Home Ventilation SIDE EFFECTS: Ozone, HRV vs ERV, NOx, and UV Disinfection with Michael Link

Michael Link is an Analytical Chemist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and here I'll break down some discoveries his team made at NIST's Net Zero Test House in DC (www.nist.gov/el/net-zero-ener...) during the CASA Experiment (Chemical Assessment of Surfaces and Air).
Watch this entire 31-part series on the Chemistry of Indoor Environments:
• Indoor Chemistry: PhD ...
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[@Mikecianfrocco]

Love it!! Thanks for your interpretation on the science talk to technicians talk. 👍
Like a translator.
A government exhaust fan broken! No way!! In shocked 😅

[@Werdna12345]

I feel like I need the cliff notes of these cliff notes. Any takeaways I missed?
-ERV is better than HRV chemically speaking
-It’s hard to notice ineffective vent fans. Check them

[@jasonroets660]

Years ago I had a talk with an HVAC designer. He said he went into a commercial building and the exhaust fans didn’t work. So he asked the project manager about it, the guy said don’t worry about it. So he called the building inspector. They said nothing we can do about it. So he asked what does that mean? The response the inspector said we went rounds with him til we were blue in the face and there is nothing we can do. The code book says every bathroom has to have an exhaust fan, but no where does it say it has to work. So this contractor buys broken ones from a salvage yard and installs them to save money. So when you say the exhaust doesn’t work, by code it doesn’t have to.

[@HomePerformance]

Hahahaha oh my god nooooo. One more reason code doesn’t work. FYI there may be a ventilation standard like ASHRAE rmbedded within the applicable code, which would need to be separately referenced. That would do the trick in some cases, but it’s a battle of wills sometimes.

[@NIAtoolkit]

Commissioning will take care of it

[@malikto1]

So do UV filters for well water add Ozone to the water?

[@shubinternet]

You don’t want to add a chemical reactor (like UV exposure)to filtering and processing your water or air. You have no idea what happens when the UV light is exposed to the substance you’re filtering or processing.

[@toastyboy]

as if finding the balance for ventilation and energy efficiency wasn't hard enough already....

[@LibertyFabrication]

Certification is a liability shield for manufacturers, it has nothing to do with actual health.

[@roberttaylor3664]

Going back to chemistry... you can't create or destroy, so the true formula is NO + O³ -> NO² + O² (they are missing the oxygen in the output). Also, one of the top causes of death is overdosing on di-hydrogen oxide. 😀

[@HomePerformance]

I hope it never becomes a TOP cause of death, but you're right, di-hydrogen oxide is my nightmare.

[@roberttaylor3664]

(For those that did not figure it out... di-hydrogen oxide... H²O... water)

[@shubinternet]

There was a Star Trek episode on this, yes?

[@tealkerberus748]

So I need to know, if I use a water based air washing system in my home instead of fibrous filters to remove both particulate pollutants like pollen, cat hair, and dead skin particles, and also water soluble air pollutants like VOCs, will that remove NOx pollution as well?
And if I then use a dehumidifier to bring the washed air back down to target humidity, and a 254nm UV sanitiser (with the whole system inside an opaque case to protect us from the UV) to make sure legionella doesn't breed on the dehumidifier, will that work and give my family safe air to breathe - without ozone, without legionella, and without all the pollutants commonly present in untreated air both indoors and out?

[@shubinternet]

You don’t want to add a chemical reactor (like UV) to the process of filtering and processing your air.

[@tealkerberus748]

@@shubinternet That's why the 254nm and not shorter. It can give you cancer if you expose your skin to it, but it doesn't create ozone. So if you put it in a case where your skin will not be exposed to it, all it's going to do is kill any legionella or other pathogens that get in the way of its light, without having any consequences outside the case.

[@tealkerberus748]

@@shubinternet How do you stop legionella breeding on that always-wet dehumidifier? 254 is too long wavelength to make ozone, so it should be safe - so long as it's enclosed so it can't give me cancer.

[@billcunninghame8554]

Oye. My head hurts.

[@HomePerformance]

No pain no gain Bill buddy!!!