Faith Middleton Show: Is Your Energy Efficient Home Hurting Your Health?
Controversy in the LEED Gold Standard rating
This is going to have everybody talking - a new report showing where energy efficiency collides with human health.
The U.S. Green Building Council has a LEED certification program. Architects study and take tests now to be LEED qualified. Then some go on to build LEED certified homes that are tight and energy efficient.
But a new report from a Connecticut based organization, Environment and Human Health, says LEED standards for tighter homes often concentrate chemicals released from building materials, cleaning supplies, fuel combustion, pesticides and more.
Environment and Human Health is a non-profit composed of doctors, public health professionals and policy experts who specialize in research that examines environmental threats to human health.
The lead author of this study, guaranteed to provoke controversy, is Dr. John Wargo, professor of Risk Analysis and Environmental Policy at Yale University.
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Dr. John P. Wargo's indoor air quality
Dr. John P. Wargo sould know that the drafty windows he spoke of in his own house provide accidental ventilation, which is unreliable because it is dependent on a pressure difference between indoor and outdoor spaces caused by temperature and wind variations, and is NOT a guarantee of good indoor air quality. When air leaves the house through leaks, it also draws air into the house through other leaks. These air leaks may be from sorces of poor air quality such as a garage, attic, or crawl space. Leaking air can also draw moisture into walls and other spaces creating a sorce for mold and poor indoor air quality.
Homes need to be tight to reduce energy use, and to reduce air leakage and accidental ventilation, but also need controled, active ventilation systems to provide fresh air. Balanced ventilation systems can provide more comfortable homes with better indoor air quality and lower utility bills.
maintaining or improving indoor air quality
The best route to maintaining or improving indoor air quality is with balanced ventilation. The best means to achieving balanced ventilation while maintaining energy efficiency is with a HEAT-RECOVERY VENTILATION (HRV) unit, a balanced ventilation systems equipped with a heat exchanger that recovers most of the heating and cooling energy from the exhaust air. Please see the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR® Program publication: http://smartenergy.arch.uiuc.edu/pdf/clearinghouse/BalancedVentilationSy...
This is a simple solution and I am very disappointed there was no mention of it in your program. Perhaps LEED needs to put more emphasis on indoor air quality, but your discussion was uninformed and misleading.
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