"Indoor Air Quality for Inspectors" course

This thread is dedicated exclusively for those students currently enrolled in the InterNACHI course titled, “*Indoor Air Quality for Inspectors.”
*
Take the Indoor Air Quality for Inspectors course now

Students are free to pose questions and comments here and join in the conversation with other students. The thread will be monitored by the course program manager.

Most of us spend much of our time indoors. The air that we breathe in our homes, in schools, and in offices can put us at risk for health problems. Some pollutants can be chemicals, gases, and living organisms like mold and pests.

By attending this session, participants will:

  • learn about the factors affecting Indoor Air Quality (IAQ);
  • understand the role moisture plays in IAQ;
  • learn about moisture movement;
  • learn pollutant remediation techniques; and
  • understand the requirements of ASHRAE 62.1989 and ASHRAE 62.2-200

In keeping with InterNACHI’s commitment to Continuing Education, this course is open and free to all members, and can be taken again and again, without limit.

Contact: Director of Education, Ben Gromicko ben@internachi.org

Thank you

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The course includes interviews with two experts in the IAQ field.

John Ouellette is a retired internist / allergist specialist who has been interested in the field of indoor air quality (IAQ) as it relates to human health for the past fifteen years. He has a special passion in understanding how building science can be applied in developing interventions to fix an IAQ problem.

Paul H. Raymer is the Chief Investigator for Heyoka Solutions developing fully integrated housing solutions. He was the president of Tamarack Technologies, Inc., a ventilation product manufacturer located near Cape Cod. He has been working with ventilation design and consulting for more than twenty-five years. Paul has developed and brought to market more than twenty products, and he is a director of HVI (Home Ventilating Institute).

These two contributors to the course make IAQ for Inspectors easy to understand.

Go to the Indoor Air Quality for Inspectors course

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Again you guys put on another good course. This is a bit different then the first one I was introduce to back 10 years ago but at that time we where just understanding House as a system and the effects on a building, Indoor Air Quality was harder to understand… this course was not.

Good course!!!

This is something that is becoming more relevant.

**Ventilation Improvements

**Local bathroom or kitchen fans that exhaust outdoors remove contaminants directly from the room where the fan is located and also increase the outdoor air ventilation rate.

Local??

Taking course now.

Excellent course, video material was very informative.

Two areas that maybe need to be looked at:

The CE credit time. The course end to end, including exam actually takes about 2.5 hours. (There’s over an hour of Video alone)

The copyright statement is 2008

great course!

The combination of the 4 course for the certified home energy inspection are once again another fantastic and valued added course which can not help but expand our personal and professional perspective when evaluating indoor air quality.

Thanks once again for the opportunity

Russell Loughrin
Just 4 You Home Inspections

This sounds like another great course Ben

Russell Loughrin
Just 4 You Home Inspections

Just starting this now, trying to complete my qualifications for the infra-red certification, as I took John Mckenna’s class over the weekend. Truly interesting material…

clean air not sure there is a such thing.

This fits in nicely as a run down on what you can use for those seeking a home with a wood fireplace.
Remember that it does not matter if they themselves are affected.

starting indoor air quality class

Starting the Indoor air quality course now.

I learnedvalot from this course. The main item I took away with me was that moisture is a pollutant. Here is my picture of a bathroom vent fan. This fan is not only undersized butbalso vents directly into the attic. This is allowing moisture to build up in the attic.

HEATING SYSTEM
I inspected the heating system using normal operating controls. The thermostat for the heating system was located on the main floor living room. The energy source is home heating fuel oil. The heating component is warm forced air. The heating system functioned properly.

COOLING SYSTEM
I inspected the cooling system using normal operating controls. The thermostat for the cooling system was located on the main floor living room. The system is a central air conditioning system. The cooling system operated properly.

MECHANICAL EXHAUST SYSTEMS
I inspected the mechanical exhaust systems in the kitchen, first floor bathroom, second floor bathroom and laundry room. The laundry room vent was connected properly and was functioning using normal operating controls. The two bathrooms vents worked properly using normal operating controls. However the vents were not exhausted to the outside of the building. This can create a moisture problem within the dwelling and should be corrected. The kitchen manual exhaust system was functioning using normal operating controls. However this system was also found not to be properly vented to the outside. This can create moisture problems within the dwelling and should be corrected.

DOORS AND WINDOWS
A representative number of doors and windows were inspected by testing for proper operation by opening and closing. All were found to operated properly.

New to this, not an inspector yet, so go easy on me.

As a requirement for this course I’m supposed take and share a photo with the group.

This is the Venmar AVS System (air-to-air exchange) installed in my home. It works extremely well and I only have to adjust it periodically through the seasons. While I clean it regularly, I noticed this time it appears to have mold in the drain tub leading to the pump. Is this normal and is there a fix? (I have an idea but looking for advice)

Thanks,
Todd

HRV’s should have balancing dampers and flexible connections for vibration isolation.

This photo is of a whole house fan (WHF) in a 50+ year old home. The fan is blocked off with plastic for an unknown reason. The house had only 2 small gable vents for attic ventilation. The attic scuttle hole was sealed off as well, so any inspection of the attic, WHF and any other means of ventilation was impossible.

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