Making the Green Home a Healthier Home

I am often called by local homeowners to conduct a healthiness review of their Energy Star, Green Built, Healthy Built, or LEED Certified home. Despite living in an eco-home, many homeowners are still experiencing unhealthy symptoms: Odors, congestion, coughing, fever, shortness of breath, fatigue, headache, fogginess of thought. Some occupants have confirmed healthiness challenges like allergies, asthma, mold sensitivity, multiple chemical sensitivity, emphysema, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, undertaking a cancer-fighting regimen, or have a stressed immune system for different reasons.

My examination of the home will identify pollutants that are working against the healthiness of those who live in the Green Home. What types of pollutants do I find? Human dander, pet dander, dust mites, sprays, fragrances, cooking odors, bathroom odors, material and product chemical off-gassing (VOC), bacterial and fungal off-gassing (MVOC), pest deposits, micro fibers, construction dust, wood smoke, and candle soot are some of the issues that I uncover. Green Homes are not immune from this type of accumulation of pollutants and irritants.

The next phase in the evolution of green home construction is to design specifically for improved healthiness of conditions inside the home.

Progress will be made with improvements in the following areas:

• Healthiness.  Understand the environmental conditions that those with healthiness challenges need more control over.  
• Airflow.  Be aware of air movement into, out of, and within the house.
• Ventilation. Improve “Fresh” air ventilation methods. Reduce raw air dump to inside. Circulate it better.
• Humidity. Improve humidity-lowering: Remove dampness, add warmth, “soften” hot-cold interfaces.
• Mold. Understand the ecologies of mold, virus, and bacteria. Make the house less friendly to microbes.
• Dust. Improve air filtering especially of respirable dusts. Simplify bulk dust clean-up needs.
• Air cleaning. Allow for air cleaning abilities (not the same as air filtering).
• Pests. Understand insect, mouse, and other intruder behaviors. Make the house unfriendly to them.
• Use. Anticipate occupant use patterns of the house and its systems. Occupants have to understand and do their part too.
• Maintenance. Simplify and arrange for maintenance needs of the house and its systems. Occupants and service groups have to understand and do their part too.  

All contractors have a part to play in this: plumbers, electricians, framers, material suppliers, finish contractors, site-prep contractors, landscapers, clean-up specialists. Yet the most critical guides are the architect, HVAC contractor, and the environmental health specialist. It is this team that Green Builders can rely on to put the “Healthy” back into Green Home construction.

PS: “Fresh air ventilation” is a misnomer. I am careful to call it “Outdoor air ventilation”. Outdoor air is “fresh” only during limited weather cycles within the season.  Unhealthiness from outdoor air includes the following symptoms: too hot, too cold, too humid, too dry, pollen, mold, dusts from farms and gravel roads, pollutants from highways, worksites, industrial plants, smaller places of businesses, and burn piles.