A balanced air-change system is a fan operated system that forces out stale air through exhaust ducts and forces in an equal amount of fresh air through controlled intake ducts. The difference between this and a central exhaust system is that the input air is under active control and balance...
Dry rot is actually a fungal growth that destroys the cell structure of wood. In order to grow it requires moisture, oxygen, and warmth. Once started it will not grow in the winter, but it will survive and continue to grow during whatever periods of time provide its three necessary conditio...
No insulating materials on the market in Canada today have asbestos fibers in them. Most of the scare a few years back about asbestos came from acoustic tiles, asbestos linings in ventilation ducts, and asbestos insulators in heating devices such as hair dryers. It was also discovered that ...
There are so many different insulating materials that it is quite confusing. I have tried to pull together information on the most common types from the manufacturers, the critics, the contractors and the researchers. Usually this information seemed to me to be either too simplified or too ...
Grandpa had winter air quality problems in his house -- it was always too dry and an occasional back draft would fill the room with smoke. Other than that, pollution or the absence of air didn't pose a problem. Why? His drafty old house worked like a fresh running stream -- it continually ...
In a house of any size it is easy to get sufficient oxygen for breathing. If a combustion furnace is not operating you could live for days on the oxygen in your house with no fresh air at all. What we often mistake for a lack of oxygen is a concentration of pollutants. Carbon dioxide (CO2) for...
Yes. Too many windows facing south in an ordinary house can cause over heating. A window area on the south side of not more than 6 per cent of the total floor space of your house (counting a heated basement) should cause no problems. More than that and you have created half a solar house -...
One of our viewers asks the question for a friend of hers, how do you get squirrels out of the attic?First you must prepare to keep them out, even if they are already well nested in your warm comfortable attic. That means installing solid screen mesh over every possible entry -- some of the mo...
Blue dye is put into some de-icers to let you know where you have applied it. Will it stain the paving bricks? The answer is -- maybe.As long as the dye stays on the surface, the sunlight will quickly break it down and it will lose its blue colour. If you have quality paving stones (which are d...
When scientists measure the movement of heat (thermal transfer) through a material, they calculate it in something called the U-factor, a measure of thermal conductivity. A small number indicates a material that conducts heat poorly and a high one indicates a material that conducts heat well....
