple windows fully open for hours to get the CO2 reading to budge at all. The air is just too stagnant. Things improve a lot when I put a fan in front of one of the windows to blow air out. (Another problem is that their HVAC system is always recirculating the air, so the room I’m trying to ventilate is continually getting replacement air from a 1500 ppm wing of the house).
- xyzelement 4y ago
  No longer living in an apartment but - cracking the windows a bit seems fine. Your heating system might work harder to keep up so costs more and it's up to you to determine where your price/temperature/air quality sweet spot is.
  - grugagag 4y ago
    It's not the most efficient but I second keeping the windows cracked open, in some buildings heating can't be turned off and gets the room too hot anyway so you get fresh air and regulate the heat too.

jchw 4y ago

I had a somewhat similar experience. However, before living in an area with clean air in a house, I previously lived in apartments and was well aware that the CO2 (and PM2.5) levels were unideally high. I feel like the author should maybe ask a medical professional about anxiety, unless they're just being a bit melodramatic.

JPKab 4y ago
They have anxiety issues, no question about it.

dathinab 4y ago

With perfect insulation theoretically you need to put in a lot of additional care to make sure the air in an apartment stays right (and fungi doesn't start growing, etc.). This include some system for automatic air exchange (which also keeps the heat in and isn't prone to fungi and isn't loud/distracting and doesn't draw a lot of energy; not easy to get right at all). Guess what basically is non existing in close to all modern apartments I have seen... Instead they tell you you have to "appropriately" air you apartment and skipping over the fact that this might mean 3 times a day 30min no matter what temperature is outside (on dais you stay home all day).

cardanome 4y ago
30min is excessive and counterproductive because it will cool down your home too much. around 5 minutes with windows fully open and heating closed will do the trick. You want to maximize air exchange while minimizing heat loss. This is common wisdom in Germany but the rest of the world seems to either prefer to heat the outside air instead of insulating their houses or must live in very sticky rooms. I just can't imagine not ventilating a room regularly.
- dathinab 4y ago
  > around 5 minutes with windows fully open and heating closed will do the trick. no it won't not at all it's a common misconception especially in Germany EDIT: jut to be clear it does work if you do the 5m airing often enough, but this is where the problem comes in it is fundamentally unpractical. I mean I can measure it tomorrow (through after long airing after sleep). most ideas about insulation circulating in Germany are only half thought thru and sometimes do more environmental harm then good (depending on the building).
  - cardanome 4y ago
    I have a CO2 monitor myself. 5min of airing will reliably bring a room of 1.5k ppm back to 500 ppm CO2. Of course it would depend on the size of the room and windows but I would be very surprised if you got vastly different measurements. And yes, you obviously need to do it multiple times a day but that is a given. That is a problem with how fast CO2 builds up again though.
    - medler 4y ago
      It depends a lot on the outdoor airflow situation. I live in a 6th floor apartment in a windy area, and cracking a window for 2 minutes gets me below 500 ppm every time. At my parents’ house, I have to leave multiple windows fully open for hours to get the CO2 reading to budge at all. The air is just too stagnant. Things improve a lot when I put a fan in front of one of the windows to blow air out. (Another problem is that their HVAC system is always recirculating the air, so the room I’m trying to ventilate is continually getting replacement air from a 1500 ppm wing of the house).
xyzelement 4y ago
No longer living in an apartment but - cracking the windows a bit seems fine. Your heating system might work harder to keep up so costs more and it's up to you to determine where your price/temperature/air quality sweet spot is.
- grugagag 4y ago
  It's not the most efficient but I second keeping the windows cracked open, in some buildings heating can't be turned off and gets the room too hot anyway so you get fresh air and regulate the heat too.