Indoor Air Quality monitors

[Lost Californian]

Hey, y'all! Anybody have any first hand experience with these gizmos? My wife has been treated for emphysema / COPD for a few years before she had stage 4 lung cancer. At times, now, she really has difficulty breathing. (Just fyi, lung cancer was successfully treated and she has been cancer free for 3 years now). Reading/research on the web says indoor air quality monitors are useful. It seems that it is a shot in the dark as to which one works. I am specifically looking at these two models -

Temtop hand held unit

Looks useful for home and travel situations.

IQAir

Gets good reviews

We have a good furnace/central AC with Air Bear filters, a HEPA air filter big enough to keep the living/dining room area nice, and a freaking expensive Simplicity vacuum that is supposed to be HEPA rated. I have been considering a dehumidifier, but she is resistant to that idea. Indoor humidity is ~60% most of the time. Thermostat is set to 73.

 

[Brandon]

Are your ducts sealed? Have they been cleaned?

I think I would spend the $$ on trying to keep the air as clean as possible and not so much a monitor that tells you good or bad but can't help clean it.

Can always go the whole house hepa ($$$$$$) and filters that have to be changed often... uv lights.. and if you want lower humidity but no dehumidifier, turn the ac down a degree or 2 or what ever you can get away with.

 

[femurphy77]

We have UV lights in our air handlers here at work and they are VERY effective. Of course I don't know about retrofitting one into a home hvac unit due to the bulk of an effective system but I am considering putting one in our house when we have the Mouse install our new system in a year or two.

 

[Brandon]

Uv lights are pretty straight forward to install in a residential system. Some are 24v some are 120/240v...

 

[Lost Californian]

Are your ducts sealed? Have they been cleaned?

I think I would spend the $$ on trying to keep the air as clean as possible and not so much a monitor that tells you good or bad but can't help clean it.

Can always go the whole house hepa ($$$$$$) and filters that have to be changed often... uv lights.. and if you want lower humidity but no dehumidifier, turn the ac down a degree or 2 or what ever you can get away with.

I really just want to know what the air in the house is like....good, bad, indifferent? I dunno how to tell, just started looking into this today. Ducts were good when I had the ac replaced 4 years ago. Whole house HEPA ain't gonna happen. UV lights....convince me I need them. Thus, back to the original question - what indoor air quality monitors work?

Or should I just hire it done? No clue who would do such work. And once again, is it a reliable outfit....sigh....first world problems.

 

[Brandon]

Ducts were good when ac was replaced... so who ever saw them saw the supply... not the return. Ok.

I think I'd start with calling a mold remediation company. They would probably besy be able to point you where you want to be.

 

[Lost Californian]

Ducts were good when ac was replaced... so who ever saw them saw the supply... not the return. Ok.
...snip...

Actually, he rebuilt a good portion of the return side. It had been a flexible round tube affair (2 feet in diameter, wrapped in insulation secured with zip ties???) that he didn't like. It ran thru the attic and down to the furnace in the garage. He made a new one, some insulated boards (I don't know this stuff at all), came out square. I have more air flow than I did before he did all the work.

 

[Tactically Fat]

Have you had an indoor mold test done? Your city or county health department can help get that done. I've had them done at both my office and my home. Seriously - look them up and give them a call to inquire.

Indoor humidity should be between 30-50%. So that may mean a dehumidifier or two in the summer months; and a humidifier or two in the winters.

If your AC isn't keeping the humidity lower - then the AC may be sized incorrectly OR there may be some kind of leak allowing other air in. OR there's moisture issues in the basement / crawlspace that'll need remediated.

I have no idea what types of indoor air cleaners work. But the main things that cause issues are Particulate matter, Ozone, and SO2. NO2 and it's related species can also cause people problems.

Stand-alone air filters will only be able to filter the air they're in contact with. (duh, right??) So you either have to keep the other air moving into their way somehow...or you have to have several of them. Keeping the other air moving may involve other things like ceiling fans. Thing is, those fans are gonna be moving around all that non-filtered PM stuff.

 

[jkaetz]

I really just want to know what the air in the house is like....good, bad, indifferent? I dunno how to tell, just started looking into this today. Ducts were good when I had the ac replaced 4 years ago. Whole house HEPA ain't gonna happen. UV lights....convince me I need them. Thus, back to the original question - what indoor air quality monitors work?

Or should I just hire it done? No clue who would do such work. And once again, is it a reliable outfit....sigh....first world problems.

IAQ is a somewhat subjective thing. Is there a specific thing you're trying to solve/eliminate? Humidity, mold, dust, smell? In general you want humidity <50% in the summer and to have your indoor air cycled with outside air ~every 6 hours or so. Beyond that you start to see diminishing returns. I'm not aware of a generic IAQ "monitor". The things you posted can measure the ppm of various things in the air but you'd need to know what you were looking for and what is normal vs abnormal. This is where your indoor air cycles come in. Replace the stale indoor air with "clean" outdoor air.

 

[femurphy77]

I really just want to know what the air in the house is like....good, bad, indifferent? I dunno how to tell, just started looking into this today. Ducts were good when I had the ac replaced 4 years ago. Whole house HEPA ain't gonna happen. UV lights....convince me I need them. Thus, back to the original question - what indoor air quality monitors work?

Or should I just hire it done? No clue who would do such work. And once again, is it a reliable outfit....sigh....first world problems.

About the only indoor air quality testing that can be economically done at home is the radon test. The problem with air quality testing is there aren't really any "just test for everything" tests out there. You have a specific test for a specific problem. We deal with this all the time at work; someone is looking for an easy paycheck or some state sponsored time off via workers comp so they start crying about air quality. When we tell them we need to know what specifically they want tested for they usually lose interest. Typically because we suggest their doctor prescribe what exactly they believe the culprit is so we can test for it. Seems they're convinced enough that the air is bad so that they can demand paid time off but they aren't convinced enough that the air is bad to go see a doctor.

Humorous side story somewhat related; we had a contractor working on a JLG outside of the building one time and they were using a diesel powered unit. They were causing fumes inside the building due to their proximity to one of our air intakes and the wind direction that day. One of the support departments sent half their staff home with headaches. It was initially only one person complaining but by mid day half of their people were complaining and the other half didn't smell a thing or experience any symptoms.

We shut the contractor down until he could source a battery powered lift which took a couple of days. The contractor got back to work and almost immediately the same "victims" were complaining about fumes again and headed home. When the department head called me about it I explained that he was being scammed about the fumes since it was an electric unit. They later told me that the person that started it all was claiming ptsd and ended up with a paid month off.

 

[Lost Californian]

Have you had an indoor mold test done? Your city or county health department can help get that done. I've had them done at both my office and my home. Seriously - look them up and give them a call to inquire.

Indoor humidity should be between 30-50%. So that may mean a dehumidifier or two in the summer months; and a humidifier or two in the winters.

If your AC isn't keeping the humidity lower - then the AC may be sized incorrectly OR there may be some kind of leak allowing other air in. OR there's moisture issues in the basement / crawlspace that'll need remediated.

I have no idea what types of indoor air cleaners work. But the main things that cause issues are Particulate matter, Ozone, and SO2. NO2 and it's related species can also cause people problems.

Stand-alone air filters will only be able to filter the air they're in contact with. (duh, right??) So you either have to keep the other air moving into their way somehow...or you have to have several of them. Keeping the other air moving may involve other things like ceiling fans. Thing is, those fans are gonna be moving around all that non-filtered PM stuff.

IAQ is a somewhat subjective thing. Is there a specific thing you're trying to solve/eliminate? Humidity, mold, dust, smell? In general you want humidity <50% in the summer and to have your indoor air cycled with outside air ~every 6 hours or so. Beyond that you start to see diminishing returns. I'm not aware of a generic IAQ "monitor". The things you posted can measure the ppm of various things in the air but you'd need to know what you were looking for and what is normal vs abnormal. This is where your indoor air cycles come in. Replace the stale indoor air with "clean" outdoor air.

About the only indoor air quality testing that can be economically done at home is the radon test. The problem with air quality testing is there aren't really any "just test for everything" tests out there. You have a specific test for a specific problem. We deal with this all the time at work; someone is looking for an easy paycheck or some state sponsored time off via workers comp so they start crying about air quality. When we tell them we need to know what specifically they want tested for they usually lose interest. Typically because we suggest their doctor prescribe what exactly they believe the culprit is so we can test for it. Seems they're convinced enough that the air is bad so that they can demand paid time off but they aren't convinced enough that the air is bad to go see a doctor.

Humorous side story somewhat related; we had a contractor working on a JLG outside of the building one time and they were using a diesel powered unit. They were causing fumes inside the building due to their proximity to one of our air intakes and the wind direction that day. One of the support departments sent half their staff home with headaches. It was initially only one person complaining but by mid day half of their people were complaining and the other half didn't smell a thing or experience any symptoms.

We shut the contractor down until he could source a battery powered lift which took a couple of days. The contractor got back to work and almost immediately the same "victims" were complaining about fumes again and headed home. When the department head called me about it I explained that he was being scammed about the fumes since it was an electric unit. They later told me that the person that started it all was claiming ptsd and ended up with a paid month off.

Thanks for these words. Helps get things in perspective.

 

[Tactically Fat]

To expand upon the in-home testing:

I mentioned that you can get indoor mold tests done by your city/county health department. (Or SHOULD be able to) As long as you can explain yourself to them and why you're asking for it.

A do think there are retail mold testing kits available like there are for radon. I'm not sure. I also to not know how effective they are.

And if you want/need to go further down the road of in-home testing, there are ways that you can get an indoor air quality "grab sample" and/or composite sample done of your indoor air and then it'll be tested for myriad VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds). I believe that IDEM can do this occasionally - though I'm not sure what particular part of IDEM (Ind Dept of Environmental Mgmnt) that would do it. Office of Land Quality, perhaps, as they're the ones that deal with Leaking Underground Storage Tanks (LUST) and stuff associated with all the nastiness that's been put into the ground over the years. So if you suspect that it may be something related to that - you may be able to contact IDEM. Especially if you know that you live super close to an old gas station or dry cleaners or auto garage or machine shop or factory that may have been putting **** in the ground.