Home Indoor Air Quality Monitoring & DIY Automation, A Recorded Webinar with Brett Little and Scott Farbmann

Posted by: Allison Friedman // Rate It Green Admin

Are you interested in learning more about the mechaniscs of how we're going to measure and take key steos towards improving our indoor air quality (IAQ?).  Brett Little of GreenHome Institute and Scott Farbmann, Senior Policy & Ratings Manager at Energy Solutions (also an Architect and Passive House Consultant) invite is in to a great and candid conversation about their lived experiences experimenting with indoor air quality monitors in their own homes.  

Warning: This video is so good we watched it twice.  The thing is, if eveyrone at the leading edge would share their exertise and experiences like this, we'd all learn so much faster and transform the building industry and heck, our global economy and ecosystems so that building and being healthier and more sustainable were a matter of course.  We can give you a preview here, but it's worth watching the video.  Contiue the converdation here and post your questions or comments here!

Brett and Scott start with a brief conversaton about indoor air quality (IAQ) and how the market has been developing. Since the COVID19 pandemic, people have spent even more time inside and we've also become aware that clean indoor air matters and is not something we can take for granted.  Both Brett and Scott have exerimented with multiple air quality monitors and walk us through what their exeriences have been, which is also a reviw of what the industyr has been like in the past few years form the consumer perspective. 

Put simply, we need clean indoor air as a part of a healthier living environment, especially as we keep tightening up homes an buildings to impve energy efficiency.  We do not want ot trap toxins and pollutants in our buildings.  As part of some incentive and certification progreams IAQ monitoing is also required.

In the past, building professionals and commercial hygiene consultants might have been th only ones with IAQ equipmentm but the good (and sometimes confusing) news is that there are a growing number of IAQ brands and roducts on the market.  The bad news is that we're still pretty much at an exerimental moment where you might need to try a few monitors and a few breads to figure out what works best in your home. 

Scott's also an Architect and a Passive House Consultant, but this project has clearly been a personal one for him, and Brett too. Scott has had a "fleet" of 7 monitors, 1 of which is commercia and one of which is for outside air.  He compares data from the outside Purple Air monitor to the EPA's reporting

What do the monitors measure?  Basics include temperature, humidity, CO2, VOCs, and particulate matter (very fine dust).  But there are other pollutants and irritants, including radon.  Scott talks us through how he tested how the monitors work with cooking and what some solutions might be to bring in fresh air.  (Use your exhaust hood if you have one - every time!)  Click to view an introduction to indoor air pollutants and why they matter.  



 

ean indoor is a significant air part of making our homes healthier, and increasingly important as we continue to tighten buildings to make them more energy efficient.  But sufficient ventilation is essential to bring in enough fresh air to make sure we don’t trap and breathe toxins and pollutants.