Understanding the Importance, Affects, and Control of Indoor Air Quality for your Northern Wisconsin Home

The term “sick building” is a relatively new one, and rather frightening sounding. How can a building be sick? The fact is that you should be concerned with the health of your home because if you are living in a “sick building”, you are likely going to experience negative side effects to your own health, as well as added maintenance costs and a shortened building lifespan. It’s crucial to take steps to protect your indoor environment and choose a knowledgeable contractor to assist. With green building and building science techniques, your home builder or home improvement contractor can significantly improve your home’s indoor air quality (IAQ) to create a healthier, more comfortable living environment.

What is Indoor Air Quality?

Undoubtedly, you are familiar with the idea of pollution as it relates to the world as a whole. But have you ever considered the pollutants that exist in your home? Whether man-made, chemical or the product of your home’s essential systems, the chances are high that the air inside of your home is polluted. And this is just one factor of poor indoor air quality.

IAQ is also affected by the design and building elements of the home. Inadequate ventilation, high humidity levels, and high temperatures work against your homes health and your own, and actually worsen the effects of existing pollutants. IAQ has many factors involved, and although you can attempt to control it, the problem really requires the attention of a professional contractor who understands the importance of air quality.

How Does Indoor Air Quality Affect Home Occupants?

According to studies, as reported by the Indoor Air Quality Association and Environmental Protection Agency, we spend roughly 90% of our time indoors, much of it in our own homes. This is especially true for children, elderly and sick or disabled individuals that are highly susceptible to the effects of poor air quality. But how does IAQ affect homeowners and their families?

Poor IAQ can lead to many health problems, such as:

• Increased likelihood of infections
• Headaches
• Nausea
• Nasal decongestion and allergies
• Fatigue
• Asthma and other serious lung diseases
• Cancer, especially lung cancer
• Heart disease
• Fatal reaction to chemical pollutants

In turn, these health problems, even the minor ones, cost you medical expenses, productivity and energy levels, and often result in a lowered income from missing work more often. Living in a sick building also results in less comfort and higher energy costs. The returns of improving your homes IAQ are much larger than the additional upfront costs. After all, can you afford to miss work or stand to see your child continuously in poor health if ther
e is something to be done to prevent it?

How Pollutants Affect Indoor Air Quality

Indoor air is significantly affected by the pollutants that exist in your home. These pollutants come in many different forms, and can be biological, combustive or chemical in nature. Given the high public awareness regarding radon, carbon monoxide and asbestos, we won’t focus on those issues today and instead concentrate on the less-known factors.

Biological pollutants include things like dust, mold, pollen, bacteria, animal dandruff, and insect/vermin droppings. All of these are high causers of allergy and respiratory problems. The term combustion pollutants refers to the emissions and such from your home’s mechanical systems and features, such as fire places, furnaces, water heaters, air conditioners and even your oven. Attached garages can also be harmful to your home’s air, as car emissions can infiltrate poorly sealed walls and ceilings to pollute your home. Even your home’s building materials and furnishings play a part, especially when age and poor maintenance are combined.

The fact is that avoiding air pollutants is difficult and requires planning from the beginning of a construction project. When human habits like having pets and smoking inside can’t be controlled by the construction team, it becomes that much more important to employ every technique possible to ensure quality indoor air.

How Ventilation and Humidity Levels Affect Indoor Air Quality

Ventilation and proper humidity levels are crucial for occupant health and building performance, but are too often overlooked. Many homes, especially here in the cold climate of Northern Wisconsin, are built to be as air-tight as possible to keep utility costs down and comfort levels up. But if mechanical ventilation methods aren’t used, your home becomes a breeding ground and a trap for those pollutants we just discussed.

Air exchange rate refers to the rate that air from outside replaces the standing indoor air. If your home isn’t getting any outdoor air, this rate is low and increases pollutants. And if you have a drafty home that is getting too much outdoor air some of the time, you are likely uncomfortable and unhappy with heating costs. Common sense says that fresh air is better than air that has been sitting stagnant, but there is a fine level to balance with this.

As we recently discussed in “Controlling Moisture in Your Northwoods Home”, the humidity and moisture levels of your home can affect building performance and health. Improper levels add to the snowball effect, combining with pollutants and poor ventilation, decreasing IAQ. Controlling humidity limits the growth and presence of the biological pollutants, as well as increasing your comfort. An effective approach to improve the air quality of your home must consider the whole snowball, and take steps to fix and improve each contributing factor.

Choose a Reputable Green Building Contractor

In Part 2 of this article, we will go over some steps you can take to improve the quality of the air in your Northern Wisconsin home. But the best investment you can make for your family’s health and the health of your home is to choose a building contractor who understands the entire issue of IAQ. North Twin Builders is a professional builder with experience in green building and building science techniques. To learn how we our quality makes the difference, follow along on North Twin Builders Blog.

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