Winter Wellness: Top 10 Tricks for Cleaner Indoor Air

Eric G.: 00:01:34

It's around the House.

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One of the biggest ones is mistakes we make storing things inside our house and that is storing paints and chemicals in your home.

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Now some of the things, if you do indoor air quality, it's all those chemicals in that attached garage.

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It's the paints, it's the brake cleaners, it's all of those things that you do if you're handy, those things can give off lots of chemicals and they're best kept outside in a shed inside that garage.

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And, and if you can keep it so it's not attached to the house, that stuff loves.

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Especially if your heating and cooling system is sitting out in the garage.

Eric G.: 00:02:09

Round the House show is brought to you by Pyramid Heating and Cooling serving in Oregon, the Portland metro area and Bend, Oregon.

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They are your one stop shop for heating and cooling and indoor air quality.

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pyramidheating.com Oregon CCB: 59382

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This is around the House.

Eric G.: 00:02:34

Welcome to the Round the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

Eric G.: 00:02:38

I'm Eric G.

Eric G.: 00:02:39

Thanks for joining me today.

Eric G.: 00:02:40

Whether you're on the Talk Media Network or streaming or if you're checking us on the podcast, I do appreciate you.

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Thanks for tuning in today.

Eric G.: 00:02:49

Man.

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We are into November and I can't believe where this year has gone.

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This fall it is speeding up quick and we are heading towards the holidays.

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So that's just what happens.

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Today's episode is brought to you by our friends over at Monument Grills.

Eric G.: 00:03:02

If you're trying to get ready for barbecue for the, oh, just maybe the holidays here you like cooking that turkey outside because you got so many people coming over that one oven is packed up.

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Check out monumentgrills.com they can get you hooked up and their barbecues are under 900 bucks.

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So if you're looking for something quality that I would cook on, if you're looking for a propane barbecue, it's a great way to go.

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Check them out@moneymcrills.com today to talk about my top 10 tricks and tips for healthy indoor air quality for fall and winter, we're going to be standing spending more time insides for many of us.

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Now all of you in the tropical areas out there, I'm a little jealous.

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This is our time to be inside, catch up on some TV shows and enjoy the holidays.

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If I was out at the beach, I'd be enjoying it too.

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But for Everybody that's worried about indoor air quality, this show here, this hour, is for you.

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Now, one of the biggest problems we end up with here, it doesn't matter in the continental United States, if you're in the north, you're in the south.

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Wherever you're at, humidity is an issue, but it's on two different ends of the spectrum.

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Now, here's what can happen.

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You get up north, depending on your heating source, it can get really dry.

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Inside, the air is dry, your skin's cracking, your nose is itching, the static electricity is high, and that's probably because you're below 30% humidity.

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And then some of us, in the warmer weather, we're getting a lot of rain.

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It's humid, it's foggy outside, and we're over 50% inside.

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And then once you get over 60%, you're getting into mold conditions, and that's where the mold's going to be growing.

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Anywhere that is cool, damp, and has food, you've got the humidity, which is the harder part.

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Now it's going to take off growing, and that's when you get into maybe that hall closet and you're moving some jackets around, you go, whoa, that's black back there.

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Different colors.

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That's where you got to watch out for that.

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So humidity can be a problem there.

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So really, you need to be.

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First rule here is to be watching your humidity.

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Depending on the area, you can be.

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You want to keep that house between 30 and 50% relative humidity, and it can be pretty easy to add it.

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And there's a lot of little tricks and stuff to do it.

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And removing it can be a little more troublesome because it can be more humid in one spot and not so much in another.

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So hear me out here.

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We're going to talk about this segment here and dive into the humidity world.

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So I want you to measure humidity in different areas, including that basement.

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And that's probably one of the key ones right there.

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So laundry rooms, basements, bathrooms, kitchens, living rooms.

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Get an idea what's going on and keep an eye on it.

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Do you need to go out and buy, like, six sensors?

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No, but my easy trick for this is to jump online and buy a weather station, one of the ones that have the battery piece you put outside.

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It'll give you an inside and outside humidity, and then you can measure that twice so you can plug that unit in someplace.

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Take the little outside sensor, put it down in the basement, see what it's doing down there.

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Put it in the bathroom, see what it's doing in there.

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And then you can keep track over a few weeks of what's going on as the weather changes.

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Because you can be 45% up in the living room and being great.

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And you're at 70% down in the basement.

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Now you're molding up the whole house because a majority of that air in your crawl space and basement works its way up through convection into the home.

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So that's one of those things that you can be really causing problems.

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So you want to make sure and track.

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And it's really easy to do.

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You can spend 30, 40 bucks on Amazon and get something to test yourself with as far as that humidity.

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And you can control test in a few places.

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So that makes it pretty easy on that front.

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Now, ways to add it.

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There's ways to add it and there's ways that can cause a little more air quality issues.

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So if you have an electric range, you can just put that stock pot on, put some clean water in there, and give yourself some steam.

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It's a little bit different if you've got a gas range in there.

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Because I want to turn the vent fan on to vent off the chemicals of that burning.

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You should be turning that vent fan on when you're starting up a gas burner.

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I'm not always good at that, I'll be the first to tell you, but it's a good habit to have.

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But if you're going to be boiling water and adding some humidity, that's one way to do it.

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Now, I don't suggest not turning on the bath fans because you want to get when you take a shower, because even though that will add humidity, it's going to add contaminated humidity.

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You're going to have the soaps, the chemicals, all of those things that come out in that shower.

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So it might not be good just to do that.

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So I would still use the fans correctly, but if you got an electric range there, boil some water.

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But you can do that.

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That's one way to do it.

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I've seen people sit there and just take some damp towels or mop their floors a couple extra times, get the house really clean.

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That water will.

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Will come up and suck into the air pretty good.

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And you can be cleaning and that adds some of the things that you do though, around the house can add extra humidity, like painting and things like that.

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But that's also off gassing other chemicals.

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So that's not the.

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Not the best way to add humidity, though.

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That will give you false numbers for a short period of time until that humidity goes back down.

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So cooking, boiling, those kind of things really can add to humidity inside the house.

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So if you really monitor that, that's going to really be a thing.

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Because once you get into too humid now you've got all these different things that can happen from mold to just everything out.

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Pests love it.

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It's just a hot mess.

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So watching that humidity is a big issue with indoor air quality.

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Now other thing is here to wrap up the humidity discussion is using your kitchen fan, using your bathroom fans and using them correctly.

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Make sure those are working in those spaces that will help with humidity.

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So that's it right there.

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Take a look at it.

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If you have a damp, humid basement, I am not a fan of going out and buying three or four of those little tiny off the shelf, Target, Home Depot, Walmart little units and putting them around there and plugging them into a 110 outlet and letting them go one.

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If you've got an older one, there's a decent chance it's on a recall list for starting a fire because there's millions of them still out there that haven't been turned in.

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That could be its own fire hazard.

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Second of all, here's the other part of this.

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You want to go in and put in a built in unit either into your H Vac system or if it's a basement or crawl space, put it down in there where it's going to be a built in unit for that space that's properly sized.

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Santa Fe, a lot of people make different branded ones out there that are built in ones and they basically bolt in and you're good to go.

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But anything that you build in, you're going to have to have a dedicated drain line which is smart, so that drains correctly.

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Probably have annual service.

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Most of them have filters that you need to make sure and clean.

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And of course they're just way more efficient and they're much more durable.

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So you're not going to be tossing them away every couple years because they broke.

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So this is the nice thing about putting something in there.

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You pay for it once, save you money over the long run and do a much better job because it's sized for the space and you're not just trying to make something work.

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And so that's the secret right there.

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And that's where you get a hold of the companies.

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If you tackle as a DIY project or have your local H Vac professional come in and put it in, it's all pretty simple.

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You'll need some power and a place to put that drain line that gets the water well away from that space.

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And just like anything with a crawl space or basement, if you've got a sump pump down there, make sure that that drain is going into either a system that's getting the water away from the house.

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I mean like 10, 20ft away.

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Don't have it.

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Just dump it right back outside because you probably have a fountain because that water is just going to creep back in the space and go back into that sump pump.

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I have actually had basement leaks where I unplugged the sump pump and realized that majority of the water coming in was because it was going outside about five feet and it found a way back in and it just had a circular pump going.

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And the guy was just wasting electricity.

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Spent hundreds of dollars on electricity because he didn't have an extra 10ft of PVC pipe on that thing.

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Buried in could have been so much easier and so much better for the environment as well.

Eric G.: 00:11:11

If you want to find out more, head over to around the house online.com around the house.

Eric G.: 00:11:16

We'll be right back.

Eric G.: 00:11:17

Don't change that dial.

Satchel: 00:11:35

Instrument.

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What's up?

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This is sticks it in you and.

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Satchel from Steel panther and you are listening to around the house with Eric.

Eric G.: 00:11:47

G.

Eric G.: 00:11:48

Yeah, we love Eric G.

Eric G.: 00:11:50

And you should too.

Satchel: 00:11:53

1987.

Eric G.: 00:11:56

Welcome back to the around the house show.

Eric G.: 00:11:57

The next generation of home improvement.

Eric G.: 00:11:59

Thanks for joining me today.

Eric G.: 00:12:00

I'm Eric G.

Eric G.: 00:12:02

And this house brought to you by our friends over at Monument grills.

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If you're looking for that brand new barbecue, check them out@monumentgrills.com just in time for the holidays here.

Eric G.: 00:12:11

And who knows, you never know what could be coming up in sales as well.

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Those guys always have a trick up their sleeve trying to save you money.

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If you're looking for something high quality made by a handful of friends that designed out this from Atlanta, Georgia.

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Check it out.

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Montymcrills.com well, people have been asking me, hey, what's with your voice, man?

Eric G.: 00:12:30

It sounds a little tired.

Eric G.: 00:12:32

Yeah, it is.

Eric G.: 00:12:33

I was down here for about the last week.

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It snuck up on me.

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I had a cold and I haven't been really sick in like three years.

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But I tell you what, man, this cold not Covid took the crazy test, said no.

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So this cold, man, it put me down.

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And when you don't get colds a lot and it comes in, it hits like a freight train.

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And this one did.

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When I'm.

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When I'm down in bed for a couple days not wanting to Move and just resting, which is what I'm supposed to do.

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But I'm just not good at it.

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Usually just power through it.

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This time it took me down a couple notches.

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So I got to get a little R and R and lots of sleep and try to rest it off.

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And my steam shower did the job.

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I tell you what, I was using that thing three or four times a day just to clear my head and get my body temperature up really and kind of try to induce a little bit of a fever in a way just to see if I could help my body.

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And I threw everything at it.

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Vitamin C, the zinc stuff in your nose, all the crud.

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And it's still, you know, it came back pretty quickly.

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But this was a difficult one and Well, I made 80% now.

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So I'm just going to say that feeling better and hopefully here soon I'll be back to 100%.

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But I wanted to do a show here today for you guys to really help with indoor air quality and everything else.

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And so that's what we're doing today, Talking about my 10 tricks and tips for indoor quality air for fall and winter.

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So we were just talking humidity last segment and the next one here is probably the biggest one.

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And people are going to ask me what brand should I use.

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I'm going to put up here just because we have people all across the country in about four or five time zones across the U.S.

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i want to make sure in our audience that people can find this stuff.

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So what I'm going to do is I'm going to put a little page up on around the house online with some brands on, you know, from a retailer most people can get to, like Amazon.

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And I'll put up some stuff up there so you can find where those out on my homepage there.

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I'll just put up a air quality monitor thing and get an idea and get that out for you guys so you can take a look at some of the stuff that I think might work okay without spending a ton of money.

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Something that's going to be affordable for you because we're going to talk here about monitoring your air quality.

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Now what I'm looking for is a couple things.

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You know, it is interesting when you're talking air quality monitors because I've tested a few out and they really can give you solid information if you, if you monitor correctly and pay attention to it.

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Now I've got one made by the Bro by Bro Newtone that's sitting in my house and I move it around from area to area and take a look at what my AQI is in the house.

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And that really starts to tell me what's going on.

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And I noticed, though, at times it's green, it's looking good.

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I've got a low aqi.

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But then I turn around and go, hey, that thing's yellow.

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What's going on?

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And sometimes it's little things, like my robotic mop has been cleaning, and maybe it got, you know, things up there pretty high.

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So I start to wonder, okay, what got us into that yellow zone?

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Now, I've never had it up into the red zone, but sometimes you look at it and go, okay, what is it?

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It could be a bunch of different things.

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It could be CO2 that's showing up there.

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So maybe we've got a bunch of people in the house, and we don't have a lot of fresh air.

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Could be humidity.

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It could be our TVOC, which is that total VOCs.

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That could be an interesting one.

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So that's where I go, okay, that's one of those things you go, hmm, what is it?

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That could be anything from chemicals.

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It could be a new piece of furniture.

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Could be you painted something.

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You just don't know.

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And so those are always things that you can take a look at and go, okay, what is causing that?

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And then the other one here that I think is really important is going to be the PM2.5.

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And that PM2.5 is where it gets interesting.

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So that is what happens is you've got particulate matter, you've got dirty air, you got stuff floating around.

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It's not looking awesome.

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And then you've got issues.

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So that's where you really want to pay attention to what's going on.

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Like, if I pull up my phone right now, you know, I'm looking good.

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It's in the green.

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Things are pretty decent.

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And so that's where I kind of like to look at it and say, okay, how are things looking as far as fresh air?

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But I can see I need more work to be done.

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You know, I'm very low on my CO2.

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My total VOCs right now are 0.88.

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Still in the green, but a little high.

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My PM 2.5 is really low at 1.41.

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And my humidity, because it's foggy outside.

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And this right now is sitting right next to my dog door.

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So I have it within 6 inches of an exterior opening.

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So if the dogs come in and out, it's pretty easy for that to get up there.

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It's at 59% which means it's close.

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But I bet if I move in another couple feet and plug it into an outlet, it's going to be much better.

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So you have to think about where you're putting it.

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But I move this thing around just to see what's going on.

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And you can really see what you're adding to the home.

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So if you put it in the bathroom and you don't turn the vent fan on and someone's doing makeup, someone's doing their hair, there anything coming out of a spray can, whether you're misting on, you know, a shower cleaner or anything else, you can see those numbers on the TVOCs, the total VOCs go absolutely nuts.

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And you go, wow, better turn the bath fan on.

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And that really shows you how those things really affect your indoor air quality.

Eric G.: 00:18:14

Now I can watch my humidity go up because in the house, one of the biggest causes for humidity in my house, because I have two story home, I've got hard floors everywhere and a crawl space down below.

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Now if I turn my robotic vacuum on and floor mop and I floor mop the thing really well, it air dries the floor afterwards.

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So it really spikes the humidity up in there a little bit as that water comes up.

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Now, it doesn't use a ton of water.

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It might mop the whole thing with, you know, it's cups, not gallons of water, but it does a really good job of that efficiently, so it doesn't put a lot of moisture down.

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However, you can still see the humidity spike up.

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Now, there's ways to deal with that, which we'll talk about later in the show.

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I always think that you should be monitoring your air quality in certain rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms, your kitchen, basement, laundry, and near a garage if possible.

Eric G.: 00:19:09

And you can use that to kind of troubleshoot things.

Eric G.: 00:19:13

Now, to me, this doesn't really replace air testing, but it does give you an idea of what some of the top, you know, five or six things you should be tracking down.

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So make sure that you're keeping an eye on it and that you've got a plan for that.

Eric G.: 00:19:26

But if you're really worried about just indoor, you know, air quality, there's things like that that can happen.

Eric G.: 00:19:31

Now I have in my house a really cool skylight that is by Velox.

Eric G.: 00:19:38

And what it does is if my CO2 gets too high in the house, like I got a bunch of friends over, guess what happens?

Eric G.: 00:19:44

It opens up.

Eric G.: 00:19:45

If it's not raining and it'll vent until the it goes back down again, then you're good to go.

Eric G.: 00:19:50

So that is a nice little feature with that.

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So if you're putting in a skylight, spend a little extra money, get something that's solar powered, like that doesn't mean power.

Eric G.: 00:19:58

And it will open up and vent out.

Eric G.: 00:20:00

All right.

Eric G.: 00:20:00

We come back, we're going to talk about some big ones that contribute to this that you won't want to miss.

Eric G.: 00:20:05

Thanks for tuning in around the house.

Eric G.: 00:20:06

We'll be back after these important messages and continue this about our top 10 tricks and tips for a healthy indoor air quality for fall and winter.

Eric G.: 00:20:14

We'll be right back.

Satchel: 00:20:18

I believe it's true.

Satchel: 00:20:21

No, not from you, not from anybody.

Eric G.: 00:20:31

Hey, this is Ron Keel, the metal cowboy from Kiel, the Ron Kiel Band and Stealer.

Eric G.: 00:20:37

We are rocking around the house with Eric G.

Eric G.: 00:20:40

Ray is your fierce.

Satchel: 00:20:42

Thank you.

Eric G.: 00:20:43

Welcome back to the around the HOUSE show, the next generation of home improvement.

Eric G.: 00:20:45

Thanks for joining.

Eric G.: 00:20:46

Join me today.

Eric G.: 00:20:47

I'm Eric G.

Eric G.: 00:20:48

This segment is brought to you by our friends over at Monument Grills.

Eric G.: 00:20:51

To check them out, head to monumentgrills.com for affordable grills under 900 bucks.

Eric G.: 00:20:57

Now we've been talking about really fixing up that indoor air quality.

Eric G.: 00:21:01

And if you're just joining us on the radio, we talked about watching that humidity, monitoring your air quality, all the tricks and tips for that.

Eric G.: 00:21:07

So we're going to have to blast through the rest of my list because we really started going only with one or two in the first two segments.

Eric G.: 00:21:14

So we got eight more to go.

Eric G.: 00:21:15

So we're going to rock, rock through these here.

Eric G.: 00:21:17

One of the biggest ones is mistakes we make storing things inside our house and that is storing paints and chemicals in your home.

Eric G.: 00:21:23

Now, some of the things, if you do indoor air quality, it's all those chemicals in that attached garage.

Eric G.: 00:21:28

It's the paints, it's the brake cleaners.

Eric G.: 00:21:31

It's all of those things that you do if you're handy, those things can give off lots of chemicals and they're best kept outside in a shed inside that garage.

Eric G.: 00:21:43

And if you can keep it so it's not attached to the house, that stuff loves.

Eric G.: 00:21:48

Especially if your heating and cooling system is sitting out in the garage, that stuff loves get sucked in there through any cracks, crevices in that system.

Eric G.: 00:21:56

And so when you can, when at all possible, keep them out of that attached garage.

Eric G.: 00:22:02

And really unless there's a reason you have to, like you're in North Dakota, South Dakota someplace, Minnesota, where you have to keep it from freezing.

Eric G.: 00:22:11

And I understand that with some latex products, but really all of those big chemicals keep them outside so they're not inside the house.

Eric G.: 00:22:19

The basement is one of those things.

Eric G.: 00:22:21

There's as much as I love having a good solid quality wood shop and things like that, that can be a huge polluter to indoor air quality.

Eric G.: 00:22:29

There's lots of woods that are toxic and you don't want that getting up into your home.

Eric G.: 00:22:34

So really do all you can do to keep those workspace areas not attached to the house and away from the house.

Eric G.: 00:22:40

Maybe it's a good reason to go out and build a shed out back, a little accessory building if you've got the space.

Eric G.: 00:22:45

And I get it, people in city environments where they've got to have that in the basement, that's all they got.

Eric G.: 00:22:50

But anything you can do to keep a good barrier between those two spaces and not have anything get up between the two, the better off you're going to be.

Eric G.: 00:23:00

So the next one here is, is a little bit of homework.

Eric G.: 00:23:04

It's not that bad to do.

Eric G.: 00:23:05

But do an inspection jump around.

Eric G.: 00:23:08

Take a look.

Eric G.: 00:23:09

Are your bathroom vent fans the correct size, how many cubic feet per minute and are they venting completely outside of the structure in through either a metal or flux duct, not plastic or a insulated flux duct.

Eric G.: 00:23:25

And it depends on where you're at and what code requires.

Eric G.: 00:23:29

So I can give you what's great in my area.

Eric G.: 00:23:31

It might not be what's required in your area.

Eric G.: 00:23:33

There are a bunch of different things that can happen there.

Eric G.: 00:23:35

So I don't want to give you bad advice on what's going to be legal in my area.

Eric G.: 00:23:39

Do your research, find out how venting code is in your area.

Eric G.: 00:23:42

For me, they want something insulated because they're worried about having condensation up into a cold attic space and water dripping back down in.

Eric G.: 00:23:50

But that's me.

Eric G.: 00:23:51

So take a look and see what's in your space.

Eric G.: 00:23:54

But all those vent fans, I don't like Panasonic.

Eric G.: 00:23:57

They're my favorite.

Eric G.: 00:23:58

No, they don't pay me a dime.

Eric G.: 00:23:59

They've never paid me a dime to say that.

Eric G.: 00:24:00

But I've used them for about 15 years.

Eric G.: 00:24:03

They are the be all end all of bath fans.

Eric G.: 00:24:06

And sorry, bro Newtone, I do love you guys, but I replaced my Panasonic upstairs in my bathroom because it had a ton of different features.

Eric G.: 00:24:15

And I took the Panasonic out and put it back in.

Eric G.: 00:24:18

And that thing is so noisier compared to the Panasonic.

Eric G.: 00:24:21

I am going to be putting in the Panasonic back in.

Eric G.: 00:24:24

And the reason why I Switched it out is because they had a really cool WI fi system.

Eric G.: 00:24:28

e extra wires because I got a: 1977

Eric G.: 00:24:34

But I am going to end up having to do some drywall work because it's in a spot of the attic up there where the roof is low.

Eric G.: 00:24:40

And I just can't get to where the switch is on that wall.

Eric G.: 00:24:43

So I just can't get my fat body up in there.

Eric G.: 00:24:46

If I was 18, I probably could get in there, but it's not worth crawling up in the little tiny, weird attic space around all my utilities up there that are up there to get into it.

Eric G.: 00:24:56

So I'm going to end up having to do some drywall work.

Eric G.: 00:24:58

Not a big deal, but that is going to be the case.

Eric G.: 00:25:00

I'm going to put the Panasonic back up in there because the other one, if it runs for 10 or 15 minutes, starts to rattle, starts to shake, and it's.

Eric G.: 00:25:10

I've taken it in and out a few times.

Eric G.: 00:25:12

It'll fix it for a little while.

Eric G.: 00:25:13

Then it starts rattling again.

Eric G.: 00:25:14

So having some issues with that.

Eric G.: 00:25:16

So that's going to get replaced.

Eric G.: 00:25:18

So from what I'm saying, as much as I've enjoyed working with Bro Newtone in the past, the Panasonics are better.

Eric G.: 00:25:25

And in my situation, it's worked out a lot better.

Eric G.: 00:25:28

And I'm going back to what I know on that one.

Eric G.: 00:25:31

So make sure those are good.

Eric G.: 00:25:32

The next one is if you have a recycling vent fan.

Eric G.: 00:25:37

Now, that's the vent fan in the kitchen where you push the button and it blows the air right back in your face.

Eric G.: 00:25:43

Little vents on the top of that vent hood or microwave.

Eric G.: 00:25:45

I tell you what, guys, this is probably the biggest polluter of indoor air quality in your home outside of radon or some of the other things out there that can be deadly.

Eric G.: 00:25:54

But really get that vented to the outside.

Eric G.: 00:25:57

In my area for the last 20 years, if I remodel a kitchen, they force you to vent that outside.

Eric G.: 00:26:02

They are not code.

Eric G.: 00:26:03

They haven't been.

Eric G.: 00:26:04

There is no instance in a residential unit that they will allow that to happen, because that's how bad it is on indoor air quality.

Eric G.: 00:26:13

And it doesn't matter if you have an induction range, a gas range, electric range.

Eric G.: 00:26:18

If you're cooking on a cooktop like that, it is putting off chemicals from the food you cook.

Eric G.: 00:26:25

So, period, that's what it is.

Eric G.: 00:26:27

Now, if you've got natural gas or propane, it's even More so you want to get that coming out of there.

Eric G.: 00:26:33

But even if you've got the healthiest of induction cooktops, it does not make you exempt.

Eric G.: 00:26:39

You still are putting in all those chemicals.

Eric G.: 00:26:41

So I know there's been a big push by electricity companies out there to get people to not use gas.

Eric G.: 00:26:49

But if you have a properly gas working gas range that is within its factory specifications and it's burning clean like it should be, it is not as big a deal as they make it out to be.

Eric G.: 00:27:03

Now you should just have it vented and working with that, getting it outside, because that does add a few other chemicals in that mix.

Eric G.: 00:27:10

But a majority of the chemicals that are bad for you that are coming up out of that are from the food you're cooking and the chemicals that are in those foods to do that.

Eric G.: 00:27:21

So you have carcinogens.

Eric G.: 00:27:22

If you're cooking all natural raised organic beef carried around by fairies and hand fed grass, I don't care.

Eric G.: 00:27:30

Guess what?

Eric G.: 00:27:31

It's still putting off chemicals when you cook it.

Eric G.: 00:27:33

And you need to get that outside.

Eric G.: 00:27:35

So that's a huge one for indoor air quality.

Eric G.: 00:27:39

Get that out of there.

Eric G.: 00:27:40

If there's one thing you do here, that is the first thing I would do outside of watching that humidity, get that outside and use it.

Eric G.: 00:27:48

And when you turn off the stove, if you're turning the stove on to cook something other than just doing maybe a quick little heat or a quick boil of water, if you're trying to lower humidity, turn that thing on.

Eric G.: 00:27:57

But generally if the cooktop comes on, the fan should come on.

Eric G.: 00:28:01

And that's a good rule of thumb, especially when we got all the windows closed up in the wintertime.

Eric G.: 00:28:06

That's a key right there.

Eric G.: 00:28:08

Now the next one is a tough one and this can be hard for some people and it's air filtration.

Eric G.: 00:28:13

Now if you've got a central heating and cooling system or central heat, it can be really good to have a good filter in there.

Eric G.: 00:28:22

But so many people have forced air in wall heating boilers with radiators or even baseboard heat.

Eric G.: 00:28:30

The cadet heaters, whatever you've got, those can be problematic because you don't have any air filtration.

Eric G.: 00:28:36

So that's where you should probably go spend the money, get a nice HEPA filter, more so more of them, bigger ones.

Eric G.: 00:28:43

If you have pets and worry about what's going on in your area, in your system.

Eric G.: 00:28:49

Now a number of years ago, I put in a carrier infinity system here about four years ago and it has their De Gappa air filtration system.

Eric G.: 00:28:56

So it has a capture and kill method on it and so it really does a great job.

Eric G.: 00:29:01

So that's why when we were talking a little earlier in the show, that my PM2.5, which is the particles that are floating around is really low.

Eric G.: 00:29:07

It's because that system, it's doing its job and I even installed an air scrubber on top of that.

Eric G.: 00:29:14

That's not part of the carrier system.

Eric G.: 00:29:16

Now I want to talk about that here and we'll talk about that in the next hour because we're going to run out of time here and I don't want to.

Eric G.: 00:29:21

Well, let's try to slip it in here before we got a minute and a half before we got to go out.

Eric G.: 00:29:26

So my air scrubber system that I put in my house years ago, right.

Eric G.: 00:29:30

Actually slightly before I put this system in, does a really good job.

Eric G.: 00:29:34

So what it does is it put off puts off like peroxide particles.

Eric G.: 00:29:38

If I'm going to oversimplify this system, it's a space age technology used by NASA to clean things, clean air in the space station.

Eric G.: 00:29:46

But it puts, puts out, you know, like hydrogen peroxide type particles that kill everything on surfaces and in the air.

Eric G.: 00:29:54

So it's really good for that and it works too good at times.

Eric G.: 00:29:58

So when Julie, my wife sits there and ends up going through and using gonna go, go baking, I have to go out hours before and unplug that unit and maybe ventilate the house a little bit because those particles are so good.

Eric G.: 00:30:11

She can't bake with yeast.

Eric G.: 00:30:14

Things will not rise.

Eric G.: 00:30:16

Doesn't matter.

Eric G.: 00:30:17

I can make two bowls, same yeast.

Eric G.: 00:30:20

I make one outside at 70 degrees inside at 70 degrees, one inside.

Eric G.: 00:30:25

It's like putting flour and water.

Eric G.: 00:30:26

It's just going to sit there.

Eric G.: 00:30:27

If I go outside with it, it rises perfectly.

Eric G.: 00:30:30

So baking issues, that can be a big problem.

Eric G.: 00:30:33

Another thing that I noticed though is when I unplug it and I forget to plug it back in.

Eric G.: 00:30:39

I have a really great Robo rock wet dry vacuum that we talked about a little bit earlier.

Eric G.: 00:30:45

That Mopson does the floor.

Eric G.: 00:30:47

If I forget and leave that unplugged.

Eric G.: 00:30:49

When I go drain the water tank that I do about every week of the wastewater in it, it smells punky.

Eric G.: 00:30:55

It smells like maybe you left your gym clothes in the back of the trunk in your bag that were wet for a week and you go, it's a little rich.

Eric G.: 00:31:02

It's just what it is.

Eric G.: 00:31:04

When I have that system plugged in, it smells like water that I washed my hands in were dirty.

Eric G.: 00:31:10

You can't smell any of that.

Eric G.: 00:31:11

So you can really see how that changes things within your house.

Eric G.: 00:31:16

So we'll talk a little bit more about that when we come back.

Eric G.: 00:31:18

I want to just wrap that up in a good little package for you and talk about the pluses and minus of that.

Eric G.: 00:31:23

We'll do that as soon as around the House returns.

Eric G.: 00:31:25

Don't change that dial.

Eric G.: 00:31:26

If you want to find out more, contact me, go to around the house online dot com.

Eric G.: 00:31:51

All right.

Satchel: 00:32:00

The band is drunk.

Satchel: 00:32:02

It's the end of the show.

Satchel: 00:32:03

Now drinking down, people.

Satchel: 00:32:04

It's time to go.

Satchel: 00:32:05

It's that time again.

Eric G.: 00:32:07

Welcome back to the Round the House show.

Eric G.: 00:32:09

The next generation of home improvement.

Eric G.: 00:32:11

Thanks for joining me today.

Eric G.: 00:32:12

I'm Eric G.

Eric G.: 00:32:13

If you want to find out more about us, head over to aroundthehouse online.com.

Eric G.: 00:32:17

you can message me there.

Eric G.: 00:32:18

You can find everything there.

Eric G.: 00:32:19

We got a new website here coming soon.

Eric G.: 00:32:21

We've been working on it and I've been making tons of changes and coming up with a really new way to give you guys more information over there.

Eric G.: 00:32:28

Can't wait to roll that out to you.

Eric G.: 00:32:30

I've been working with my friends over at Site Hype Designs on that and it's been really cool.

Eric G.: 00:32:34

Can't wait to let you see that one.

Eric G.: 00:32:37

So we were talking about my top 10 tricks and tips for healthy indoor air quality for fall and winter.

Eric G.: 00:32:44

And I want to get through the last of these here, but I wanted to finish up talking about air filtration and scrubbing, that system that I put in my house.

Eric G.: 00:32:50

Here's the thing.

Eric G.: 00:32:51

Do your research out there on air scrubbers and make your own choices on what you're comfortable with and what you're not.

Eric G.: 00:32:59

This is still a little bit of the wild, wild west out there.

Eric G.: 00:33:03

And I still think that maybe the heated, heated filtration, like the heated HEPA filters and stuff is a great way to go.

Eric G.: 00:33:10

My carrier system does a great job.

Eric G.: 00:33:12

I wanted to do something a little bit extra, but I think it also might bring some health risks that I'm not aware of.

Eric G.: 00:33:20

And so it's one of those things that I use it from time to time and not all the time.

Eric G.: 00:33:24

And so I've been sick, so I've been really good at keeping my wife healthy when I'm sick by turning that on.

Eric G.: 00:33:31

And it really does a great job of sanitizing things after me around the house.

Eric G.: 00:33:37

And so that's really good.

Eric G.: 00:33:39

Could I find out decades later, watching TV by one of those class action lawsuits commercials, were you using this please call blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and name off the three names, Harris, Harrison, Harris.

Eric G.: 00:33:51

And I don't know anybody about that, but just make it up a name there, but contact them for to know your rights.

Eric G.: 00:33:57

It could be like Camp Lejeune water or something, but I guess we won't know until somebody tells us that.

Eric G.: 00:34:03

So use those at your own risk and just be careful for you, your family, and your pets.

Eric G.: 00:34:09

So that's how I use it.

Eric G.: 00:34:10

I wanted to keep going here, you know, talking about using the air scrubbers and stuff, but one of the big ones here is checking for radon.

Eric G.: 00:34:19

You can have radon in your house, and all of a sudden it disappears and goes away.

Eric G.: 00:34:25

So I recommend every few years having it tested and see where you're at.

Eric G.: 00:34:31

I know people in my area here that are that lived here blocks away from my house, and we are a very big hit and miss deadly radon area in my area.

Eric G.: 00:34:42

Now, the problem, though is, is that these people died from it.

Eric G.: 00:34:46

It's not good.

Eric G.: 00:34:47

Cancer got them both.

Eric G.: 00:34:49

However, comma, here's the issue.

Eric G.: 00:34:51

You'll test your house.

Eric G.: 00:34:52

We'll have a little two or three earthquake around here that everybody just blows off.

Eric G.: 00:34:56

Goes.

Eric G.: 00:34:56

Didn't even feel it.

Eric G.: 00:34:57

That was awesome.

Eric G.: 00:34:58

Problem is, things shook up just enough that those cracks in the ground opened up new pathways.

Eric G.: 00:35:03

And what was zero before is now high in your house.

Eric G.: 00:35:07

So I recommend every few years here in my state, when I somebody sells a house, it's required to have radon testing as part of the sale.

Eric G.: 00:35:14

So you know that.

Eric G.: 00:35:15

But what I really want to do is make sure that everybody's doing their testing.

Eric G.: 00:35:19

And if you're on well water, you should be testing your water as well, because that is really bad.

Eric G.: 00:35:25

Because if you take a hot shower and you've got radon in the water, now you're breathing it in.

Eric G.: 00:35:30

And that is just one big way to get that radon right into your lungs through moisture.

Eric G.: 00:35:34

And it's just one of those things that I want you to be careful with, be involved, test it, watch it, and deal with it correctly if you have to.

Eric G.: 00:35:43

Now, what's crazy is I've seen people that have radon systems in their house and classes are close, close by each other that I've seen the neighbors put in a really good system.

Eric G.: 00:35:52

And it actually reduces the one next to you because it's taking it out.

Eric G.: 00:35:55

It's actually vacuuming out of the ground beneath you.

Eric G.: 00:35:58

And a lot of those pathways or cracks in the ground are kind of connected, so it can Help.

Eric G.: 00:36:03

And the more people in the neighborhood, it's not going to hurt anything by doing that.

Eric G.: 00:36:07

So if you can get that vacuum down there with those systems, it's a pretty good way to go.

Eric G.: 00:36:12

And that's a.

Eric G.: 00:36:13

That's a controversial subject for some people.

Eric G.: 00:36:15

I always get hate mail or hate messages about radon's fake, and sorry, guys, you can call me a thousand times.

Eric G.: 00:36:22

I'm gonna tell you it's not.

Eric G.: 00:36:23

And second of all, we're seeing some issues out there as well.

Eric G.: 00:36:26

If I talk to my friend Caroline Blasowski, America's healthy home expert, former co host here in the show, they've seen problems where ERV systems and stuff that are causing negative pressure in can pull it up when you don't have a system.

Eric G.: 00:36:39

So there's things that you need to be a little bit careful with, and that's why building science is building science, and you need to take care of that stuff all in one swoop.

Eric G.: 00:36:48

So that's super important.

Eric G.: 00:36:50

All right, next up here, test for mold.

Eric G.: 00:36:53

Make sure that you're doing some air testing as you're doing that radon testing over a few years.

Eric G.: 00:36:57

If you do some air quality tests every couple years, you can find mold before you physically find it.

Eric G.: 00:37:05

Could be in an attic or crawl space, could be in a basement or crawl space.

Eric G.: 00:37:10

But if you have a baseline and you're really wanting to make sure that your healthy air is good, do some airborne testing.

Eric G.: 00:37:17

Caroline's got a system over there.

Eric G.: 00:37:19

Check her out at her website.

Eric G.: 00:37:21

It's really cool.

Eric G.: 00:37:22

She's got the examiner system there, I think is what it is.

Eric G.: 00:37:25

And you can set it up and she'll do the labs, she'll send to the stuff, send it back, lab, test, go.

Eric G.: 00:37:32

And now you can see what's in your indoor air quality.

Eric G.: 00:37:35

And if you do that, you can go, wow, my mold tire.

Eric G.: 00:37:37

What's going on?

Eric G.: 00:37:38

Maybe you got a leak on a wall that you don't know of.

Eric G.: 00:37:40

Maybe there's a window seal that's leaking where the caulking, it's down in the wall.

Eric G.: 00:37:44

You could have stuff that's hiding, and that's going to tell you you should be looking for it because it can affect your health.

Eric G.: 00:37:49

And if you've got asthma, if you've got autoimmune issues coming up, this is even more important to be working with a healthy home expert like Caroline and of course, your medical team to make sure that your environment is the healthiest it can be.

Eric G.: 00:38:05

So it's healthy for you and your family.

Eric G.: 00:38:07

So I Can't tell you enough about that.

Eric G.: 00:38:11

Test it, find out what it is and work on it.

Eric G.: 00:38:14

So that should be really cool.

Eric G.: 00:38:17

So let you know what's going on with that.

Eric G.: 00:38:20

So I'm excited with that.

Eric G.: 00:38:21

Take your time, figure it out and work with your professionals to make sure it works for yours.

Eric G.: 00:38:28

Now here's the thing.

Eric G.: 00:38:29

This is one thing I wanted to talk about here.

Eric G.: 00:38:31

So testing from old, test your air quality and stay on it is a big one.

Eric G.: 00:38:35

Now there's other issues here that I want to talk about.

Eric G.: 00:38:38

What your flooring surfaces are in your home, if you have allergies, if you have autoimmune stuff, if you've got health that is troublesome, especially related to breathing, carpet might not be your best solution because carpet is just one big petri dish.

Eric G.: 00:38:57

And I really noticed how easier it is to keep our house clean when I removed carpet from the entire home.

Eric G.: 00:39:03

Now you can put down some little area rugs that are small enough that I can throw in my laundry and clean up under the coffee table.

Eric G.: 00:39:10

Some stuff like that that you can replace, work with.

Eric G.: 00:39:14

That's awesome.

Eric G.: 00:39:15

Still gives you that soft feel.

Eric G.: 00:39:17

But putting down hardwoods, luxury vinyl plank.

Eric G.: 00:39:22

Take a look at what you're putting down for chemicals in these floors and be very careful, especially with the lower quality floors out there.

Eric G.: 00:39:30

When you're getting that stuff that's on closeout, the, the cheap stuff out there that you see in the home centers, be really careful.

Eric G.: 00:39:37

Know what you're putting in, know what it is, and make sure that you're not putting something in that's going to off gas and create some other issues when it comes to indoor air quality.

Eric G.: 00:39:46

So that's a big one there.

Eric G.: 00:39:47

When you've got pets, that's another one.

Eric G.: 00:39:50

But you've got hair dander.

Eric G.: 00:39:52

And if you've got a shedding dog like I do, my answer, and it was a huge one on my main floor.

Eric G.: 00:39:59

It's all hardwoods down there.

Eric G.: 00:40:01

And so I bought that roborock robotic vacuum.

Eric G.: 00:40:04

So it vacuums, mops, scrubs, empties itself, does all of that super cool.

Eric G.: 00:40:11

And I run that thing probably five to seven times a week, if not more.

Eric G.: 00:40:16

And I go through and I get up every little piece of hair.

Eric G.: 00:40:20

Now I go through a lot of vacuum cleaner bags because I tell you what, our 70 pound dog loves to shed, and that's okay.

Eric G.: 00:40:28

But I'm getting it out of the air, getting it off the floor, and that thing's sure enough that it'll go onto the entertainment center, it'll Go under some of the couches and chairs so it gets most places.

Eric G.: 00:40:38

And that really works out well.

Eric G.: 00:40:40

And there's some other secrets we'll talk about on upcoming episodes of Great Little tools and stuff for the holidays here that assist with cleaning under the couches that you can't get to.

Eric G.: 00:40:50

That Roborock does a great job of keeping everything clean in vacuum in areas that I can't get with a vacuum.

Eric G.: 00:40:57

And so super impressive.

Eric G.: 00:40:59

Works great with pet hair if you set it up so it's always using the heavy duty vac and cleaning the in the settings.

Eric G.: 00:41:06

I always recommend going there and have it do the vacuum clean every time it goes back.

Eric G.: 00:41:11

So it empties the vacuum bag because you can plug those things up if you don't set it on the heaviest of duties with big dog hair like I have and it goes through and our floors are super clean all the time.

Eric G.: 00:41:22

It was so amazing.

Eric G.: 00:41:23

Julie would mop that floor by hand every time, spend her time doing it and we would run that vacuum.

Eric G.: 00:41:30

And I know it's a little expensive, but it pays for itself so quickly and given the time and it goes through and vacuums, mops, dries the whole thing, it's ready to rock.

Eric G.: 00:41:40

And maybe that's why they call it the Roborock.

Eric G.: 00:41:42

But it does it better than if you're doing it by hand.

Eric G.: 00:41:44

And that says a lot for that.

Eric G.: 00:41:46

And it has been very durable.

Eric G.: 00:41:48

I had an LG one that I sent back three or four times for service in its one year warranty period.

Eric G.: 00:41:54

And this thing, I've had it, geez, eight months now, I think something like that.

Eric G.: 00:41:59

And it has been flawless for us.

Eric G.: 00:42:02

It's got updates, does a great job, no issues.

Eric G.: 00:42:06

And I'm just replacing wearing parts like pads and things like that.

Eric G.: 00:42:09

So no parts needed.

Eric G.: 00:42:10

It's just annual maintenance like you need to.

Eric G.: 00:42:14

All right everybody, we got more to talk about here.

Eric G.: 00:42:16

That's enough about vacuums.

Eric G.: 00:42:18

But if you're out shopping for vacuums, one more thing, get a HEPA vacuum.

Eric G.: 00:42:23

Take a look at it.

Eric G.: 00:42:24

Sometimes those bagless ones, even though they're easy, don't do the best job.

Eric G.: 00:42:30

So take a look out there, get something with a HEPA bag on it.

Eric G.: 00:42:33

They do a better job, they're more money, but they do give you cleaner indoor air quality.

Eric G.: 00:42:39

And that's something that really helps out when you're working with that and really take some time.

Eric G.: 00:42:44

The central vac systems are really cool.

Eric G.: 00:42:46

If you've got those built into a house, great to maintain, keep those things working.

Eric G.: 00:42:50

Those can be nice because it is putting that bag stuff out in the garage or wherever they have that hooked up outside the living area.

Eric G.: 00:42:57

So that makes it really nice there as well.

Eric G.: 00:42:59

Now, another thing too, just for indoor air quality that I recommend, it's not on this list, is making sure that your heating and cooling system, if it has a filter, is being maintained every year.

Eric G.: 00:43:10

You should have once or twice a year somebody coming out and doing a service on that unit.

Eric G.: 00:43:15

And that's going to include changing the filters as needed and putting the right size filter in there.

Eric G.: 00:43:20

And I'm not talking if it's 16 by 20 or whatever.

Eric G.: 00:43:23

I'm talking about putting as big a filter as you can in there to not hurt its performance.

Eric G.: 00:43:28

And yeah, if you've got a 1 inch filter and it's an old system and you put too thick of a filter in, you could freeze up the ac.

Eric G.: 00:43:34

You can really hurt your airflow that it wasn't designed for.

Eric G.: 00:43:38

So there's some science involved with that.

Eric G.: 00:43:40

So talk to your service professional to get the recommendation or the company to see what's the best MERV rating you can get on a filter.

Eric G.: 00:43:49

Because sometimes it'll say, oh, there's no way you can run a MERV 13 in there.

Eric G.: 00:43:53

That'll block up the air.

Eric G.: 00:43:55

It's not designed for it.

Eric G.: 00:43:56

Other machines, you can put a MERV 15 in there, which really does a great job.

Eric G.: 00:44:01

So it's one of those things.

Eric G.: 00:44:03

The big 4 inch ones are better.

Eric G.: 00:44:04

And now here's another trick too.

Eric G.: 00:44:06

If you've got an older system, many times you can have your H Vac company come in and retrofit that and put something even better in for you.

Eric G.: 00:44:15

And if it can be sized correctly, that can work.

Eric G.: 00:44:18

All right, everybody, have a great rest of the week.

Eric G.: 00:44:20

Thanks for tuning in to around the House.

Eric G.: 00:44:23

Enjoy November.

Eric G.: 00:44:24

Check those batteries out there for your carbon monoxide and smoke detectors.

Eric G.: 00:44:29

Make sure you're safe.

Eric G.: 00:44:30

Thanks for tuning in to around the House.

Eric G.: 00:44:31

We'll see you next week.

Satchel: 00:44:45

Somewhere unseen and undiscovered and it way out beyond the me Love is a love song let's be lovers we're all over the radio Take my hand I know where to go all over the radio With.