My entire life I haven't had central air and I was CO2 poisoned indoors in the winter. If you feel bad around winter and feel better when you leave the house you might have air quality issues like dust, gasses or whatever too. I lived in a house with 4 pilot lights next to me and no ventilation and I'm sure I'm brain damaged, I have asthma and breathing problems as well. I started opening the windows in the winter and ventilating it twice a day like Germans do (lüften). https://hannahteslin.com/expat-life-and-tips/what-is-lueften-germany
My dad owns the house so I want to help fix it up. How would I DIY it? I was thinking of making holes in the ceiling or doing the ductwork myself, but at a low cost. I have access to materials from abandoned buildings that are being thrown away too. Any suggestions? Insulated ducts are kinda expensive.
So first, you're probably imagining the severity of the problem. You don't get brain damage from CO2, only lack of oxygen, and you'd pass out before that occurred. Having too much CO2 will acidify your blood and it's what makes you feel like your asphyxiating, so unless you felt like that you're fine. CO (carbon monoxide) can be a problem since it binds hemoglobin more tightly than oxygen and can result in oxygen deprivation, but again you'd pass out before damage happened and if you have CO detectors you should be fine. Now, let's talk about those pilot lights - what are they part of, and do those appliances/fixtures have an exhaust that vents outside your house like a chimney? If so, they're actually ventilating your house already - as the exhaust gasses leave the house, fresh air is drawn in through cracks and gas since houses are never perfectly sealed. If you're worried about dust get an air purifier or just put a good filter in your air handler if you have one.
I've had people over that noted headache and sickly feelings. Over a long period of time we did feel asphyxiated.
My level has no vents. Its a stove next to my room. There is no exhaust for the stove or the lights. I finally disabled them this year and feel much better but I want to make sure I can close doors and still get ventilation. The bathroom also has no venting, and is growing mold.
Well if there are no vents or exhaust for the gas-powered stove and lights, they yeah I can see it being a problem. Honestly I'd recommend updating those fixtures - gas lights are long out of style and I think all modern gas stoves ignite on demand. If people are feeling lightheaded or sick while over, that'll probably go a long way. Houses were drafty in the past, so maybe those were put in then but the house was sealed up since? Putting a vent in the bathroom is a good idea regardless, and ceiling vents are pretty easy depending on the construction of the building - cut the fan into the ceiling, install a vent in either the roof or siding while flashing it properly, and join them with vent pipe internally. You can either wire it up to a separate switch or just piggyback off the bathroom light like a lot of people do.
My dad refuses to remove them as they are "working fine". We also have wooden ladders and nicad drills. I got some lithium drills but it's hard to work with ancient DIY
Very nice, I like that idea. We don't even have windows, we have 2 layers of storm windows. I was thinking of making this for the winter. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_recovery_ventilation
Ok.. its called ”korvausilmaventtiili” or ”rakoventtiili” , replacement air ventilation if it goes thru wall or thin cap (replacementair) ventilation.. its been -20 celsius here and i have closed them a little, but now its -6 outside and they are open. I have woodheating (large old heat keeping stove) and small electric heaters below each window to remove draft. Ca. 14 000kw electricity per year, 3 kids in family. Ventilation looks like this from inside.
Air is good all year and 50-80% humid
50 to 80? Considering shit starts to mold anywhere around 65 i think this probably says you may not be factually wrong about the window gaps, but your boasting does reveal you as somewhat of a useless moron.
Probably yes. But it just works here, keeps air good and walls dry. Air is never dry, but you can tell its winter when there capa in floowplanks and all furniture doors close..
You're not moronic fingay. You have a family in the house and have high humidity versus the incel who breathes by himself
I cant believe you are imblying humans increase humidity in a space. Thats dumber than the finn bragging about his house having 70 percent humidity like its ideal. What the frick is wrong with you.
You didnt answer the part about stairs. Your house doesnt breathe through the walls, air goes out the top throught venting in a roof or attic usually.
I was trying to see what system of venting is going on here, but plaster walls tell me nothing.
Ventilation has been part of building forever.
Now, is there a stairwell to a next level, or attic? If so all your concers are unfounded. You may have stagnant air,but turning off your gas appliances is the shittiest band aid non solution to that in the world.
Set a fan up blowing out a window in the attic. They make little solar powered ones.
Humans don't breathe out any water vapor?
Why are you so upset over a fact? Humans do increase humidity and if you have tons of of people it causes more moisture.
Did not assert humans did not breathe water vapor.
Did assert that does not affect the overall humidity of a house. Volume of house, air turnover in house, just a human isnt relevant here.
Especially compared to the humidity of say a 30 minute hot shower or boiling a batch of wort for 90 minutes to make beer, along with all other normal house things.
If you wanna go for more mental gymnastics, be my guest but your a frickin idiot not living in the real world.
more people bathe more than one person...
was this bait
I wasn't sure what kind of pictures you wanted. There are 4 pilot lights next to me, a stairway and another level. Doesn't matter about stairways and levels if there's a several continuous flames less than a meter from me with all the windows sealed with plastic for the winter. If you don't believe me, see how you feel in an enclosed environment next to 4 candles and come up with a shitter band air for yourself.
If there is a stairwell its not a very enclosed area is it, anon?
Open a window on the highest level of the house.
Air is heated, heat rises, houses breath through the air travelling upwards and you arent worth any more replies if your just gonna scream like a child.
You are moronic and reddit spacing. I don't know why I thought you had any contribution. I don't live next to a stairwell you fricking moron, it's on the other side.
Hot air rises and VOCs from fire a few feet from you definitely never will touch you even if you're a few feet away, and all pollutants don't ever harm you, provided you have an open window or stairwell somewhere in your house. Don't reply with another stupid post you are completely useless and going to die or kill someone being this stupid.
Yes that's exactly what happened. The VOC detector made me think of all the sulfur and other pollutants too. I got asthma as a kid from it, and only got better after airing the house and dusting.
Kek.
Dumb frick
Post formatting is a choice, being as moronicas you isnt.
Sorry not sorry
Dumb frick
interesting when my woodstove is on and its really cold outside air humidity decreases to 30%.
you should calibrate that hygrometer, first put it in a wet rag and it should go to 100, (you should do this twice a year to regen the hairs inside)
to really calibrate put it in a plastic bag with a cup of wet salt humidity should be 75%
thats cause you got draft somewhere sucking in the cold outside less humid air as the hot exhaust leaves through the stovepipe.
What leaves needs to get replaced or you would suck a vacuum in your house.
My apartment is well under 20% moisture in the winter if I don't use a humidifier and then its 30 to 50%.
If other finnanons house is that humid all the time then either he is mistaken lol or its an older, draftier house so it would not be a big deal.
Those window gaps are very easy solution for replacement air but they do frick up the air quality in the winters with how dry it gets. Also they let in dust if there's no filter.
Unless anon is referring to his sauna in which case 50 to 80% humidity is perfectly normal lol.
>Those window gaps are very easy solution for replacement air but they do frick up the air quality in the winters with how dry it gets. Also they let in dust if there's no filter.
I got sash windows with older style vents that can be fully blocked, I use a dehumidifier, have a humidifier and even an AC.
I block the vents usually because they're loud, newer ones are worse and are becoming mandatory in some countries due to being integrated into building standards.
Sash windows are great though for nice but of air circulation though, open up a little at the top, a little at the bottom and it's top comf.
Usually open my windows after doing stuff in the bathroom or to let in a bit of fresh air if I've left a dehumidifier on a bit long and it's dropped under 30 while not going out for a few days.
>I've had people over that noted headache and sickly feelings. Over a long period of time we did feel asphyxiated
Just likely a lack of oxygen tbh. I get that problem if it's too dry or I haven't been out etc in a while. It's pretty obvious when you get it.
Low humidity's easier to diagnose, your nose and throat will be irritated too but nosebleeds were my most common signs before I started using humidistats.
Is there a stairway to the next level? How do you get to the next floor up? Whats directly under the roof? An attic or lived in space?
Ventilation above windows thru window frame. Will post picrel after sauna. Trust me. Im fingay living in 100yo< loghouse
This, its usually just a crack or a hole above the windows or in the frame that lets in fresh air, radiators underneath the window to heat it up.
Newer houses have more elegant solutions but it works either way.
Older houses were more drafty by design and due to materials/tools and you rarely had issues with air quality. Then later some dummies decided to start making airtight houses and now most public buildings are just nothing but mold, especially since mega dummies turn off the air circulation systems for summer to "save" money and ruin the building in just few years lol.
They have cheapy co2 air sensors for like $35 online. Having a soda in the room makes it go apeshit.
Are they good? Which ones?
Nice I looked it up they're called trickle vents
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickle_vent
The damage is done. My IQ is lower than my other family. I came out ok because the other one became fat and trans. The low oxygen definitely made me very sickly though.
if your house has a conditioned crawlspace, you can basically make it a cleanroom
>grated floors
central vent with fans to suck air through the floor->through filters> down through vents in the ceiling.
if you have a gas stove in your house the co2 is the least of your worries. Gas contains shit tons of other carcinogenic shit that's actually going to cause problems, while co2 is actually not bad for you at all. It's literally prerequisite for hibernating animals to raise their blood co2 levels drastically to preserve their tissues. But Gas contains heavy metal organic compounds not removed in the refinement process, and it's combustion produces more nasty shit like benzopyrene, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioixide. So yea, get rid of the gas stove or put a big exhaust fan in and run it when you cook and turn the gas off to the stove when not in use and turn the pilots off.
Theres no possible world where 4 pilot lights consume so much oxygen its affected your life like this. Your father is consuming more oxygen than a pilot light, and your shits and farts ate contaminating your air more.
How did you get this boogeyman in your head? Wild.
Post a picture of the building you live in anon.
I will assuage your concerns by pointing out ways it probably is breathing more than you think.
You refer to pilot lights. Are any of these direct vent appliances? I e the airis pulled from outside and the exhaust is expelled thru the i sideof a double walles chimney piece?
The stove wasn't but I don't have it on any more. It was not direct vent. I'm not calling the house airtight, but there is a noticeable difference others visiting have noticed. I'll take some pictures outside later. Thanks for the help. It's plaster walls.
Or it could be all the Electromagnetic wave energies we are saturated with 24/7/365
Knock out 4 x 4 square in your brick, or cut a 4inch hole through your siding. run 4 inch flex pipe from a hood vent on the hole and go into the return on your ductwork - this is called make up air. feel free to do the exact same thing, but this time bring it down the side of the return, maybe 1ft from the floor, and secure it to the ductwork. combustion air now taken care of.
Everyone should have a CO2 sensor in their bedroom and workplace to be honest. Low CO2 levels improve your life a lot.
But you don't get brain damaged from high CO2 levels indoors, at least in the normal range that you can get without a fire or never opening a window in a week. It just gives you headaches and makes you tired.
Asthma might do it though if you aren't properly medicated. That's a different issue though.
Get blood tested for mycotoxins.
Take 50mg/day of iodine to help destroy it in your system, and remove yourself from the sources.
Acetone is one thing that will destroy the mycotoxins on surfaces. Some other anon suggested didecyl dimethyl ammonium chloride, or DDAC, as a safer alternative.
Mold is bad: If you can see it in your living space, it's in you. The toxic byproduct of it is the mycotoxin plaque that gets into your bloodstream. You breathe it in, etc. Nasty shit will make you feel horrible.
That's beside the advice to get a CO monitor, etc, that some other sageanons were making above. Hail the sageanons.
What test do you recommend? Is it in the blood test? I already take iodine, I didn't take that much but I did take that much at the beginning. I use a humidifier that has iodine and peroxide for the air. Have you done something like that too?
Iodine doesn't have much of an effect until the dose is > 10mg/day. Most iodine supplements are up to 2mg/day. I get it from Jim at buyiodine.com, the 47%. Start with the 10ml bottle and work your way up to 1 drop a day in water. If you're a euro, sources a group of people i was working with found, that were inexpensive, were pure iodine solution sold for livestock. You'll have to get minimum a 5liter amount but it's well worth it.
Yes, there is a blood test for mycotoxin levels. Tools and Tactics channel on youtube, that guy is an electrical inspector. He went to the Johnson Medical Center somewhere around Dallas to get his blood tested. I assume you can either ask them what tests they are, or do some googling. I sent him a 10ml bottle of the 47% and he's doing much better. Just compare his demeanor from 2 months ago and today on his videos. Look on Tools with SoAlz, a channel of a buddy of his, for more videos w him to compare.
He was in an incredibly deadly moldy house. Contaminated all his tools, clothes, cars, everything. Even had his gallbladder removed. Something I would not have advised. Better to detox and do some things to get the gallbladder working right again. But I didn't know him back then. He's in another house now, mold-free.
Nta but interesting stuff. A long time friend of mine grew up in a moldy house and had terrible issues with his gallbladder, thyroid and liver. He followed a lot of Ray Peat protocols and was making improvements, then found out the house he had moved into also had a mold infestation. There’s just certain areas of the world where you shouldn’t live. If you’re in a temperate rainforest area you can almost guarantee that the HVAC systems of most every building you go in are contaminated with mold spores
Look up photocatalytic air cleaners.
Build them yourself for the cost of an old honeywell unit from the thrift store. Coat the inside of the filter chamber (obv remove the old filter if there is one) with spray adhesive, then powder it with titanium dioxide. Add a UVC lamp and you're good to go. There's a PL13 sized fluorescent lamp that works good for that size.
The UVC rays hit the TiO2 and create some kind of short-lived particle that annihilates VOCs. If I'm not mistaken it also kills mold. Don't only use UVC. Coat the chamber with TiO2, too, and it will make the whole room smell like a fresh spring breeze in 10 minutes.
I built one for this vietnamese couple. They both did hair as did one of their sisters. The women did nails, too. The solvents or glues they used; that shit is bad for the liver and life in general; It would hit you as soon as you walked in. Completely flipped into a spring breeze in about 10-15 min.
UVC SMD LED chips are cheap but less efficient. What power bulbs did you try? I want to decide how many LEDs would be equivalent.
Are they cheap, and less efficient? Pretty sure it's more efficient and more expensive. Nichia makes good ones.
NCSU434C(T)-E(6724C) is LED 2 to 5% efficient like pic related. For comparison Hikari GUX5 - 5W tube has 1.2W output (24%). I already own compatible LED drivers. LEDs would be more even and also pulsed instead of continuous -- probably giving the result with longer life and the same input power.
How much of the spring breeze is ozone?
Look up what spectra is used to make ozone. Now study how a photocatalytic air cleaner works and then stop posting redditor tier questions.
https://www.ledsmagazine.com/lighting-health-wellbeing/article/14203380/antimicrobial-visible-led-light-is-confirmed-to-deactivate-viruses-including-sars-cov-2
Hmm there's a different kind of LED here.
UVC fluorescent PL13/GX23 lamp and a base that will start a fluorescent. Don't overthink it. I'm not sure how many lumens that is. I bought a prebuilt UVC unit.
Search amazon for 'uv light for hvac' to get an idea. Should have a GX23 base and emit 253nm UVC.