In homes built prior to 2006 the only air filters in 99% of them are those behind the air return grill. Stop and think a moment. Do you have any others in your home? In the homes you build? I didn’t think so. Now, go take a look at that filter and see what the rating is on it. If it has a number that’s good. If it doesn’t, well that’s not good at all. But which number is important as well. That $ 2.00 air filter you buy at the drug store is designed to protect the air conditioning equipment from dirt in the air. These filters are not designed to clean the air for the benefit of the occupants. It likely does not have a number and if it does it will only be a single digit

The number I am talking about is called the MERV rating. That stands for Mechanical Efficiency Reporting Value and the higher the better. Best practice in residential homes today is 11 or higher on a scale of 1-16. To put it in perspective 14 is a hospital grade rating to prevent the transfer of bacteria and 13 is standard for commercial buildings. At 11 and above you are actually cleaning the air of pollutants you cannot see.

Adding secondary filtration like MERV 13, 5” pleated media filters will clean the air like you can’t imagine. And they will only need replacement every 6-12 months depending on the amount of activity in your home. But upgrading your filters requires the help of a licensed HVAC tech to make sure the increased static pressure does not negatively effect the operation of your system.

Now if you want to eliminate organisms that can work their way through even the most dense particle filter you will also need to add a UV light or electrostatic air cleaner. While both systems will do the job more effectively than filters, UV lights are expensive and need to be changed annually and electrostatic air cleaners require cleaning. For me, that’s more maintenance and expense than I can tolerate each year so I am satisfied with my MERV 13 pleated media filter.

Whether you upgrade your air filtration or not, all will be for naught if you do not take two more steps. First, make sure your vacuum is certified by the Green Label Plus program at www.Carpet-Rug.com . Otherwise you will be forever condemned to dusting after you vacuum because your vacuum kicks up so much dust. Second, hire a professional to pressurize your ducts and check for leakage. Energy Star homes cannot have duct leakage greater than 5%. If your home is like my 1950’s era ranch, you likely have leakage greater than 30%. In that case, don’t even try to seal the leaks, just replace your ducts. Your new ducts will be better insulated and better connected. They will save you a bunch of energy and they will not ingest dusty, dirty air from the attic and blow it all over your home.

More expensive? Compared to what alternative? Who says seat belts in cars are more expensive these days? Nobody would build a car to an out of date obsolete safety standard and then claim adding seat belts is too expensive. Why do we let the naysayers say we can build homes to out of date obsolete standards and then claim building them the safe, healthy durable, “green” way is more expensive? Is this rocket science? No, I really don’t think so. It just takes being aware and knowing your options. Some call it building green. I call it building to a 21st Century common sense standard.

As mentioned before, these four steps to a healthier home were a lot to cover but now you know it is neither difficult nor expensive to accomplish.

Gasoline and oil, paints, paint thinners and pool, lawn and garden chemicals are some of the many chemicals in our lives we choose not to live without. Hence our goal is to separate ourselves from these chemicals wherever possible. Those means storing them in the garage or if you are building a new home, build it with a detached garage. In some cases building a storage shed is an even better solution to reduce our exposure. Because you are separated from them and not sharing the nearby dangerous air, you can live safely with the knowledge your clients will not be breathing these harmful air pollutants.

But if the garage is attached to the home, you clearly cannot separate them from each other. In this case you have to completely air seal the common wall and attic between the house and garage. That can usually be accomplished with caulks and foam sealants but in some cases you may actually need a carpenter to get into the attic and frame the space closed. This by the way, is not just a good means of preventing the pollutants from enter the house it is a critical fire safety feature which can slow down a garage fire trying to enter the home.

Regardless of whether the garage is detached or attached, ventilating polluted air is the next step in improving your indoor air quality. In the garage, simply install a solar powered ventilation fan that operates on a timer and sensor which is triggered by a car entering the garage. That will ensure the nasty fumes in the garage are regularly vented out and away from the house. Since it doesn’t use energy to operate and shuts off automatically this is really tough to be beat!

Because our cooking, cleaning, bathing and washing activities all increase the moisture level in our homes to levels not considered healthy we also need to learn how to properly ventilate our bathrooms and kitchen. That simply entails installing ventilation fans in these areas and ducting through the attic and out the roof. When buying a ventilation fan consider the following:

• An Energy Star rated fan will use less energy and have a noise rating so that it doesn’t disturb your next dinner party!
• Make sure the fan is properly sized for the size area it is ventilating because each fan has different capacities.
• Put your fans on timers or humidistats that will automatically turn them off or on

Consider these discussion tips with your next client::

• Add a fan to the laundry room. After all, with laundry detergent, cleaning supplies, pet food, litter boxes and wet and dirty clothes there is likely no other room that needs venting more than our laundry rooms!
• If the budget allows, adding a central vacuum system will make an unbelievable difference in reducing dust levels in your home when you clean.
• If you are replacing floors then install hard surfaces instead carpet which can be a big dust collector.
• Let them know you will take these basic safeguards during construction: 1. regularly change out the return air filters, 2. seal off the supply registers in the work areas and 3. Continuously operate temporary fans to blow the construction air outside the home.
• Recommend higher quality windows-they have lower air infiltration leakage ratings (not to mention they are more energy efficient)

In the next and final blog of our “Green Air is Clean Air” series you will learn the 4th and final step required to safeguard the air you and your family breathe in your home today.

As Americans we spend + 90% of our time indoors, oftentimes inside homes that are built tighter than ever.  But since our homes, especially those built before 2006, usually lack the proper ventilation as defined by ASHRAE, we are also getting sicker than ever simply by breathing that unventilated air.  Consider the following information from the American Lung Association:

• 5.9%-10.5% of Americans suffer from asthma depending on the state you live in
• 12.4 million children under age 18 had an asthma attack in 2006.  It is the most common chronic disorder in childhood
• $ 14.7 Billion is the direct cost of asthma related health care
• $ 5 Billion is the indirect cost of the same
• 66% of the adults that die each year from asthma are women

So our homes are being built tighter, which is a good thing because leaky homes cost more to heat and cool.  But because we are not properly cleaning and exchanging the stale air with fresh air from outdoors we are now seeing increases in allergies, asthma and other breathing disorders.  What’s a person to do?!

Fortunately, as recommended by the National Association of Home Builders, there are four easy and pretty inexpensive steps we can all take:  Eliminate, Separate, Ventilate and Filtrate.  This article will focus on eliminating these pollutants from our homes right from the start.  That means eliminating the toxins inside our cabinets and on our bookshelves.  That’s right.  It’s time we part ways with the incense, perfumed candles, so called air “fresheners” and other chemical laden household cleaners we buy in the grocery store.  Sorry, but smokers need to smoke outside and while I do not recommend getting rid of our pets, we should at least brush and wash them outdoors where the pet dander belongs.  Bringing clothes home from the cleaners?  Remove the plastic covering and let them air out in the backyard for 5-10 minutes as well-let that nasty formaldehyde blow away.  And think about your sheets, bed covers and pillow cases.  When you get all curled up at night and pull them over your head are you snuggling up with organic, chemical free linens?  Maybe its time to consider spending that little extra money and going chemical free?

Updating your home?  Insist on your remodeler taking basic safeguards to protect your immediate and long term health.  Insist they use only building materials that are free of formaldehyde and volatile organic compounds.  That includes using name brand paints like Sherwin William’s Harmony line of paint that has no voc’s or carpets with Green Lable Plus logo from the Carpet & Rug Institute.  Also use only insulation, cabinet materials, wallpaper, carpet, pads and adhesives that are formaldehyde free.  For a true professional, these are common sense standards they will have no trouble enforcing.

Now, while I have not reduced my own cleaning supplies to only vinegar and baking soda as my mom recommends, I do balance them with a line of Seventh Generation cleaning supplies which at least do not make my eyes bleed when I use them!  The point here is the more we can eliminate unhealthy pollutants from ever getting in our homes in the first place, the less effort (and money) we will have to spend getting them back out!

As mentioned before this is a lot to cover but stay tuned and you will learn that building a healthy high performance homes can be easier and less expensive than just building a home focused on energy efficiency.

To answer your questions on how to improve your family’s indoor air quality you can contact me at Michael@GreenHausBuilders.com

Michael Strong, CGR, GMB, CGP, CAPS

President, GreenHaus Builders

Builder of Houston’s 1^st LEED Home

2008 NAHB Green Remodeling Advocate of the Year

For the most part we understand saving energy in our homes is beneficial and we pretty much know the big three items required to get it done: more insulation, higher quality double pane windows and more efficient heating and air conditioning systems. But now, seeping into everyday conversation about “green homes” is a convergence to what we call “high performance” or better yet “healthy, high performance” homes. That means we are moving beyond basic code requirements and redefining what the base line specifications of a 21st Century home will look like. And that house will look a lot greener. And that green house, unlike a green house at the end of the 20th Century, will be more than just energy efficient. It will be a healthy home.

The focus of a healthy home is on the quality of the air we breathe when we live in the home. In the months ahead I will teach you the four most important steps you need to learn to help you achieve and maintain a healthy air environment in your home: Eliminate, Separate, Filtrate and Ventilate. That is how to Eliminate the toxins from ever being built into the home, how to Separate those toxins from the occupants when they can’t be eliminated and finally how to Filtrate and Ventilate the air into our homes so those toxins do not cause us harm.

That is a lot to cover but stay tuned and you will learn that building a healthy high performance homes can be easier and less expensive than just building a home focused on energy efficiency.

To answer your questions on how to improve your family’s indoor air quality you can contact me at Michael@GreenHausBuilders.com

Michael Strong, CGR, GMB, CGP, CAPS
President, GreenHaus Builders
Builder of Houston’s 1st LEED Home
2008 NAHB Green Remodeling Advocate of the Year

While this may seem a little harsh, it is the same thing. You only have one shot to win the game that year – Rebuilding or remodeling a house because it was not done right the first time can not only Expensive but not practical if you specifically chose the land for one reason or another, and not Sustainable considering the amount of building material sent to a Dumpsite.

Why spend good money hiring a professional architect and then go with a low bid builder (and yes, folks do that every day). Why buy blueprints off the internet to “save money” and then spend those savings and a lot more money, time and grief making corrections to them once work in underway. Assuming you do not want to build a home to yesterday’s obsolete standards but prefer a home with the highest quality performing materials, products and design consideration available on the market (think Green, not expensive) then be sure to get a licensed EcoBroker Realtor on your team as well. That’s right, a licensed Realtor with the additional designation of an EcoBroker understands that preceding good design and good build comes selecting the right lot and location that will make it all possible.

You see, the concept behind Green Building goes way beyond helping the Environment. The standards and the way it is built is primarily for the Homeowner, You. Make sure that the players on your team are well qualified in the style of construction that you desire starting with who you use to choose the parcel of land, the architect or designer you use can help to maximize energy efficiency all the way down to the builder. Carefully selecting your team can ensure that you are happy with the outcome of the game and potentially save you thousands in the long run.

If you would like to know what GreenHaus Builders can bring to the playing field – I can be contacted at Michael@GreenHausBuilders.com

Michael Strong CGP, GMB, CAPS, CGR
President, GreenHaus Builders
Builder of Houston”s 1st LEED Certified Home