Derek Cole says indoor air can be five to ten times more polluted than outdoor air because modern building materials off-gas chemicals like formaldehyde, and energy-efficient homes trap them inside. He recommends an energy-recovery ventilator to swap indoor air with fresh outdoor air.
Indoor air is 5 to 10 times worse than the worst outdoor air. That's correct. It is worse in your house than it is outside. That is true, and I'll tell you why. Everything we have— cabinets, flooring, carpets— everything has glue, adhesives. All that stuff is off-gassing into your house, and And homes today are built so tight that off-gas has nowhere to go but your lungs, 'cause you're breathing it in. So there's no way to get out. In the old days, the older homes, they were looser. They weren't so energy conscious. So they didn't worry about energy efficiency like today's homes are. So with all the plastics and the wood and the glue and the formaldehyde from the carpet and all this stuff, paint, it's off-gassing. And that's coming into your indoor, your home. And there's no way to get rid of it unless you have indoor air quality products in your house, or if you have— it's called an ERV. We've installed it in newer homes. It actually brings outdoor air into the living space and then exchanges it. A lot of commercial buildings require you to do that, but you're not required to do that in the house, and you should be because homes today are very, very tight, very energy efficient. And with that, what you get is— Mold. More of the chemicals and things in your house cannot get out of your house. So that is the problem with indoor air quality.
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