by Charles Hendricks | Sep 8, 2014 | architecture, green term defined, Harrisonburg Architect, Indoor Air Quality
The average American spends a large amount of their time indoors in our current society (according to an EPA survey, 90% of our time is inside). This makes the Indoor Environmental Quality of your built environment critical. This is the air that you breathe, the type of light, the sounds, and the comfort you feel.
Indoor air quality is impacted by carbon monoxide, radon, VOC’s, particulates, mold, bacteria, and smoke. I just had a meeting in my office this week where those visiting came in just as the lawyer upstairs went out with his pipe lit and no respect for others. If your HVAC system is not designed to provide ventilation all the products and their associated chemicals you bring into your space off-gas and have nowhere to go. In turn your lungs become the filter for these chemicals.
The type of lighting you use for a space is critical for your comfort. It does not matter is you use LED or incandescent, using it in the correct way is more important for comfort. Of course, bringing in natural daylight into a space has been shown in many studies to be the best for your health. This may not apply depending on the task you are performing – ever try to see a computer screen that faces a window? Of course you can create appropriate lighting in spaces through design.
In our office it seems that headphones are the way to go, but I remember back when I started we simply played a radio in the background. The level and type of noise in a space can have a huge impact on your environmental quality. Living near a heavily used road, airport, or nightclub impacts how your able to rest and recharge. I know I rarely go to the restaurant across the street from my office because the music is always so loud – yes I realize that this makes me old. You can control the noise in a space through design.
by Charles Hendricks | Aug 11, 2014 | Building Science, green term defined, Harrisonburg Architect, Indoor Air Quality
The most important cost-effective construction solution used to lower energy bills is a reduction of air-leakage. The test used to determine air tightness in a home is required in the 2009 International Residential Code, it is called a blower door test. However, there is a second compliance method, the visual inspection, that most builders in Virginia use to show compliance.
Building code specifies that “the building thermal envelope shall be durably sealed to limit infiltration.” Unfortunately the visual inspection provision weakens this requirement to a point that it makes no impact on most homes being constructed. The blower door is the only effective way to determine total air leakage and verify the home is as air tight as required by the building code (the worst possible construction allowed by law).
A blower door test is used to determine total air leakage of a home’s thermal envelope. The powerful fan is installed in an exterior door and the house is depressurized. The result is a measure of the home’s air tightness. This test simulates the air leakage typical in a building that uses forced air heating and cooling as well as those that result from weather conditions. Every home should have a blower door test in order to find the leaks and reduce the money wasted each month on an inefficient thermal envelope.
by Charles Hendricks | Jul 9, 2014 | Building Science, Indoor Air Quality
Talking to a friend this weekend, she has had animals getting into her crawl space. To fix this you have to first get the animals out. Then to keep them out, you should encapsulate the crawl space closing off all the vents, holes, gaps, and cracks. This will keep it critter free, improve indoor air-quality and comfort, and reduce energy usage. An encapsulated crawl space is a sealed and conditioned space like the rest of your home. This approach lines the floor and walls with a sealed 12 mil poly and air tight insulation along the top of the foundation wall to the underside of the floor sheathing above. The walls should have a rigid foam material behind the poly to keep a constant temperature. You could also foam the floor or pour a “mud” slab in the crawl space, but this is often considered a luxury step. The final piece of the puzzle is to take the space to positive pressure to further push the gas and moisture out of the space.
by Charles Hendricks | Jun 11, 2014 | architecture, Indoor Air Quality
Installing a bigger badder Air Conditioner is not the best way to get your house comfortable in the summer. Although many HVAC “pros” will try to sell you one.
I have heard all the solutions that have been pitched to you by salesmen with the best of intentions. There is the attic fans, more insulation, dehumidifiers in vented crawl spaces, larger HVAC system, new duct work, and ceiling fans. These solutions do not address a holistic approach to the comfort issue in your home.
Our homes for years were built to “breath.” Then we started adding insulation and heating and cooling systems. At that point we should have stopped making houses leaky, but we did not change. We instead started installing larger heating and cooling systems that are so oversized they only function properly 4-5 days a year. Sure they get your house cold in the summer, but you are spending a fortune to get it there and doing nothing to address humidity. Throwing money at the problem without understanding building science is not the right solution. While a ceiling fan is nice when you are in the room, it is doing nothing to make your home more comfortable when you are not there, turn it off. An attic fan is making your attic cooler, but it is achieving that by sucking conditioned air from your living space causing you to have higher electric bills and poor indoor air quality. New duct work may be needed and you may need a new HVAC system. However, if you don’t have a tight thermal envelope, prepare to spend more money after bad building science. Before you invest in your home get to know the building science behind the problem.
by Charles Hendricks | Apr 30, 2014 | architecture, Building Science, Harrisonburg Architect, Indoor Air Quality
Your energy bills depend on having a complete thermal envelope. This home owner added insulation to the attic stair which is a good thing. However, there are still problems. The type of insulation used behind the stair only works when it is not compressed and if it creates an air tight seal. Since it is smashed to fit behind the stairs it is not performing as intended and without other measures it is not air tight. There is no air sealing around the stair opening to prevent air leaks into the attic such as weather-stripping. The access itself does not fit tight to the opening when closed adding to the leak. All of these problems hurt the energy efficiency of your home and it impacts your indoor air quality. Make sure all the gaps and cracks in your thermal envelope are tight, complete, and well insulated for the best performance possible.
by Charles Hendricks | Apr 9, 2014 | architecture, Building Science, Harrisonburg Architect, Indoor Air Quality
I remember as a kid seeing ads for X-Ray goggles on the back of comic books. The idea of being able to see through a wall was a thing of fantasies for young aspiring spy kids. Now today, as a practicing architect, I find that x-ray goggles are not only possible, but a requirement for doing a home renovation the right way.
Every home has secrets behind the drywall that impact indoor air quality, efficiency, and durability. There are pipes and ducts that may not be found until the renovation work has begun – usually adding to the cost of construction. Water issues can exist for years without being seen on the surface of a wall or roof leaving an even bigger mess once uncovered during construction. Having x-ray vision is the only way to reduce these cost impacts and delays during a renovation project.
OK, so it is not exactly x-ray vision, but rather the use of thermal imaging that we use during a renovation project that allows us to “see through” a wall. On a recent project I invited Ivy Tools to show our clients, the builder, and me the power of using a thermal imaging camera to eliminate some of the guess-work during design.
In this project we are removing some existing walls – which the camera was able to identify had pipes and ducts that we otherwise did not know about. This allowed for proper advanced planning to take place eliminating the need for a costly change order during construction. We found thermal breaks in the envelope of the house so we could include those modifications in the initial scope and budget for the renovation of the home. We also found a surprise vent pipe in the attic which was a major thermal leak from the home which was contributing to comfort issues for years. While we cannot eliminate all the unknowns on a renovation project, this technology can identify some of the concealed conditions allowing for a better design before construction begins.
