[Greenbuilding] Stale Air

[Stephen Collette]

Thanks for your thoughts John. I am wondering how useful the measurement of CO2 in homes is. I have a CO meter and pull it out on occasion and to my memory have not found anything with it in a home. Typically with a couple of people or small family in a single family dwelling, I wonder whether they alone could ever get the levels up to something dangerous? Now blended families or extended families all living under one roof, I think that may be possible. 

I'm not disagreeing with you at all, what you are saying is what I talk about too, but again, is it actually valid? I don't know, and hence the head scratching. 

Grateful for your time thinking about this.

Stephen

Stephen Collette BBEC, LEED AP, BSSO
Your Healthy House - Indoor Environmental Testing & Building Consulting
http://www.yourhealthyhouse.ca
stephen at yourhealthyhouse.ca
705.652.5159


> Hi,
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> There are a lot of adjectives for air – stale, stagnant, dead, fetid…
> Air basically means for us oxygen as a requirement – so stale air could simply be oxygen poor air.
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> With ashrae I guess there is adequate ventilation and inadequate ventilation and stale would be an excess of unventilated air (stale??). Ashrae uses co2 concentrations as the indicator for adequate ventilation so there definition is ppm for various uses.
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> In emergency first aid I measure ventilation rates,  blood oxygen levels as well of level of consciousness – all of which could reveal an emergency condition in students in a classroom at the end of a day subject to averaged ventilation and subsequent ‘stale’ air. Tidal volume (breath) is about 500ml with about 14% oxygen and 4.4% co2 exhaled – outside air is about 21% oxygen and .04% co2.
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> So a significant amount of c02 is released on each breath in comparison to the intake – so we could say that ‘stale air’ is any air exhaled.
>  
> Fun question.
> John
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