Lunsford’s Advice For Creating A Healthy Home
We talked about creating a healthy home and much more with Corbett Lunsford, co-host of the public television series ‘Home Diagnosis,’ which focuses on the science of homes.
This article serves a great resource to inform your customer’s on the importance of reducing chemicals in the home. The challenges will be different depending on the age of the home.
While buying an older, existing home presents its own air quality challenges, building a new home provides your customers with a chance to create their own unique space.
Modern building techniques and materials make construction more efficient and less expensive, but some of them can emit pollutants into the air and introduce other potential air quality issues.
Lunsford and the zero-VOC home
“Every home is a chemical experiment at work,” said Corbett Lunsford. “Think of the home as a planet, with millions of microorganisms, an ecosystem that evolves as more things are added to it. Try to avoid bringing reactive things into the house and things that will “off-gas” over the long-term, like insulation or materials with flame retardants.”
Lunsford reminds us that despite your customer’s best efforts, it is impossible to have a zero-VOC home.
“We’re always bringing chemicals and VOCs into the house with everyday activities like cooking and cleaning and breathing.”
Using the AprilAire Healthy Air System™ helps keep those VOCs that Lunsford mentioned from accumulating in the customer’s homes. This multi-prong approach helps reduce the proliferation of VOCs, airborne viruses, odors, and other pollutants that can wreak havoc on a home’s indoor air quality. This approach uses humidity control, air filtration, and fresh air ventilation to address the multitude of problems faced by homeowners.
Lunsford details all of the important steps homeowners can take, with your help, to keep their home’s ecosystem balanced. We detail the ways that AprilAire can address those concerns presented by homeowners in both new and older homes.
‘You Should Have A Dehumidifier’
- “You should have a dehumidifier, even if you have a humidifier for the winter. What you want to do is control the humidity so you don’t grow mold.”
Controlling humidity is a crucial component for controlling indoor air quality. ASHRAE recommends keeping a home’s humidity between 30-60 percent to the proliferation of a majority of issues like airborne viruses, pests, and mold. AprilAire Humidifiers and Dehumidifiers feature an easy display panel to keep your customer’s home comfortable. A humidifier and dehumidifier will also help protect important furnishings in the home from warping and rotting. This is especially key for older homes.
Lunsford says Ventilation is Key
- “If you have an outdoor air system that works, then things like chemicals and humidity won’t be as big of an issue.”
With newer homes, ventilation is key. Newer built homes are built tighter which is great for energy-efficiency, but the home traps in moisture and chemicals. An AprilAire Ventilation system works to remove that moisture and chemical-filled air and replace it with fresh air from the outside. Our ventilation system filters and humidifies the outdoor air that it brings in too.
Lunsford’s Healthy Home Advice for Kids
Keeping the air healthy is especially important for kids’ developing lungs.
“If you’re seeking healthier indoor air, especially for developing kids, you need a MERV 13 filter,” Lunsford said.
Constant exposure to air pollution can cause respiratory issues like asthma.
“Carpets hold onto a lot of particles. Children spend the most time next to that flooring that may have harmful chemicals in it,” according to Lunsford.
Lunsford recommends using an air purifier to filter out those harmful particulates and replace those particulates with healthy air. Those particulates include asthma and allergy triggers, radon, and odors.
While Lunsford recommends a MERV 13 Filter, AprilAire offers a MERV 16 Filter which can be paired with several of our air purifiers to filter out those harmful particulates even better. Our Model 5000 Air purifier paired with our MERV 16 Air Filter offers superior protection to your customer’s HVAC system and filters out 98% of airborne particulates that trigger asthma.
As Lunsford said, a home’s ecosystem is a balance. Provide resources below to your customers and let them know that AprilAire has a multitude of products to help combat indoor air quality regardless of whether it’s a new home or an existing home.
Corbett Lunsford’s Recommended Resources
A deep exploration into how indoor air chemical compounds interact and transform throughout a normal day of activities.
Information on household chemicals.
Toxic Chemicals and Home Performance
Biophysical chemist Arlene Blum talks with Corbett Lunsford and Grace (hosts of Home Diagnosis) to talk about the “Six Classes” of harmful chemicals.
Home Performance YouTube Channel
Over 500 educational videos on the science of homes.
