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We provide objective, high-quality
information about building physics, system design
concepts, and an awareness of sustainability to
promote healthy, durable, more sustainable and
more economical buildings.
Indoor Air Quality
Green Solutions for growing problems
Whether we realize it or not, we are almost continually
subjected and exposed to poisons, toxins, carcinogens,
and microbes through the air we breathe and they
can present a real threat to our health, and that
of our children and families, employees, coworkers,
etc. Some of these dangers come from nature, and
even more of them we create ourselves. For years
we have been concerned with the pollution and
smog that permeates major cities around the world.
The world is working hard on solutions to lower
the emissions from industry and automobiles, but
we have always had the expectation that once we
go indoors, into our homes, schools, offices that
we were somehow safe from effects of all that
pollution. We really could not have been more
wrong. It is truly hard to believe that in most
cases we would be better off rolling our beds
out onto a balcony in the heart of LA on a bad
smog day, then closing our windows and turning
on the air conditioner.
But it's true, on average our indoor
air is somewhere between 2 to 10 times worse than
the air outside in the smoggiest city.
With every breath we take we are
inhaling a lungful of VOCs (volatile organic compounds),
like formaldehyde, ozone, and benzene. It comes
from our furniture, the paint on our walls and
the glues used in our cabinets. Cooking sends
smoke and particulates streaming through our homes.
Then we have mother natures little curses, including
bacteria, viruses and mold. If you add all of
those indoor contaminants, to the smog and pollution
from the air outside then we have what many believe
to be the underlying cause of many of the health
problems afflicting our society.
In the very best scenario, it will
take many years to improve our pollution and smog
problems, and most of us don't have the ability
to build a new home, or even renovate the homes
we have with environmentally friendly materials
that could reduce our exposure to VOCs and other
contaminates; but there are solutions. For the
first time ever, TURTLE CLAN can make the air
inside our homes cleaner than the air outside.
TURTLE CLAN has designed services
and identified products that utilize existing
technologies to dramatically improve the quality
of your indoor air. These services also help to
eliminate the transmittal of surface and airborne
bacteria and viruses, and all with economical,
environmentally friendly and effective components.
This technology also proves a powerful
tool in the elimination of unwanted odors. Incredibly
the only byproduct of these services and technology
is a reduction in your "carbon footprint"
and the production of O2 (oxygen).
The following will help to clarify
the issues and substantiate Turtle Clan’s services
and solutions.
Facts!
Our national health obsession
has been focused primarily on food, supplements,
and socially conscious household goods. But what
about what we breathe?
- The average person eats
only 3 to 5 times a day, but the average person
takes 15 to 20 breaths per minute, and breathes
on average over 21,000 liters or air a day…
In the last several years, a growing
body of scientific evidence has indicated that
the air within homes and other buildings can be
more seriously polluted than the outdoor air in
even the largest and most industrialized cities.
Other research indicates that people spend approximately
90 percent of their time indoors. Thus, for many
people, the risks to health may be greater due
to exposure to air pollution indoors than outdoors.
Shouldn't we care more about
what we are breathing?
Thermal Control:
The control of heat flow within
and through buildings is important to ensure comfort,
health, and productivity. Controlling temperatures
also has a major impact on durability and the
potential for mold growth. Controlling heat flow
is of course required to save energy and reduce
the environmental impacts of this energy use.
Insulations are basic tools for controlling heat
flow, but thermal bridging must be understood
to limit heat loss through conductive materials
and elements in the building enclosure. Assessing
interior surface condensation and comfort are
dominated by an understanding of surface temperature.
Heat flows by many modes, and one of the most
important is by air movement. Whether within an
air-handling unit or through a roof heat transfer
by airflow is important. One of the largest sources
of energy flows in many buildings is the sun:
solar gain through windows dominates the air conditioning
loads of commercial buildings, and can be harvested
for both space and water heating in carefully
designed buildings.
Moisture Control:
Moisture is the primary agent of
deterioration in buildings, and hence controlling
moisture is crucial to ensuring durability. Moisture
is also the most common factor in Indoor Air Quality
problems such as mold and odors. The water molecule
has many interesting properties that explain its
odd behavior and its interaction with materials.
Air barriers, vapor barriers, housewraps/WRBs,
and capillary breaks are building products and
systems whose major function includes moisture
control. The required level moisture control,
depends on the quantity, phase (liquid, vapor,
solid), frequency of the load and the mechanism
of movement that must be controlled. The primary
sources of moisture: rain and snow, water vapor
in the air, ground water, and construction moisture,
have different magnitudes and have different significance
for different climates, building uses, enclosure
types, and materials. Moisture moves by a number
of mechanisms: capillary flow, vapor diffusion,
air convection, and gravity flow. Each of these
mechanisms is driven by different forces and flows
at vastly different rates through different materials.
Air Flow Control:
Air movement carries with it humidity,
heat, pollutants, and sound. Controlling airflow,
across the enclosure, between zones, and from
the distribution system to hollow partitions is
therefore required to achieve comfortable, healthy,
and energy efficient building. Air movement is
driven by pressure differences through flow paths:
understanding the complex flow paths and dynamic
spatially variant pressure field that act within.
Climate:
Different climates, and different
interior space conditions, require different assemblies,
materials, and design strategies. Increasing the
complexity for building designers are different
wind loads, earthquake risks, wildfire and flood
probabilities. With all these factors playing
a role in building design, only one thing can
be stated with certainty- where you build should
matter to how you build.
Acoustics:
Noise control and encouraged aural
communications in building spaces are both part
of acoustics. The basic physics of sound are simple
to understand, but the interaction of sound pressure
waves with complex shapes and multi-layer assemblies
with openings is more challenging. Noise control
is becoming increasingly important in a world
in which more high-density housing, closer offices
spaces, and busier streets and airports are more
and more the norm rather than the exception.
Light (Ultraviolet Radiation):
Daylight is both good for the soul
and saves energy. Uncontrolled solar penetration
also results in over heating of building interiors
and causes the surface temperature of cladding
to shoot up. Ultraviolet radiation is a also major
deterioration mechanism for all organic exterior
finish materials, both inside and out.
Also see: Air,
Water, Soil Assessments and Training.
Contact
us for additional information:
Phone: 914-361-9703
E-mail: info@turtleclan.com
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