On Tuesday A. Tamasin Sterner from Pure Energy Coach spoke on the topic of indoor air quality at the monthly breakfast meeting for the Central Pennsylvania Preservation Society (CPPS).
A single hour in Tamasin’s presence, is easily one of the most informative hours you’ll ever experience in your life and Tuesday was no exception. The Historic Restorations family and other attendees at the meeting learned what the single most important aspect of energy efficiency and healthy air in a home is:
Balancing the air that goes out with fresh air coming in to achieve a neutral pressure field.
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It turns out, balance and moderation are not just good for your waistline and stress levels, it’s good for the air in your buildings too. Tamasin taught us how to evaluate and balance the air flow in buildings and the kinds of things that impact air flow patterns. Not only does balanced air flow maximize energy efficiency, it protects the health of the building’s occupants and users, and preserves the materials and structure of the building.
We were particularly interested to learn about the many ways air flow balance in a home is disturbed with all the seemingly innocuous improvements and changes we make to buildings that aren’t things we would have connected to impacting energy efficiency.
Did you know that recessed lights placed near an air return can make you sick? That sealing off the roof in your house can create moisture issues? That even the appliances in your kitchen can create an imbalance in the health of the air of your house? Did you know that many times asthma and allergy issues are directly related to the health of the air at home? Did you know that sealing a house is really only half of the picture of energy efficiency? Do you know what the other half is?
It’s ventilation. Without proper ventilation, insulating a house well is actually a bad thing. It will decrease your energy efficiency, lower the quality of the air you breathe, and set up prime conditions for developing moisture issues.
Tamasin gave us those tidbits and tons of other information in her presentation, but perhaps the most surprising information from the presentation was
There is one single, simple, FREE, thing that all HVAC installers should be doing (but aren’t!) to check for proper drafting and ventilation when a new system is installed in a house and how to ask for it to make sure it gets done.
When 30% of houses have high levels of carbon monoxide, 80% of houses have gas leaks, and the most common cause of older and historic building deterioration is uncontrolled moisture, this is critical information to have.
Balancing the air in our buildings can not only contribute to energy conservation, it will keep our buildings healthy so the humans that use them stay healthy in order to continue expanding our healthy and living historical preservation.
Healthy buildings. Healthy Humans. Healthy Histories.
If you haven’t yet attended a monthly breakfast meeting for CPPS, or you don’t make it a habit to attend regularly, you should. Meetings are only $15, include a continental breakfast spread (with The Cork Factory Hotel’s homemade pastries), and expert presenters that cover a variety of topics. You can see their upcoming schedule and register to attend one of their monthly breakfast meetings at: centralpennsylvaniapreservationsociety.org/events.