Energy-Efficient Homes
As northerners seal up their homes to save on heating costs, they run the danger of a problem most of us have not thought much about--the quality of air inside the house.
Indoor air pollution is a different beast from the one that sometimes pervades the out-of-doors. In the old days, the energy-efficient Eskimo sod house had a serious problem with smoke from seal-oil lamps and a central open-pit fire. Years of exposure created soot deposits within the inhabitants' lungs equal to that encountered by today's habitual cigarette smokers.
Most modern homes--especially mobile homes--contain materials such as plywood and foam insulation, either as part of the structure or in furniture. Michael Gold, writing in the March/April issue of Science 80, notes that these materials release a dangerous pollutant, formaldehyde. The formaldehyde evaporates from processed wood walls and from couches, beds and other furniture. In some newly insulated homes, the concentration of formaldehyde in the air is high enough to cause dizziness, rashes, nosebleeds and vomiting. It also is thought to cause cancer.
A defense mechanism against such problems is to maintain adequate ventilation in a house. That means bringing in new air from outside, the very thing we try to avoid with weather stripping and similar heat conservation methods. One strategy is to use heat exchangers to heat incoming cold air with warm, stale air being ejected from the building.
