So the inaugural post in the “Random” category was supposed to be about new car detailing stuff and foam cannons (woohooo!), but my foam cannon is still in the mail, so … next time! Instead: something completely different.
I’ve been a bit more interested in air quality lately, kind of adjacent to optimizing how good you feel and all of that. I just bought a Aranet4 CO2 sensor for kicks, calibrated it, and found out that the CO2 in my bedroom was … gulp … 1200ppm at 7pm at night and I wasn’t even in that room all day! After opening the windows for just 5 minutes, it was down to 507 already. Whoa.
Not only was the CO2 in “cognitive impairment” territory, there was an easy fix I could have done to fix it almost instantly.
Basically I think this means I don’t open my windows nearly enough. In the summer, we may say it’s too humid outside, but if you open windows for a short amount of time it doesn’t let that much more humidity in. What if it’s not the humidity that makes us feel bad in Summer, but the fact that we don’t open our windows enough? Yikes. If so, I’ve been depriving myself of enough oxygen in the Summer for years.
If you want some background info on CO2 effects, this Popular Science article is really good. I think most of us have experienced conference room brain-fog or headaches. It bothers me a bit that the only way to combat indoor CO2 is with outdoor air, and we are in the process of kind of jacking up outdoor CO2 permanently with our poor attention to protecting the environment.
Anyway, this morning, after a night with the windows closed, I see the CO2 is now at about 600 ppm, so I’ll see if that stabilizes or not. This may just indicate that windows need to be opened for 15 minutes or so a couple of times a week, or it might last longer. It does seem that leaving a bedroom door open or closed doesn’t make a big difference. My attic room which I haven’t been in is still sitting around 540 ppm. I think all of this a pretty good sign, just that humans being inside doesn’t instantly doom us to living in an environment where the levels are going to be too high and where windows need to be open too often.
Other things that seem to help the indoor environment and are somewhat measureable:
get a really good purifier or two, not just what you think is a good one. I thought I had some good ones before, but, maybe no? Anyway, most of the Google reviews/sites are referrer-link/content-farm crap pretending to be good, so I’ll share what I am doing. I used to run a couple of Coway 400s that I thought were good, but have recently upgraded to some AustinAir models that seem to be easily 10 times more effective and will probably be donating the Coways. I can tell I can breathe significantly better when waking up in the morning after just a few days of having them. I bought a “Bedroom Machine” and a “Healthmate Plus” model for downstairs. Unlike all the other options, they are made in the USA and built out of metal. When running on high, the Austins also work as a pretty loud white noise generator if you miss the sound of your old college dorm air handler (which I do - not remotely sarcastically). Lots of reviews on these things focus on PM 25 (particles), but gas filtration is also good stuff and important. (An example: MDF off-gasses formaldehyde and surprisingly may be what the molding in your newer house is made out of). Worth noting no filter here can help with CO2.
clean your carpets with a proper carpet cleaner (I bought a Bissell Big Green Machine recently) and remark on how gross all the water is. You stir up dust and things when you walk around. I’m probably not going to get rid of my carpet as I kind of like it otherwise. Don’t wear outside shoes inside.
if you have carpet, maybe think about upgrading your vacuum cleaner. I thought they were overpriced plastic junk before I got one a few years ago but the Dyson v11 outsize I have (discontinued, apparently) is about 10x better than an Oreck or a Roomba - it gets up a lot of dust/dirt that other things didn’t touch.
maybe consider washing your blankets more frequently as they collect a lot of dust - possibly on a higher-temperature or allergen setting if you want to try to kill dust mites (I’m not entirely sure this is 100% effective, but it’s something to try). This is noticeable if you shake them in front of a PM 25 sensor and you’re breathing that stuff.
I hope this makes some of you a tiny bit smarter and/or happier, because air quality isn’t something we often think about and it can sneak up on you - we get used to our environment and assume it’s normal/good, when sometimes it isn’t quite as good as we think.
Next up: foam cannons, I hope!