energy efficient homes making us ILL?

**Energy efficient homes making us ILL? **

Are you just now figuring that out?
The “news” goes from “weatherization” to the “Mold” scam…

For every “action” there is a “reaction”!
When you change energy efficency, you change the indoor air quality (unless you do it right and spend the big bucks to do it right).

As with many of the scams in this industry, if you do not take into account the “big picture” and remain tunnel visioned in your narrow scope of expertise, nine times out of 10 you will create a bigger problem than your solving.

As you hear me preach over and over again, you have issues and you have problems. If you don’t solve the problem you still have the issues.

What is “weatherization” to the average person?
Sealing up air leaks, adding insulation, changing out windows…

If you pick one, two or all of these and only address these, you affect the air ventilation rates of the house.

I gave a talk to a group of engineers a couple weeks ago and it is completely amazing how tunnel vision experts are in their particular fields of interest sometimes. To some, their only concern was to change the ACH with no regard to ventilation. They could not seem to fathom that you need to let the building leak to maintain proper ventilation (unless you plan on modifying building ventilation system during the project). and the ventilation rate is dependent upon the building usage.

I had a client years ago that worked out of his home and wanted to increases efficiency. So I went there and I found a reasonable amount of excessive air infiltration and sent him off to get them fixed. He was very happy. Then one day he called me back and told me that I needed to get a blower door! He had somebody with a blower door come in and as he said, “found a whole bunch more leaks that I didn’t point out”. He told me what he got the ACH down to (which was toxic)! I asked him how he felt physically, and come to find out he was having reoccurring headaches and had difficulty during his daily work out routine.
Time for an HRV now!

It seems that some people in this business totally missed the fact that if you air seal one window in the house (under most weatherization programs), air leakage testing with particular focus on ventilation rates must be run to ensure a healthy home. But then that cost money… Or the weatherization companies don’t even have the necessary equipment!

So before you go out and buy mold testing equipment to test weatherized homes, think about “the big picture”!

Well said ,I am surprised how many do not understand this .
I had a great energy audit person who said to me stop you do not want to seal this home any tighter…Thanks… Roy

Mold and toxins have been in homes long before energy efficiency. Mold needs moisture so if moisture is being trapped in a building like in this article there is more likely issues beyond the efficiency measures. Most moisture moves with air currents in a building so i it is air tight then you have to look at things like poor insulation and surfaces where condensation would occur or bulk water leaks. Looking at the whole structure it has to work together. Yea we could poke holes in it and hope for the best but we all have seen homes that are ventilated with things growing in them. It comes down to controlling the moisture. In Europe they have much tighter houses. In fact Passive Houses are below .6 ACH. They use a HRV. Our current code is 7ACH and the next one adopt currently in Maryland is 3ACH but uses mechanical ventilation. Manufactured homes have been this tight for a while.

I posted the link to help people think. Weatherization can cause a lot of side effects (including mold).

Why do you turn a simple link into an attack? Does this help you feel better about your self-esteem? Your getting a little old to be dealing with ego problems.

It would help you look much better if you simply share your insight and wisdom without sounding like a grumpy old man laying in wait to attack someone. :wink:

I know it may be too late and you can no longer help yourself. Bitterness about life can leave you angry and always feeling the need to prove yourself by attacking others, for no reason.

John, instead of responding to your twisted perception;" just take a long hike off a short pier".

Still worried I’m after your cash cow?!

op article appears to be a ripoff off of 30 yr old info

Have a nice day

This week I tested four homes. Each had an ACH50 over 12. There is very little these homes can do to get to the point where they need make up air.