Is Your Home Toxic? | Tech Wednesday
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- Опубліковано 6 сер 2024
- We discuss modern technology in monitoring and collecting data on your home's air quality. We discuss the pitfalls of Radon Gas, Particulate or PM 2.5, VOCs, and Natural Gas Appliance emissions. These critical topics may help to raise awareness to keep yourself and your family safe.
#technology #engineering #diy
Index:
00:00 Intro
2:00 Radon Gas and Mitigation
8:00 Poor Air Quality, Wild Fires, Pollution, Allergies
10:53 Air Cleaners, VOCs
13:04 Natural Gas, Ranges, Cooking and Ventilation - Наука та технологія
I know this isn't #sponsored, but could we get the names of the products you used? I consider you an educated, smart person, and trust your judgement on topics. I might not get the same things as you did, but at least I would know what to look for in other products as a baseline. Keep up the great work!
All of these are on Amazon. The air cleaner goes on sale frequently FYI. Also for air cleaners buy a few spare filters if they dont come with it in case they get discontinued or go bust. Stuff in video:
Nuwave Oxypure Air Purifier Pro, Airthings Corentium (stand alone radon meter), and Airthings 2960 View Plus. Radon mitigation companies are regional so you have to do research. For appliance questions and filtration for midwest contact ABT Electronics, for East Coast, Yale Appliances, for West Coast (IDK).
Also forgot to mention buying 25 different colors of Stanley Cups.
Do I want them on the same or different colors as my Yeti cup collection?
I got a Coway 400s for a hundred bucks from an ama zn pallet buyer. It's 500 new. This nuwave, which I did not see back when I was researching, is a MUCH better deal.
@@phermeyyeah, I've got a trio of coway's in my house - filter costs are annoying...
There’s no way my house could be toxic. My wife and her boyfriend do a great job of making it a healthy environment
You too? My husband and his boy friend do a great job as well.
You took the bait and delivered.
ODOR INDICATOR INTENSIFIES
@@savagegeesea master baiter indeed
Right, I fixed that when I let my wife’s boyfriend move in and I moved into a hermetically sealed survivalist igloo.
As a mechanical engineer who does HVAC, these are all important and valid issues. Modern houses are built tight (which is good for energy use) but that means we need to add in mechanical ventilation (heat recovery ventilators) and exhausts to replace the infiltration (air exchange) of older houses, and keep the air inside fresh and clean. Thanks for this video.
How do you handle ventilation with heat recovery in a humid environment?
@@Christobevii3 ERVs help transfer humidity as well as heat between incoming and outgoing air. otherwise you likely need a dehumidifier.
Plus, I think some people forget they need to clean and/or replace the filters as specified for the unit. It's crazy to ask someone when they last cleaned their system and get "I can't remember" as the answer.
I am a Radon specialist and a laboratory director of a radon laboratory. the health risk of living with 4.0 pico curies per liter of radon concentration is equivalent to smoking 1/4 pack of cigarettes per day. Now it is worth mentioning that 4.0 is the EPA action level (which was set more than 30 year ago and was not entirely a health based decision). Studies by the World health organization reveal that the health risks of radon happen at lower level so the WHO has a level of 2.7 pico curies per liter. If you are a smoker, radon works synergistically with Radon so your risks are much higher.
Radon in homes is typically higher during the winter months so if you test in the summer and have low levels, It would still be a good idea to test again during the winter months.
I realize they’re not a priority nor your most popular video (not a revenue driver), but always wanted to say that I appreciate the occasional Tech Wednesday and I appreciate them when they pop up. All the best!
Good informative video Mark, but as a Subaru owner all my air gets filtered through a highly regulated and compliant vape pen and my fidget spinner provides adequate personal ventilation.
The Vape pen is the hidden solution.
I too like to make sure the exhaust fumes I inhale are BPA free.
😂
Bro fidget spinners… my favorite one broke into a thousand pieces and I wish I could get another one.
The only thing toxic in my house is the old ball and chain.
yeah, me too. my dick 'n ball offgas like CRAZY
I came to comment the exact same thing 😂😂
That’s right brother
I'm sure it's not you.
I’ll never understand why people marry someone they hate
This was an enjoyable detour from the usual diet of car content. Appreciate the same detail and style of discussion given to an important topic!
When it comes to filtration systems, lots of companies throw cheap garbage out there with misleading labels like HEPA like, HEPA style, HEPA type, 99% HEPA, etc. A True HEPA filter can get 99.97% of 0.3 micron sized particles, please check and make sure you're not wasting money on inefficient filters.
Makes me wonder how many individuals with “average” American home/apartment lifestyles suffer from chronic health issues and the cause could be right under their nose. Good info👍🏼
Don’t ever think these videos are “out of your depth”. You guys clearly do due diligence and it’s nice to see these types of videos.
Let’s see what type of RO systems Jack recommends for washing his Patagonia Better Sweater®️ next.
This is a good overview of air quality in the home and its potential impacts on health. The reason gas ranges suddenly received a lot of attention was a large study being published in December 2022 which found 12.7% of childhood asthma in the US is caused by the use of gas ranges.
Edit: If you have a gas range, or any natural gas at home, please make sure you have a Carbon Monoxide detector installed in your home.
Yeah... I'm sure it has nothing to do with the cartel that wants to eliminate fossil fuels and will do/say anything to equate them to health hazards. Meanwhile.... micro-plastics are everywhere - including our bodies - and not a peep.
Artificial chemical fragrances from candles and cleaners (as opposed to ones from nature) have some surprising effects on the endocrine system. With how incredibly well sealed out houses are becoming it's interesting to watch this video and seeing how the concentrations are becoming this toxic!
I used to burn candles and incense all the time before getting an air purifier and the thing went crazy. I boil incense now in a pot of water to get the same effect.
@@TheCoolOwenjust burn pure sage
My wife and I have had many a fight over yer use of artificial fragrance things in the cars and house. I am super sensitive to the smell of those artificial chemicals they put in there to extend the life of the fragrance, they give me headaches and nose bleeds...and yet she keeps buying them...
You need to ask your wife if having her house smells good is with her own husband being in pain from nosebleeds. If she doesn't care who's to have a serious talk with her and if she still doesn't change you need to have a more serious talk with her That's just not acceptable@@avotius
While this is absolutely true, it's worth noting that natural fragrances can be dangerous as well.
aerating essential oils can cause problems too
Thanks Mark, interesting info. Saw the title and assumed you would have mold as the biggest culprit with toxicity in our homes. The other topics definitely have value but mold appears to be a huge issue everywhere. Maybe a follow up session for mold? Car vids are awesome, keep up the great work!
Great video. If you really want to go down a rabbit hole, start researching pthalates and microplastics. They're in everything we own and the endocrine effects are well documented.
They are inside of us all now too - we are now becoming immortal, unable to be broken down over time.
That's the same meter I bought for my house when I moved in. We had high radon levels in the basement. We have radon mitigation but also have a Heat Recovery Ventilation system to constantly recirculate air down there, too. Great information 👍
Black mould is another hazard. Things like improperly insulated windows can condense in the winter, creating perfect conditions for mould.
This is a great psa, my dad recently got lung cancer and we found his basement had high levels of radon after his diagnosis. Now I’m right there with you in monitoring and improving air quality. In my apartment we don’t have ventilation for our gas stove like all apartments in New England. It’s crazy that we didn’t realize sooner running gas in the home was bad.
We didn't realise sooner it was bad, because it wasn't bad, or it wasn't anywhere near as bad.
Hermetically sealing a home that uses gas, to reduce heating energy needs, is bad.
Cooking with a gas cooker in a hermetically sealed home is bad.
Burning candles in a hermetically sealed home is bad.
Running a car engine in a hermetically sealed garage is bad.
Using domestic cleaning products in a hermetically sealed home is bad.
If you do all of these things in the middle of a field there isn't a problem. It is the hermetical sealing of homes that is the "new factor" causing the problem, or increasing the problem to much more of a concern.
There have been reports out for 30+ years now that gas stoves and ovens could/might impact asthma - I guess now the scientists have done even more work on the topic and decided that these appliances can cause issues for the general population. Ugh.
@@robinhood4640
There are many benefits to having a properly sealed home. All of your examples assume that outside air quality is good, which is not always the case for everyone.
Efficient heating and cooling, potential for the best air quality with proper filtration, keeps bugs and critters out, and it's likely to be a bit quieter inside.
Basically what is often looked over is that if you seal the walls, roof, and floor around you, then you have to take control of your air quality as well.
@@Chris-oj7ro I certainly wouldn't assume that outside air quality is good, because that doesn't exist anymore unfortunately.
Outside air quality, that isn't too bad, is generally better than indoor air pollution when a building is relatively well sealed and things are done inside that create bad air quality.
When it is said that indoor air quality can be up to 5 x more polluted than outdoor, this is generally referring to poorly ventilated homes with sources of bad air quality.
"Basically what is often looked over is that if you seal the walls, roof, and floor around you, then you have to take control of your air quality as well."
This is exactly what i was trying to say.
Excellent information for your vehicle focused audience that might not seek out these important topics otherwise. I currently live in a 1962 built house in Ohio that is toxic as h3ll, no radon mitigation, old gas furnace/water heater, leaky walls, etc. I was planning to remodel it, but I recently decided to do a tear down and rebuild instead. Due to all the issue with the current house that need correcting, there is little cost advantage to remodeling, not to mention I'd still have to make a lot of compromised on the layout. I've done a lot of research on these topics and I'm planning a very well designed, well built, all electric home, applying all the building science techniques that I've learned. Well done!
Good choice, old character homes while charming just aren't worth the hassle if you can afford to demolish and start new
@@BoneStack117 Agreed. I love the character of my old house but it has way too many problems. Also, I can't see spending half as much to remodel as it will cost to build the house I actually want. Doesn't make sense.
Don’t forget “Luxury” Vinyl Plank Flooring. So much off-gassing from cheap building materials.
And that “new car smell”
Makes me glad my parents ponied up for legitimate hardwood floors when I was a kid (which was no small thing for them to manage) instead of going with an engineered vinyl/laminate product.
My job has me in a lot of homes and that plastic flooring stuff is so garbage. It's also nearly impossible to clean paint off of unlike real wood flooring, almost every house with plastic floors has visible paint marks on the floor.
Parents bought a house a few years ago from a smoker for a steal price. All they did was clean the walls/ceilings, replace carpets, and HVAC filters. They've had serious health issues ever since buying it. Come to find out they were ranging from a PM 2.5 of 100-200. All the vents had to be cleaned and now they're below a 50.
Even 50 is really high..it.should be 0-10 at most.
@BoneStack117 Yeah it's been a struggle to figure everything out. They now spend most of their time in the upstairs because for whatever reason the pm 2.5 levels are below 20. They've hired some specialists to come in and figure it out.
Careful with a high cfm range, it can cause your boiler/furnace to backdraft carbon monoxide and other combustion byproducts into the house. You may need a make up air system for the furnace/boiler if the fan is too powerful. This is compounded when a bathroom fan, kitchen fan and the dryer are on simultaneously. That set my co alarm off in the past, the poor mans fix is to close the doors to the kitchen if you have them and crack the window so the fan has a continuous fresh air supply to draw from instead of drawing the air from the house.
Thank you for taking time to shed light on this from an easy to understand perspective! I was forced to take organic chemistry to complete requirements for a University program. It is hard to express how appreciative I am to have learned about the building blocks we all experience in life. Ignorance relating to dangers is wild to observe
Thank you for putting this video out! Its always crazy to see how many factors affect a home and with more research we learn. Its hard to keep up with all of it especially with older stuff breaking down like pipes that need to be fixed and and more. Didn't even know about these aspects. Much appreciated!
Humidity is also an important topic, especially in cold climates with central heating. I used to get nosebleeds until I got a humidifier.
This as awesome Mark and I love that you did this for so many reasons. I just order a home radon detection kit as I have been meaning to do this. Our subdivision is 12 years old and we have a passive radon mitigation system, but some neighbors said their house failed the radon test when they went to sell. Our subdivision was built just west of Randall Road in Carpentersville and as you know that was all farm land and much of it still is. THANK YOU and good luck with this type of content. I really hope it does great things for the channel.
Just got a radon mitigation system put in my 1950’s brick house in SLC Utah. Cost $1500 and levels went from ~7 down to .6 in living areas. Wish I hadn’t waited a full year before testing. I’m always blown away how few people know about radon when I bring it up. Great video!
At a previous home, we replaced the over-the range microwave with a true vent to the outside where we had to install ductwork going through the roof. In choosing the range hood, we were amazed that the majority of models had piddling power: 150-250 cfm. I wasn't confident that was sufficient for the 15-20 ft of ductwork that the fumes would have to traverse. We ended up with a model that cranked out 600 cfm and it was relatively affordable.
My current home is all electric, but I found this information very interesting. The area I grew up in was predominantly natural gas dependent. Upon becoming an adult, I moved away from that area to a more rural one. I see quite a few people from my old neighborhood who stayed, passing away at ages quite a bit younger than me. Obviously, many varied factors come into play here, but it also makes one wonder how much of what you mentioned here contributes in the long term.
It's almost as if everyone has to die eventually and you only pay attention to people you know who die.
Radon comes from the ground. It doesn't matter if you use natural or electric power.
@@pyromcrwhy would I pay attention to the ones who’s existence I’m not aware of? 😅
@@fyaglidereI was referring more to natural gas than radon.
@@romeofrosty Because you'd find there are plenty of people dying in your new area at the same ages as the ones you know of at your old area. You are jumping to conclusions to explain something that doesn't actually exist.
Really happy to see a tech Wednesday video back. Keep at it as these are super enjoyable to audiences outside of vehicles.
This was really informative, thanks for making this! I’d love to see more videos on this kind of tech for health-related things.
Thank you for making and releasing this video. I like the delivery and the intellectual honesty. Looking forward to watching more!
Great segment and video, I've been a long time viewer of the car reviews but this was a nice pivot. Reminded me to change the carbon filter on my air purifier (it was looking well used btw) and I ended up ordering an Airthings Corentium Home Radon Detector for $95 today for my basement, especially since I moved my home office downstairs last summer. Keep up the great videos!
This video reminded me that I needed to buy oven cleaner to clean the gas stove in my basement. Thanks Savagegeese, you're a lifesaver.
Great content, just bought a brand new build and got an Airthings meter. Has a passive radon pipe, heat recovery constant vent fan for the upstairs bathroom, and a range vent that goes to the outside. My radon is borderline, and I think I’ll still get an active fan installed.
I brought some rubber mats in for a basement gym, and wow the VOC spiked up for a week as they off gassed.
When you think this is the best channel for car reviews, savagegeese goes one step ahead and gives you tips for how to live a longer and better life. Thank you guys! Cheers from Ukraine!
this was SO good. thanks for speaking on this topic. it's something i've given a LOT of thought recently being a new parent. much love.
considering your automotive focus on engineering, materials, safety, interiors, and design, addressing this topic on your channel makes total sense to me. your videos that address broad trends within the industry and off-topic stuff have all been great.
This was a really nice video, and detour from cars. As I'm getting older and more into house renovations and learning about care, it's become a lot to take in and remember. This was extremely helpful, thank you Savagegeese!
An unintended benefit of more leaky, less well insulated houses is that stuff like radon doesn't build up as much. A tricky decision about radon is whether to bother installing a radon mitigation system if levels are lower in the 2 to 4 range. I've generally seen no, but some people like to minimize risk.
I grew up with natural gas, but have been happy with electric and don't think I'd choose to go with natural gas for cooking again. Unfortunately that means sacrificing some flexibility with woks.
Id probably consider a Bosch induction range next time but yeah, electric has gotten so much better. As far as the radon with the current meters you can search for areas of the home for hot spots with was very hard to do in the past and adjust for that. I have a nook in the stairwell from basement that is a trap for it. Had levels over 12 there, zero ventilation, so you avoid it, if its a one off I agree.
Air Circulation is a big problem in small apartments. Alot of apartments dont have in/outflow systems to cycle air in a room. The air can get stale and noticeably feel like we need a window open. Its no fun opening a window in the winter but its the only option. Fans help throughout the day, but nothing beats good old fresh air 😊
Would love to see a similar breakdown on whole house water filters. The dream is drinking water at every spout but it’s hard to navigate all of the different options and marketing vs reality. Thanks for doing a great job!
I recently went through this journey with my new house and bought an Airthings monitor. The big thing for me was keeping an eye on C02 buildup which I could physically feel after a few hours in my home office. This was also a big reason for staying with electric kitchen appliances vs gas.
The house had a radon system and it keeps up nicely but it does fluctuate depending on the weather.
Everyone I've recommended the Airthings monitor to had very high radon levels in the basement and even the first floor of their homes. It's wild to me how little visibility this issue gets. Great video!
Get and HRV or ERV!
I have a couple of the AirThings View Plus monitors and would highly recommend them for fairly accurate household readings. This past summer was seriously a bad year for air quality here in northern Illinois from wildfire smoke. We had several days in the level 4 criteria.
Is this a consequence of the boring cars in the mid-size SUV segment or because Jack won’t stop bringing up the superiority of the B-58 drivetrain?
Thanks for looking out for us and our families Mark!
This is very helpful. Since I've relocated my office to the basement I've been concerned about radon. I do have an active vent, but I still need to test. I had doubts about the accuracy of those meters versus the mailed in tests, so I'm glad to see that they're reasonably accurate.
Even if they aren't dead-on accurate, you'll at least get value from seeing relative changes (it logs all the different data it collects for a year and you can display the data in graphic format.) I purchased on of those Airthings meters and appreciate all the info it collects - Radon, PM 2.5, PM1, CO2, humidity, temperature, VOC, and barometric pressure. It costs more than those mail-in tests, but if you buy 3 or 4 of those tests it starts to add up. Plus it's another fun gadget 🙂
Please keep these videos coming!!Always have a concern on interior air quality and this video confirmed it.
I love that you care about stuff like this and make videos not caring what the algorithm thinks
I’m so glad that Mark was finally able to get into a halfway house. Very proud of you mark. And still I stand here glad for subscribing on the bidet video.
Thanks for this tone, this topic needs so much more exposure!
Thanks for posting this, I just moved to Western North Carolina and am house, shopping.this is my first time seeing radon mitigation systems. Good explanation
Really good video! I’m excited to see what other topics come up in the series
We just bought a house and didn't bother checking for radon. I respect the work you do on your channel and will follow the advice you've presented here. Thanks!
Its a lot like going to the doctor for a physical. You may put it off then finally go and realize you have high cholesterol or blood pressure. Sure you can ignore it, but why.
Shortly after we bought our house we heard a man down the street died of lung cancer despite never smoking.
Had our radon levels tested, they were through the roof. After mitigation it’s down to a nominal level.
Radon testing should be part of every home buying diligence process.
Hey Mark. This video gave me a kick in the butt and I did get both a proper oven vent installed and checked out radon levels as well. Measured well over 4.0 in the living room. After the mitigation system was installed I'm now measuring anywhere from 0.02-0.18.
Thats great, two things no longer to worry about. Its amazing how the Radon mitigation makes such a huge difference.
I'm really glad ypu brought this up. Radon gas is a worldwide crisis-level problem, but people don't realize how dangerous it can be. Simply put, it is the #1 cause of non-smoker lung cancer. And the fact that it is preventable is something very significant.
My wife died of non-smoker lung cancer. She was only 32. She was my soul mate, a NICU life flight nurse, a mother of 2 beautiful children.
Life is so delicate. Just like putting on your seatbelt each time you drive, it's worth taking steps to avoid certain dangers.
Most states have programs where you can get free testing to see what your Radon levels are.
Love this discussion. I've used single use radon tests in my basement but now I'm going to look into one of these digital monitors.
This was super random content but amazingly informative and unexpected to learn! Great video I loved it! Is there nothing SG can’t do? 😂
Love these types of deep dives, keep up the great work, Geese.
Great video! For a long time I had been trying to educate my family and friends regarding radon mitigation, water filtration, home air quality but nobody wanted to believe me and said I was being too crazy and silly and taking things out of context. Now I can share this video to support my claims 😅
I think if you care about your environment and long term health effects you should think, look and consider things more carefully.
The similar reason you should get your prostate checked regularly. 😂
Amazing episode! thank you ! I never heard about this devices at home !!!!
Actually said “wow” when I saw this video title and thumbnail. As a man approaching 30, it’s insane how much or homes, and especially diet, are literally killing us. Thank you so much for making this video
Surprised but good to see you talk about this topic. For me our home have to have these:
-Whole home water filter system
-Whole home air exchanger (super important to have fresh air constantly pumped into the house)
-Furnace fan has to run at least 30min/h to circulate air
-Proper radon mitigation system with active fan placed in the attic
-Kitchen air vent that cover the whole stove with actual duct venting out of the house
-Make up air system to balance the high CFM kitchen vent
-Duct / Vent for all furnace & Water heater
-Smart Whole home humidifier that linked / controllable through the main thermostat to maintain proper RH
-Temp / air sensors in multiple rooms
-Air purifier in every bedrooms
-Gasless dryer
Below are what I wanted as extras:
-220V/30A outlet right at the stove so we can ditch gas stove and for for electric one in the future
-Tilt windows with rubber seals (instead of shitty sliding windows/doors that leaks like crazy)
-Rockwool in every inside walls and floors / roof)
-220V-50A outlets in garage
American houses are really behind European houses when it comes to insulation and sound insulation. What we have that they don't is the whole home venting system but that also requires proper duct seal to prevent small particles /VOCs between floors/walls get sucked in and pushed out to our rooms.
Thank you for this bit. Bought our current home with a ventless gas fireplace, (yes you read that correctly) of course installed in the "living room". We live in a state where these installs are not outlawed and probably should be. We personally rarely use it because of the uneasy feeling we get when firing it on, typically used for power outage situations as secondary heat. I'm definitely looking into one of the wall mount sensors.
What a great deal of information, thank you! Seriously, many thanks!
Since this is a car channel, also worth to mention that connected garages can also leak car exhausts into the house
I follow you for the car content, but this video is super informational. I didn't know about radon until about late last year, luckily a 3-day test came back with lower than average levels. It's crazy how bad this stuff is for you, you'd think information about it would be everywhere.
Nice perspective, also like that your'e branching out, that audioholics episode was also good. As always nice work.
I like these Wednesday technology episodes. Keep it up. Just subscribe for the first time
I can't get over how the font on the airthings device is perfectly matched to your guys' channel font... chef's kiss!
Usually I drop a sarcastic comment but there is a lot of good information here and I appreciate you taking the time to break these hazards down.
Thank you! I try to talk about gas stoves and usually get the typical response. I'll try to share this video. Did not know the radon problem!
Savagegeese, thank you so much. Thank you for doing this research for us, and sharing it. I appreciate it!
This will spur me to do run the fan behind my gas cooktop more often. Thank you for this video.
My cooktop is on an island and the fan is at the back, just a few inches above the pots and pans. That isn't as effective as an overhead fan, but it does vent to the outside thru an underground duct. Kinda crazy design.
Why wouldn’t you use it every time you cook? That’s pretty strange.
@@ThePwigBecause the fan is noisy and the suction alters the flame pattern. And as Mark said, the threat is "out of sight, out of mind," so I didn't appreciate the danger.
I bought one of the Airthings meters a year or two ago because we wanted to know about radon in our house. Living in CA, it turned out our levels are super low. The pm 2.5 levels, with the fires in and near CA, turned out to be very helpful too. I haven't ever seen that Nuwave air purifier before but it sounds really good. We have four Blueair filters, but the problem with the older series is that there's no prefilter, so the main filter gets all plugged up with dust before 6 months goes by. So we got another Blueair with a cloth washable prefilter.
This is another excellent, informative, and quite thorough video... I do not have a gas stove, but my father grew up with one and a wood stove. He developed health problems and eventually passed away because of a combination of diseases.
Other issues in older homes include lead-based paint and ACM (asbestos-containing material).
Awesome video. I'm so glad you talked about all these topics; the average person is so uneducated on all this shit and it's costing people's time on earth, and society its money. I think it'd be really cool if you did a video on modern electric stoves as a continuation of this. Modern induction stoves are so good, I wish that we had one instead of our propane stove. Maybe one day I can get us setup with one.
Side note, I don't know how common they are around you, but wood burning stoves are another god awful thing in neighbourhoods. It's like, everything bad about gas ranges except your whole neighbourhood gets to experience it too. I have neighbours that have wood stoves and no matter how "clean" they burn it, it penetrates my house. I can tell when they are wood to their stove just from the spike in the smell. We have an HRV system which has a basic filter, but we supplement it with an air purifier. It helps, and PM2.5 is well controlled, but the smell lingers. I read a report that showed that, where I live, the 10% of homes that burn wood generate more particulate pollution that our entire cities industrial sector, what the actual fuck. Fuck wood stoves.
This was good, wanted to echo the divergence from cars but still with the amount of detail and awesome production levels!
I moved from Michigan a few years ago and I had a Radon system installed. A man in our area had died in his 40’s (nonsmoker) from high radon. Your fan will last 7-10 years and is easily DIY replaced. Do not have a microwave over your range. Get at least a 1200 cfm exhaust fan that vents outside. Use the fan anytime the gas is on even if you are not cooking smelly food. I live in WA now and we have a whole house fan on a timer that gives air exchange. I use a Honeywell portable filter that we move from room to room. I would not vacuum those filters indoors as most vacs have a certain amount of blow by. Another topic is putting a higher MERV rating filter in your furnace. Check what your furnace system can handle as high filtration means more resistance.
Nice! Please do more of these. Great content as usual.
Thanks for the vid. Also, local govts also may have free test kits or reduced rates for radon, etc. check at city/county level too
Great and timely video Mark. The airthings wave plus is good, but does not refresh quick enough. Radoneye is better if you want to track radon spikes. I also highly recommend the DIYish AirGradient device, lacks radon but it does index nox and VOCs. Ive kept them wide by side with the wave plus and it certainly is nore accurate, not to mention quicker reading.
I didn't know most of this. Thanks, Mark!
Going to start sending this to all of my clients. Thank you lol
Thanks for finally pushing me over the edge to get a radon detector. I've been thinking about it on and off for a few months, since my office has now moved to my basement 👍
good info. other car channels dont even mention stuff about radon coming from the ground :)
Very eye opening, thank you!
I wish there were a tech Wednesday every Wednesday
Great video, would enjoy more content like this from you guys.
Just had a mitigation system put in after testing showed it was averaging 5-6pCi/l in my basement. It's now averaging about 0.5. It was a couple thousand dollars but worth it for the peace of mind and long term health benefits.
Great info. Thank you.
Gotta say it's pretty cool that you consider these things important enough to talk about and educate people on. Thanks a ton. You ever use DMSO? Instant pain relief? It's the most valuable piece of information I have for people our age. Headaches, toothaches, sprains, back ache, cuts, etc. Chop finger off. Put a single drop of 50/50 DMSO/water and rub it around the area and within 45 secs.... no pain. It's natural and works. If there were profits to be made.... we would all be using it. edit: On ama zn you can read reviews of how people use it and testimony.
On particulates...I developed adult onset asthma about 4 years ago after a bad case of bronchitis. Before agreeing to go on expensive inhalers indefinitely I decided to purchase an air purifier that covered 1,000sq ft which more than covered my main living space. After 3 months the asthma symptoms had all but vanished. I have always had allergies so occasionally it would still flare up during spring and fall.
On natural gas ovens/stove tops...when I was remodeling my kitchen I had an old electric unit and wanted to upgrade to either natural gas or induction. After looking at the pros and cons to both I went with induction. Everything leaned gas until I found out how much it would cost to have a legit ventilation system put in. I've had the induction stovetop (with electric oven which I don't use that much) for 6 years and love it. The cookware issue involved some upfront cost, but cookware lasts a long time if maintained properly and became a non-issue over time (a lot cheaper than having a legit ventilation system installed).
Wow, these tech wednesday videos are amazing. I know they don't get the views like the car videos but I hope you continue to have fun making them cause I like watching them!
Great video and crazy good visuals
Thanks for bringing up these topics! Next, look into phthalates, microplastics, flame retardants, and endocrine disruptors?
Very interesting - clear information. We'll done
I have a townhouse with a gas range. The vent does not go outside. I added a stand alone air filter last summer due to Canadian wild fires (I'm in Minnesota). Added an induction "hot plate" and use it almost exclusively to avoid using the gas burners. It's fantastic! So controllable, repeatable ... Hoping to replace my range someday with an induction model.
Keep in mind that if you're generating any sizzle or smoke on an induction range, you're still producing a lot of particulates.
I recently did an oil to gas conversion in my house with all new furnace, A/C, and tankless water heater. My HVAC contractor recommended getting an Airthings monitor for added peace of mind. I bought one from Amazon and plan on setting it up soon.
I live with my wife in my parents’ basement with low ceilings and the heat coming off the stovetop or oven becomes very noticeable after a few minutes of cooking or baking, and thats with range hood that vents outside. Granted, our range hood has bad airflow and isn’t very efficient. New habit of ours is opening the living room window to help bring fresh air in as the hood tried to evacuate the bad air out.
Excellent information - thank you! We’re replacing our gas stoves (due for replacement anyways) with hopefully induction.
If I did it again Id go Bosch Induction with max warranty.