Found 46 results for the keyword(s) ‘Air Quality’

• Article

  What is the proper level of humidity for a house in the winter?

  Victor from Stoney Creek, Ontario writes: "My house is a 3 level back split and is 3 years old. The furnace is natural gas. I am having problems with condensation and mould on my thermal windows! The window manufacturer said that there is too much humidity and that thermal windows always get cond...
• Article

  WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT NEGATIVE IONS?

  * Modern environments, such as your well-sealed house, high-rise buildings and automobiles, have few if any negative ions in the atmosphere. The have all dumped their free-loading electrons on the metal ventilating ducts, synthetic drapes, synthetic rugs, and the metal shell of the car. Metal and...
• Article

  WHAT THE HECK IS A NEGATIVE ION?

  A "negative Ion" is nothing more than a molecule of anything floating around with an extra electron riding along for free. Somebody once decided that the electrical charge of an electron was to be called negative -- so a molecule with an extra electron is called a "negative ion". There are three...
• Article

  WHY DON'T WE HEAR ABOUT NEGATIVE ION DEPLETION?

  In Europe and Japan the value of negative ions and the need to generate them artificially within work buildings, houses and cars has been accepted for years. I find the case for negative ion effects strikingly similar to the evolution of North American thinking about acupuncture -- we can't compl...
• Article

  EXACTLY WHAT IS POLLUTING MY HOUSE?

  Pollutants come from four main sources: 1- Your body's metabolic activities (breathing and the like): carbon dioxide, ammonia, organics, and odours. 2- Your activities within the house: -- Tobacco smoke: carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, organics, odours. -- Aerosol sprays: fluorocarbons, v...
• Article

  In-Line Exhaust Fans

    Here's an introduction to a special kind of exhaust fan -- an "In-Line" fan. This means that rather than having the motor right at the ceiling, they can be placed anywhere along the line of the ductwork. This makes their installation much more flexible, and quieter.  Equipment details can be f...
• Article

  Mysterious dark permenant stains on carpets.

  When air flows through the edges of carpets, the carpet acts as a filter and collects whatever is in the air. Hence we often find dirt streaks around heating outlets where some of the air sneaks under the grill and through the rug. Often, streaks are found near baseboards where household air flo...
• Article

  Stopping flies and gasses from coming out of my basement floor drain with Dranjer!

  I have had several letters recently about bad smells and even flies coming up out of basement floor drains and sump pump pits. One viewer was quoted hundreds of dollars to break up the entire basement and replace all the sewer lines. The real problem is usually that the trap under the floor has ...
• Article

  Do I clean my Ducts or Not? -- an overview

  The only research done that I have found on duct cleaning, outside of the duct cleaning companies themselves, has been by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation -- EFFICIENCY OF RESIDENTIAL DUCT CLEANING -- CMHC Project No. : 93-2-001 January 1994.  Basically they found that when the ducts ...
• Article

  Just what is Mould anyway?

    SPELLING First, a simple spelling problem. Is it 'mold' or 'mould'. According to the dictionaries, the two are equivalent, with 'mould' being primarily a British variation. But mold is active and dynamic, and dictionaries are slow in comparison. According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Co...