Gulf Coast Faces Extraordinary Task of Rebuilding

Discussions Lessen Negative Impact of Mold Bill

Publisher Deters Readers from Buying Air Cleaners

Schools Can Save Energy During Heating Season

Multifaceted Moisture Meter Technology Evolves

Word on the Street 

VOICES

“The floodwaters, while gradually draining, have left the indelible mark on New Orleans, ‘The City That Care Forgot.’ Once one has seen the floodwater and death firsthand, it will at best – be a long time not forgotten.”

— Norm Ryan, CMR, of Ryan Environmental Services LLC in Baton Rouge, La., who participated in conducting extensive remediation and decontamination work in New Orleans last month in the wake of Hurricane Katrina

HERE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW? IICRC REMOVES IEP WEB POSTING
Plans announced on the Internet for the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification to adopt its own designation program for indoor environmental professionals are conspicuously absent from the Web page where they were first listed this summer. Under the plan, IICRC would have based a new professional designation offering around the industry term “IEP” that was coined during the makings of the mold-remediation standard IICRC S520. Information detailing the program was posted on the IICRC’s Web site this summer without any official announcement, sparking some curiosity from industry as to what the organization had in mind. Now that all references to the proposed IEP designation have been removed, some industry insiders speculate that IICRC may have suspended or dropped the plans due to a tepid reception among some industry stakeholders already offering similar certification programs. IICRC officials, who earlier did not comment to IE Connections on the designation itself, have also not offered any official explanation on the removal of the web posting. IICRC President Carey Vermeulen and attorney Mark Hansen did not return calls to IE Connections seeking comment.

ANOTHER AIR CLEANER REFUTES TEST METHODS
Home air cleaner manufacturer IQAir North America late last month became the second company to launch criticism of the test methods employed by Consumer Reports in assessing the efficacy of air cleaners in its October issue. IQAir, whose filter-type product HealthPro Plus was ranked No. 19 on the magazine’s ratings of 30 room air cleaners, said the magazine’s report “venerates poorly designed room air cleaners, giving them top recommendations.” Based on its test results, Consumer Reports said the model was “good” at removing dust and smoke from indoor air when operating at a high speed but “poor” at a low speed. IQAir said that the magazine’s test method for room air cleaners, which is derived from the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, is “a flawed and outdated testing protocol” and outlined “five major flaws to Consumer Reports’ air cleaner testing that result in misleading recommendations to customers.” The other company to contest the Consumer Reports article was Sharper Image Corp., which toiled to oppose the magazine’s findings, as explored in depth beginning on page 12 in this issue of IE Connections.

ASCR USHERS IN MANGER
The Association of Specialists in Cleaning and Restoration last month announced Don Manger has been hired as the new executive director, replacing Larry Jacobson, who ended his five-year stint in that position this April. Led by ASCR President Bill Lakin, a search committee to fill the vacancy settled on Manger, whom the association said has about 30 years of experience in the management of trade organizations dealing with commercial construction, corporate finance and banking, and financial services. An ASCR statement dated Sept. 9 credited Manger for leading the Association of Financial Professionals during a time marked by a 400 percent increase in revenues and membership. Lakin offered words of confidence in ASCR’s new acquisition, saying Manger would “lead the association to the next level.” According to Lakin, “We look forward to working with Don as he assists ASCR in expanding our membership base, enhancing member benefits, maximizing our efficiency and effectiveness, and improving communications with members and non-members.”

Jacobson, whose résumé highlights a career in “troubleshooting organizations,” has already stepped into the executive director role at the Mathcounts Foundation, effective July 1. The foundation is a “middle school math enrichment and competition program,” according to a July 28 press release that also said Jacobson would “lead the organization in its efforts to increase enthusiasm for and enhance achievement in middle school mathematics.”

HUMAN PESTICIDE TESTING STANDARDS HEIGHTENED
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed a rule that will establish stringent enforceable ethical safeguards governing the conduct of third-party intentional dosing research with human subjects. Among other new ethical protections, the EPA proposes to prohibit all new third-party intentional dosing research on pesticides with children and pregnant women intended for EPA submission. The agency also announced a categorical ban on conducting and supporting any intentional dosing studies that involve pregnant women or children. “We should consider human data only if that information has been developed with the foremost goal of providing protections for research participants,” said Susan B. Hazen, principal deputy assistant administrator in EPA’s Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances. “We want to send a clear signal to the public that unethical research should never be conducted and will not be accepted by EPA.” The protections in the proposed rule are consistent with the recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences.

STANDARD FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN PROPOSED TO ANSI
The first green-building organization to be recognized as a developer of ANSI standards was announced last month. The organization is the Green Building Initiative, as stated by the American National Standards Institute last month. The first order of business for GBI, which was founded last year, was submitting an application to establish an ANSI standard based on Green Globes, a Web-based environmental design and rating system for U.S. commercial buildings. GBI Executive Director Ward Hubbell said Green Globes “will help users integrate sustainable design principles into their buildings.”
GBI’s announcement came one month after the U.S. Green Building Council, founded in 1993, declared it had filed for ANSI accreditation to develop national standards on green-building practices. CEO Rick Fedrizzi in a statement Aug. 11 highlighted some of the Council’s core values: “openness, inclusiveness and collaboration.” At the same time, USGBC also reopened its membership to professional and trade associations, a reversal of a previous ban.

LUCRATIVE HVAC BUYOUT
Johnson Controls, an auto parts supplier based out of Milwaukee, will buy multibillion-dollar HVAC manufacturer and dealer York International Corp. according to a plan the companies announced late in August. According to reports, the sale would be to the tune of $3.2 billion. York said the companies “announced a definitive agreement whereby Johnson Controls will acquire York in an all cash transaction of $56.50 per share.”

Gulf Coast Faces Extraordinary Task of Rebuilding
By Steve Sauer

Recovery efforts taking place in flood-ravaged parts of New Orleans were called into question last month as new rains from Hurricane Rita dumped into streets where polluted waters had just begun to recede. By late September, the tropical-storm-force winds of Rita made their way through New Orleans as officials feared the ferocity of the second storm of at least category 3 to pummel the city in four weeks. In the last days of August, Hurricane Katrina had knocked out systems of levees, inundating low-lying areas with contaminated floodwaters that were deep enough to swallow up entire neighborhoods.

New Orleans had barely begun allowing its evacuated residents to return to their tainted homes in the middle of September when Hurricane Rita was brewing in the Atlantic Ocean. Successes throughout the first three weeks of September in restoring power in the city, cleaning and refurbishing commercial properties and slowly attempting to get back to work were overshadowed by dark storm clouds offering another onslaught.

Hurricane Katrina also caused pervasive destruction to numerous communities elsewhere in Louisiana and in concentrated coastal areas of Alabama and Mississippi. Hurricane Rita wreaked havoc in rural areas along the eastern Gulf coast of Texas and in some of the same areas in Louisiana hit earlier by Katrina. In the path of this devastation, hordes of selfless restoration contractors proceeded to aid property owners facing significant structural and biological damage both inside and out, a painstaking process that will surely continue for months as more companies mobilize to lend a helping hand wherever needed.

In the aftermath of Katrina, a wealth of environmental concerns took center stage. Frequent conversations about public health involved the welfare of New Orleans residents – whether they were wading through chest-deep murky water without any bodily protection, stuck inside their own water-soaked homes, or temporarily confined to stadiums with tens of thousands of others with little or no facilities for hand-washing or bathing.

Within the federal government, some agencies worked to provide the most accurate information relevant to the living conditions in New Orleans. In the first week of September, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with the Environmental Protection Agency, released preliminary results of water sampling in the city, the first of many reports to itemize the range of potentially toxic pollutants that could not only cause dilemmas outside but also affect indoor environments.

“Compounded with the biological impact of a spoiling food, decaying plant and animal material, free-flowing sewage, petroleum products and other chemical contaminants, you could sum it up to say the air quality was very bad,” said Norman V. Ryan, who worked extensively on the New Orleans recovery effort last month. “Take this contamination and allow it to seep into the indoor environment – the indoor air quality was unhealthy,” he said.

Sediment in the water was reported to have possible contamination with diesel and fuel oils, sewage, and fecal bacteria including E. coli. In one encouraging declaration, the EPA and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality said levels of metals detected in sediment samples were not harmful.
New Orleans was once a mere 75-minute drive from Baton Rouge, where Ryan’s company is located, but after Katrina struck, a routine commute time more than tripled, he said. “The average trip after the hurricane is averaging approximately four hours,” said Ryan. “I have heard of much longer waits due to checkpoints and authorization to enter restricted areas.”

His company, Ryan Environmental Services LLC, was contracted to decontaminate some concourses in the hours before Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport resumed some commercial use. “In the initial decontamination phase done in haste to open a limited area, the ‘A’ concourse was treated with a broad-spectrum antifungal, antibacterial and antiviral agent,” said Ryan. “Spray application was used, followed by wet fogging. The janitorial staff had performed an amazing task of pre-cleaning the entire concourse prior to our arrival. The staff is to be commended for the monumental task.”

He said on Sept. 15 that the company would repeat the procedure “on the remaining areas and bring in an industrial hygienist and physician to verify the effectiveness of the cleaning and decontamination” at the airport. “We are currently designing the appropriate decontamination parameters to ensure adequate protection at a reasonable cost,” Ryan added.

The major disaster recovery networks rallied along the path of Katrina, and many organizations dealing one way or another with restoration or indoor environments were also contributing any way they could to address the emergency necessities in affected areas. Some organizations hastened to highlight the fact that the relief effort was accepting volunteers with no organizational affiliation or certifications. Anybody could offer assistance by signing up at such Web sites as the National Emergency Resource Registry (www.nerr.gov) and the Central Contractor Registration (www.ccr.gov), they said.

Having twice flown on a Black Hawk helicopter into the damaged areas of New Orleans and also visited them by car on separate occasions, Ryan has seen the biological impact and damage up close. Midway through the month, he described the scene like this: “The historic areas are primarily intact. The original inhabitants chose those areas because they were high and dry. No levees were there when the city was founded. The city has expanded outward, to lower areas. Those are the major flooded sites. Floodwaters do not choose color or social status. I have seen poor neighborhoods as well as mansions in country clubs inundated by the floodwaters. ...

“I see homes devoured by the scourge of fungal contaminants, leaving the pungent odor or decay in my nostrils at the end of the day. Respirators may prevent the actual exposure, but my mind knows what the smell is even remote from the source,” he said. “I see environmental damage that if caused by industry would result in fines and prison sentences.”

Economists for the National Association of Home Builders were quick to issue a report on Hurricane Katrina’s impact. “The number of homes destroyed by this catastrophe is almost certain to dwarf the losses from any previous U.S. natural disaster,” according to the report, which was released on Sept. 2, providing one of the earliest assessments of long-term damages. “Although the floods generally did not tear off roofs or walls or cause structures to collapse, many homes will be permanently uninhabitable,” the report continued.

“The flood waters carried contaminants that cannot easily be removed, and even if the water were clean, prolonged submersion would cause structures to be damaged beyond repair. This is likely to be the fate of a large share of the more than 200,000 homes in the city of New Orleans. ... Of necessity, rebuilding will have to wait. The immediate need will be to clean up and repair damage to structures that are still viable. The repair process will absorb much of the construction labor near the affected area and several key materials that would otherwise have been used to build new homes,” said the NAHB report.

Ryan and others provided words of warning to those seeking to rebuild, cautioning them that the process must be done correctly. “People want to recover, and I see a lot of rush and haste that will eventually lead to further repairs and waste,” he said.

“I have been on several television programs to advise people returning to take the necessary safeguards to protect them from the many hazards found on their return,” Ryan continued. “Cleanup is being started by the owners who telephone for advice and assistance. We are advising them to be prudent in their attempts to remediate. Without proper protocol, remediation attempts for the untrained usually result in additional expense to correct the inadequate or improper procedures. We have advised people if they do decide to remediate themselves, to have a professional inspection following cleanup efforts to ensure adequate removal of the biological contaminants.”
 

The future of mold legislation in Florida is set to incorporate the fruits of lengthy discussions between state government and various IAQ-industry stakeholders regarding alternatives to licensure for mold inspection, assessment and remediation.

Gov. Jeb Bush vetoed a measure in June that would have established requirements in education and experience for individuals who deal with mold, voicing concern that the bill would have had a negative impact on qualified individuals who have been working in the mold business.

Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which Bush entrusted with leading discussions about improving the bill for the next legislative session, met four times with stakeholders in an open forum over August and September. The meetings, held in Tallahassee, stressed that the department desires an approach favoring industry self-regulation rather than licensing regulated by a state government body.

Over the course of the four workshops, the department and stakeholders appeared to arrive at some resolution that would make an attempt to satisfy the governor’s concerns while remain pleasing to members of the state legislature.
It was announced that a revised bill would be expected to be filed in the Senate before the legislature recommences in March 2006. The new bill would encompass points of consideration articulated in meetings over the past two months, according to Kyle Mitchell, special counsel to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, who led all four of the weekly workshops in August and September.

At the conclusion of the fourth workshop, Mitchell said he believed the talks would influence the future of mold legislation in a positive way. He said the negative impact of the vetoed mold legislation was substantially reduced as a result of the discussions.

Different Tone at Fifth Workshop
However, discussion at a fifth workshop also led by Mitchell was entirely different than the ones that preceded it. At that final meeting, which was held Sept. 14 in Naples, the very ideals at the heart of previous dialogue were called into question by new participants including members of the state’s Construction Industry Licensing Board.

The board is composed of 18 members appointed by the governor – including two current vacancies – and falls under the jurisdiction of the department’s Division of Professions.

The notion that the bill seeks some solution other than licensure appeared to be foreign to board members, who spent much of the meeting debating the merits of what they believed would amount to another licensing program.

Some participants also evidently assumed the state was proposing to allow people to enter into mold work by sidestepping contractors’ licenses and instead becoming “one-day wonders” by attending a minimalist training program.

After a period of time during which people participating in the meeting by telephone were made to wait before their comments could be voiced, some meeting participants were able to satisfy such concerns by clarifying that the bill would prescribe educational requirements every individual must comply with in order to seek a mold certification.

Mitchell told participants that discussing those educational requirements was the reason the board was asked to meet.

Some brief discussion centered on the science behind claims of health effects from mold, a discussion that ended when one contributor said that was precisely the type of information that would be included in a training class available to all certification applicants.

Fourth Workshop, on Mold Inspections
During the fourth workshop, held Sept. 6 in Tallahassee, stakeholders argued for hours over whether mold inspection should correctly be treated as a separate field or, alternately, considered a branch of either mold assessment or home inspection. Much of the discussion also centered on what educational requirements, if any, are necessary for mold inspectors, and whether or not an independent body should establish such criteria.

As with the topics of home inspection, mold assessment and mold remediation, which had been discussed at weekly meetings between Aug. 16 and Aug. 30, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation stressed that it does not want to establish a licensing program.

Mold inspection was not addressed in House Bill 315, the legislation whose veto earlier this year prompted this summer’s series of workshops with stakeholders. The topic was added to the department’s workshop agenda to ascertain whether or not stakeholders believe legislation setting educational and experience requirements for mold remediators and assessors should extend to the field of mold inspection.

Some parties expressed the opinion that adding a distinction for mold inspectors further stratifies the issue of mold work, a result that has the potential to confuse consumers.

Patrick O’Donnell of Enviro Team, an instructor for the Indoor Air Quality Association’s Certified Indoor Environmentalist course, said he favors granting an exemption to home inspectors that would allow them to perform mold inspections provided they possess a specified level of relevant education. Department staff said there seemed to be no objection to his proposal among attendees of the workshop.
 

When the October issue of Consumer Reports was going to press with ratings of 30 room air cleaners and 24 whole-house air cleaners, its nonprofit publisher was just learning of a new model in the bestselling product line of air cleaners from Sharper Image Corp.

The retailing giant, obviously attempting to improve its Ionic Breeze air cleaner in response to bad press regarding the release of ozone from it and some other products like it, had begun to feature a unique mechanism designed to convert ozone molecules to oxygen molecules on contact.

Consumer Reports went ahead and printed the results of its air-cleaner tests, which included not the new Sharper Image model with the ozone-reducing catalyst but the same model it had criticized five months earlier for an ozone release exceeding the limit the federal government imposes on medical devices. However, the publisher promised it would soon put the new model to the test and circulate the results.

Within a week, the results of testing the Ionic Breeze model with an OzoneGuard attachment were out. For the first time, Ionic Breeze units passed the industry-standard ozone test, nonprofit publisher Consumers Union said in a statement released Sept. 15.

However, other concerns the print magazine had already addressed about the Sharper Image product remained. Consumers Union said separate tests measuring the product’s clean air delivery rate continued to prove the machine was ineffective at removing allergens from the air, and the publisher found itself once again unable to recommend the Ionic Breeze to its readers.

The new model, the organization said, was “as ineffective as earlier versions and, unlike most room air cleaners, emits ozone as a byproduct. Based on its poor performance, we do not recommend it.”

Asked by IE Connections to comment, Sharper Image’s response cited results from testing of the ozone catalyst performed by Dr. Jeffrey Siegel, assistant professor with the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering of the University of Texas at Austin.

“I have tested the ozone catalyst, but I haven’t done enough testing yet to feel comfortable releasing results,” Siegel told IE Connections in an e-mail Sept. 16.

“Our air-cleaning tests show that the Ionic Breeze with OzoneGuard does a poor job of removing smoke, dust, and pollen particles from the air when new and after 500 hours of continuous use,” Consumers Union explains in a press release. “We consider any air cleaner with a clean air delivery rate (CADR) of under 100 to be ineffective; CADR values for the Ionic Breeze were consistently in the 20s for dust and smoke and in the 30s for pollen. Indeed, our highest-rated air cleaner removed particles from the air roughly 20 times faster than the Ionic Breeze Professional.”

The publisher recommends that owners of the model “try returning it for a refund” and proceeded to remind readers of inexpensive ways to improve home indoor air quality. The print edition of Consumer Reports, issued earlier, presents some “low- and no-cost steps simple indoor air-cleaning steps” buyers should try to reduce allergens in their homes. It suggests eliminating the causes (removing or reducing pollution sources, minimizing dust mites and controlling harmful gases) and ventilating rooms (opening windows and doors, using outdoor-venting fans and venting heating equipment and appliances properly).

A New Round of Bickering
The magazine’s October issue, which arrived in newsstands early in September, probes the ability of 30 room air cleaners to remove dust and smoke from the air, concluding that four of the products were poor at cleaning.

Among those four disparaged products was the Sharper Image Professional Series Ionic Breeze Quadra, which ultimately gave rise to another round of bickering between the embattled manufacturer and the magazine’s publisher. Consumers Union said both the Ionic Breeze’s SI637 and SI737 models – when tested without the ozone-reducing technology – performed poorly in removing smoke and dust at both high and low speeds and also exceeded an established ozone standard when tested.

The response by Sharper Image Corp. on Sept. 9 was in keeping with its long history of responding to Consumer Reports articles criticizing its air cleaners. The corporation, which in 2003 filed a defamation claim against the magazine’s publisher that was ultimately dismissed by a U.S. district court judge, was to issue a “letter to journalists” asserting that Consumer Reports was misleading in its coverage of the corporation’s products.

Sharper Image’s statement asserts that “Consumer Reports’ own data shows that” the models tested were “effective at removing smoke and dust, as would be expected of a totally silent appliance designed to run 24/7.” It said the Consumer Reports data could be obtained from designated contacts in corporate public relations.

Files supplied to IE Connections upon request contained no Consumer Reports data.

The technical director of Consumers Union opposed Sharper Image’s response, issuing another press release the same day. Speaking for Consumers Union, Vice President and Technical Director Jeff Asher said the magazine had reported its own test data accurately.
“Sharper Image’s contention that our prior test data showed the Ionic Breeze was ‘effective’ at removing smoke and dust is wrong and is not supported by our criteria for effectiveness, our data, our analysis, nor by anything that we published,” said Asher.

All of the filter-model air cleaners tested in the October issue of Consumer Reports achieved the magazine’s “Recommended” rating, while four room air cleaners – all of them electrostatic precipitators – were given the magazine’s “Not Recommended” rating. These four are the Oreck XL Professional Signature Air8S, the Sharper Image Professional Series Ionic Breeze Quadra SI737 and SI637, Ionic Pro CL-369 and Surround Air XJ-2000.

A History of Challenges
The nonprofit in November 2004 famously fended off a lawsuit from Sharper Image that called into question the magazine’s earliest reviews of the Ionic Breeze air purifiers.

While Consumers Union says it first began testing and reporting on air cleaners in 1961, it was not until 2002 that negative reviews of the Sharper Image’s Ionic Breeze series first appeared in the pages of Consumer Reports. The magazine’s February 2002 issue said “the Sharper Image SI637 Ionic Breeze Quadra Silent Air Purifier proved unimpressive in our tests.”

The July 2002 issue of Good Housekeeping also panned the Ionic Breeze Quadra, giving the product a rating of no stars out of a possible five.

A second Consumer Reports article appears in the October 2003 issue following additional testing and analysis of Consumers Union’s testing methodology. The corporation responded Sept. 8, 2003, filing a lawsuit against the publisher.

The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed by a court in 2004. Upon dropping its intention to appeal the ruling, Sharper Image agreed in February 2005 to pay $525,000 to cover Consumers Union’s legal fees.

Science has since at least 1996 recognized ozone as an irritant to the lungs and mucous membranes. Thus, some of the magazine’s criticism of some electrostatic precipitators deals with their relatively high ozone output.

Consumer Reports first brought up ozone release in a small portion of its October 2003 issue and later subjected various air cleaners to ozone tests. The resulting article in the May 2005 issue was the magazine’s first to address prominently the “potentially harmful” ozone release of ionizing air cleaners.

The May issue faults Sharper Image’s Professional Series Ionic Breeze Quadra SI737 model for failing an industry sealed-room test designed to enumerate the output of ozone. Using the Underwriters Laboratories Standard 867 sealed polyethylene room test as the basis for one test, Consumer Reports said results for five of the seven air cleaners tested yielded numbers exceeding 50 parts per billion, the limit used by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for medical devices.

In addition, the same five air cleaners were reported to perform poorly in removing dust, smoke and pollen from the air. Those were the Brookstone Pure-Ion, the Sharper Image Professional Series Ionic Breeze Quadra SI737, the Ionic Pro CL-369, IonizAir P4620 and Surround Air XJ-2000.

The same article also casts doubt on the inherent merit of accolades from two health organizations whose logos are used in marketing the Ionic Breeze products.

When the May issue hit the streets early in April 2005, it was nigh on two months after San Francisco-based Sharper Image Corp. had just agreed to reimburse Consumers Union for $525,000 legal expenses accrued during 15 months of litigation. The value of Sharper Image stock immediately plummeted.

The corporation went into defense mode. It issued a strongly worded refutation of the Consumer Reports article, complete with personalized quotes from founder and CEO Richard Thalheimer assuring consumers “that the Silent Air Purifiers are safe and effective for their homes.”

Bad news for Sharper Image worsened during the month, with two class-action lawsuits filed on behalf of corporate stockholders. Both lawsuits were voluntarily dismissed between June 20 and July 11.

At Consumers Union, testing of the SI637 and SI737 for the October 2005 issue commenced before Sharper Image’s release of the SI837, the upgraded Professional Series Ionic Breeze Quadra equipped with an ozone catalyst. The magazine reported that the SI737 and SI637, as well as the Ionic Pro CL-369 and Surround Air XJ-2000 models, “exceeded the Underwriters Laboratories ozone standard.”

In the meantime, Sharper Image had begun to feature the PremAir catalyst as part of the new model at no extra cost to consumers, as first announced in a July 25 press release. Made by Engelhard Corp., the developers of the three-way catalytic converter common to most automobiles, the catalyst is said to convert ozone molecules to oxygen molecules on contact. Sharper Image television commercials aired nationally in September say the catalyst converts “a significant amount of ozone” to “pure oxygen.”

Sharper Image also said in July that current owners of Ionic Breeze models without OzoneGuard could purchase front-mounting attachments separately “at a nominal cost.”

However, Consumers Union said it proceeded to publish its test results for the SI637 and SI737 models because the reviews are still relevant to end users. “Thousands of the S1637 and S1737 models remain in homes and on store shelves,” Consumers Union said in a press release, also acknowledging that Sharper Image was marketing the new model as the magazine went to press.

“We first learned about the newer OzoneGuard-equipped Ionic Breeze when Sharper Image publicly announced its availability in July 2005, after the testing for our October report was completed,” said Asher for Consumers Union. However, he promised that results for the new model with OzoneGuard would soon follow.

These test results were released Sept. 15 with a press release and also an update published on the Web site for Consumer Reports.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission expects it will soon have a completed evaluation of the ozone-release limit of 50 parts per billion. The report is expected to recommend an exposure limit for ozone from air cleaners that does not present an unreasonable risk of lung injury to consumers.

Schools Can Save Energy During Heating Season
William A. Turner, MS, PE
President/CEO
Turner Building Science LLC
Harrison, Maine

Steven M. Caulfield, PE, CIH
Senior Vice President
Turner Building Science LLC
Harrison, Maine

It is now getting cold in many areas of the United States. In our last article (“Retro-commissioning Schools Accomplishes Goals,” August 2005), we focused primarily on efforts to reduce cooling costs and to save energy. In this article, the focus is on the swing and heating seasons, and on reducing heating costs while still maintaining good IAQ and moisture control.

To keep occupants comfortable and to provide a good learning environment, a building must be reasonably warm when it is cold in the morning, must still provide adequate ventilation, and must not blow cold air onto the occupants. This may sound easy, but at 11 a.m., the sun is shining in the classroom with the window wall having a southeast exposure; and the classroom with the northwest exposure on the same ventilation system, it can be very challenging.

The ultimate goals are energy efficiency, good indoor air quality, and good occupant comfort/productivity.

Some Questions to Ask, and Why They Are Important

1. Are HVAC systems fighting each other? Are some areas too hot? Attempting to heat and cool the same air can be expensive. This is sometimes done to remove moisture, but there are better ways to do this. From a practical perspective, in the fall, it is important to make sure that the heating systems (modulating gas furnaces, modulating heating coils, radiant floors and boilers) are providing heat only when and where it is needed.

In older school buildings where the windows and roofs have been significantly improved but the original heating system is still in use, overheating classrooms can be a big challenge for the facilities and maintenance folks. Sometimes adding insulation to pipes and adding additional heating-control valves are necessary. As long as there are years of future operation left in the piping system, adding heating coils to ventilation systems on north-exposure classroom wings can also help. In general, un-insulated heating pipes in an insulated school building leads to lots of overheating problems.

The color of the roof, which assists with effective economizer cooling and reducing microclimate effects on the roof, was discussed in our August article.

One location you need to be careful about insulating heating pipes is in crawlspaces. In some cases, the have been kept and have prevented mold from growing or wood from decaying.

There are likely better means of keeping the crawlspace dry, so certainly consider insulating any heating pipes but also figure out how to keep the crawlspace from becoming a mold factory.
We have found that using sub-membrane exhaust systems in crawlspaces (radon-removal technology) is very effective in assisting to keep the areas dry and in stopping odors.

There is much information now available with regard to keeping crawlspaces sealed up, warm and dry, versus vented, damp and cold.

2. Are the rooms with computers on the north side of the building? In the August article, we discussed how flat LCD computer screens can save electrical energy and reduce air-conditioning costs. In the same breath, it always makes sense to put the computer room on the north side of the facility and to reduce glare by reducing window openings, as long as the space can meet program needs.

3. Are the rooms with vending machines on the north side of the building? Vending machines, even ones with energy-saving VendingMisers installed, still give off lots of heat. If program needs can be met, placement in a cool area is better than one that is overheated already.

4. Do the windows or air intakes leak lots of air at night? Uncontrolled air leakage during unoccupied hours is a major source of wasted heat energy in any school, whether old or new. The National Institute of Science and Technology has released a report that shows that tight buildings will save 60 percent on heating and 25 percent on electricity. Snug-fitting windows and doors are always an important part of the equation, especially when it is cold. The outdoor-air intake louvers or relief dampers also need to seal tightly, to reduce freeze-up problems.

5. Are there ventilation systems running when not needed? Most ventilation systems that move air out of or into the building need to run only when the building is occupied. Further, they likely do not need to run at full speed unless there are lots of people present. This can be a tricky topic, but more and more folks are using demand-controlled ventilation to reduce over-ventilation and excess dryness. These control strategies can either reduce outdoor air damper openings on constant volume systems or control variable speed drives on VAV (variable air volume) systems. If carbon dioxide levels are only in the range of 600 parts per million in an occupied school building at 11 a.m. during very cold weather, the building could be getting way too much outdoor air, and it may have severe air-leakage problems that can be found with a few hours of infrared thermography. High make-up air areas should be evaluated for any recent change of use that would lower ventilation needs and long-term energy-recovery opportunities.

6. Are control systems working as intended; are air filters and belts being maintained? This goes along with the last question and answer. Nighttime operation usually has a very different objective than the occupied mode. Running systems in the occupied mode for 24 hours because the controls are not operating correctly, or because the building shell is leaky, usually wastes lots of heating and electrical energy. Motors running with loose belts provide poor heating air distribution, and poor or missing air filters (less than MERV 7) mean the owner will be unnecessarily be paying for expensive coil and duct cleaning.

7. What does the thermal envelope look like with an infrared scan? We mentioned this in our previous article; however, it is critical when it comes to heat loss. In any size school building, the most effective means of quickly finding the building envelope air leakage holes (that cost lots of completely wasted energy use at night during cold weather when the wind is blowing) is with an Infrared Camera and operator. For likely $1,500 or less on a heating season night, the owner can very quickly locate (and record digitally) the air/heat leakage holes, and any poorly insulated walls for prioritizing “draft stopping” with liquid foam or insulation additions. Uncontrolled air leakage accounts for huge extra costs in heating energy in the winter, causes freeze ups, contributes to dryness problems, and wastes significant electrical energy running pumps that move hot water.

Single pane glass with metal mullions should likely be budgeted for replacement and reduction of glass area.

8. How inefficient is combustion in my furnace or boiler for heating? Old, inefficient combustion equipment needs to be scheduled for tuning and eventual replacement. At the same time, a qualified professional should be engaged to look at electric savings from installing variable frequency drives on heating pumps and/or on fans. Reducing most pump and fan flows by only 20 percent often reduces the electric consumption by 50 percent.

We recently assisted a school district with a heating water pump replacement and upgrade to a VFD system with support for the program from the electric utility. The predicted electrical savings with just the replacement of 20 zone circulators and rebalance and installation of the VFD pumping system was $10,000 per year.

With the current escalating costs of fuel, many heating system improvements may take less than three years to result in long-term annual savings.

9. Should I be exploring alternative systems and fuels? Our best answer is maybe. In some areas of the United States, wood fired heating or other biomass fuels may make sense. Some States have programs to assist districts with this type of conversion. In other areas, use of geothermal heat pumps may make sense, depending on the structure of the electric utility.

In all cases it makes sense to look at the building shell and ventilation systems in considering fuel switching or geothermal retrofits. Reducing the capital costs of equipment by reducing the load of the building almost always makes long-term economic sense.

Stay tuned for biodiesel fuels and other exciting future opportunities.

William A. Turner, MS, PE, is president and CEO of Turner Building Science LLC. He has more than 25 years of experience in IAQ/HVAC and energy evaluation and development of solutions for building system problems. He supervises a group of engineers, industrial hygienists, and building scientists who serve owners, architects, general contractors, and construction managers. Turner can be reached by e-mail at bturner@turnerbuildingscience.com or by phone at (207) 583-4571 ext. 11.

Steve M. Caulfield, PE, CIH, is vice president of Turner Building Science LLC. He can be reached by e-mail at scaulfield@turnerbuildingscience.com or by phone at (207) 583-4571 ext. 14.

Also contributing to the article were Jeffery J. Harrison, PE, Brian K. Decker, PE, and Frederick McKnight.

Moisture meters have quickly become necessary items in the vast array of tools required by IAQ, water-damage and mold-remediation specialists. This growing awareness of the need for meters makes sense when you consider the fact that moisture is a primary element needed for mold, mildew and bacteria to thrive.
Industry professionals know that without a moisture meter, it is virtually impossible to detect hidden moisture that can ultimately cause cosmetic, structural and health-related problems. These professionals recommend using pinless meters in conjunction with pin-type meters for the best overall evaluation of moisture conditions. Using these meters together will give you the fastest, most accurate results.

Pin-type meters operate on the principle of electrical resistance (conductivity). They require the operator to penetrate the material being tested. The electrical resistance of the material between the points of contact, which is influenced by the presence of moisture, is measured and displayed by the meter. Pin-type meters have been available for many years and, in some ways, provide more definitive information on the overall condition of a structure than pinless meters. This is due to the fact that so many different electrodes are offered with pin-type meters, allowing the operator to take readings in various materials and at different depths of penetration, ultimately finding the source of moisture. While some people are concerned about making holes in the material, this limited damage is a non-issue considering the excess damage that could occur if this moisture were left undetected.

Pinless meters, on the other hand, use capacitance technology to detect moisture. The sensor pad, which makes surface contact with the material being tested, sends a radio frequency signal into the material. This type of technology is appealing to contractors because it allows them to assess the overall moisture condition quickly and with no damage to the material being tested.

The primary disadvantage, however, of a pinless meter is that it has a penetration depth of approximately one-quarter to three-quarters of an inch. Also, surface moisture will affect the readings to some degree, which means the contractor would not be able to determine the exact source of moisture in a given material.

The technology for moisture meters continues to evolve. Today, we are seeing the combination of both pin and pinless meters into a single meter. This works to the advantage of contractors who are unwilling to put many pin holes into a surface.

Upon arriving at a job, contractors can do a quick scan of the area using the pinless function. Then, based on those findings, they can go back and use the pins, plus electrodes in the troubled areas to obtain a more precise recording of the moisture levels. This process works well because it combines the speed and ease of a pinless meter with the precision of a pin-type meter. Also, because contractors focus in on target areas only with the pin meter, this process minimizes the number of holes they will have to put into the material.

Taking the technology one step further, we are starting to see three-in-one meters. These meters take the same technology that is used in two-in-one meters plus the additional feature of a thermo-hygrometer, which allows users to check the humidity and temperature of the building envelope upon arriving at a job site and during the drying process. Relative humidity is also a crucial factor to consider when coating or installing a floor over a concrete sub floor. This type of meter is ideal for restoration professionals because, instead of carrying around three meters, they need only one.

Many of the three-in-one meters conform to the ASTM F-2170 standard. This test method covers the quantitative determination of percent relative humidity in concrete slabs for field or laboratory tests. ASTM F-2170 measures the relative humidity by insertion of a probe into the concrete slab. The test defines relative humidity as a ratio of the amount of water vapor actually in the air compared to the amount of water vapor required for saturation at that particular temperature and pressure, expressed as a percentage. The basic procedure for testing is to first form two holes in the concrete slab into which a relative humidity probe is placed. Floor slabs must be at service temperature and relative humidity for at least 48 hours before beginning procedures. After drilling and placement of a sleeve into the hole, you must cap the sleeve so it is airtight. Then, allow 72 hours (3 days) to pass before making your relative humidity readings. In accordance with the ASTM F-2170 test method, the relative humidity in a concrete floor slab shall not exceed 75 percent at the time of testing, unless otherwise specified by the flooring or adhesive manufacturer.

Many of these newer models are equipped with multiple scales. Meters can read a percentage of moisture content on a wood scale. Some meters even have built in species corrections for as many as 69 different wood species. Non-wood building materials such as concrete, plaster, and insulation are measured using a relative scale, which provides a dry-to-wet comparison of moisture in those materials. One manufacturer offers a third scale that reads “%MC” on gypsum and Sheetrock. With the ability to read on these three scales these new meters are truly versatile for a wide variety of contractors.

The most advanced meters offered today offer data collections capabilities that include a job grouping feature. Job grouping can be helpful if you are checking multiple rooms at a site, or multiple jobs throughout the course of a work day. Rather than having all readings stored in one space, you can now store readings separately. With some meters, you can group as many as 99 jobs and store as many as 1,400 readings. You can also change the meter settings to match the particular environment of each job. For example, you can set the temperature and wood species for each individual job or change the scale to read on a particular material, such as concrete or Sheetrock. The meter will also record the date and time of each reading. All of this will prove helpful when it comes to analyzing your readings.

How can contractors view all of these readings? Another state-of-the-art technology that has enhanced moisture detection is the ability to download readings to a personal computer. With many of the new designs on the market, users can transfer readings directly from your meter into a spreadsheet on your computer. Once in this format, they can then assign individual names to each job to help keep track of their work. Users can also add notes to each job, which will help them to evaluate what needs to be done to a particular area in a job.

In addition to providing the operator with the ability to analyze data, they will also be able to provide written documentation and proof of the readings for their customers, providing a hard copy in case the readings are ever called into question. The printout will provide everything that was inputted in the job grouping categories. Contractors will be able to show their customer the exact environment, time and date that the readings took place.

Having this printout is also helpful for those looking to monitor the drying process over a period of time. They will be able to track and document the progress the structure is making as it dries, assuring that they would be able to sign off with confidence that a structure is dry. It will also show them an average of all readings collected, as well as their lowest reading and your highest reading.

Another technology that is becoming more accepted in the industry is the use of thermal imaging cameras in conjunction with moisture meters. Sometimes, moisture is located in a hard-to-view place. Now, contractors can identify the problem spots with the camera, in turn identifying the spots they should probe with their meter. Thermal imaging cameras offer noninvasive means of monitoring and diagnosing the condition of buildings. They provide immediate documentation of as-built or post-restoration-quality; post-casualty cause and origin data; plumbing and building-envelope water leakage; and post-flood and -fire, water-damaged material assessment. They can instantly image entire rooms and inspect places that can’t be physically viewed by the contractor. This method will help to reveal wet conditions behind surfaces such as walls and wallpaper that don’t readily water stain, track leaks to their source, monitor the drying process, and confirm when a structure is dry.

While the technology of the thermal imaging camera is great, it does not replace the use of a moisture meter. The camera provide %MC in a given material; it simply provides operators with information that will help them take the appropriate measures in finding moisture and drying the structure.

Moisture meters have come a long way over the years. They have evolved from simply sticking a probe into the surface and taking a reading to multifunctional pieces of equipment. At one time, it was necessary to record all readings by hand, whereas meters can now collect data automatically for viewing at a later date to analyze your findings at your computer.

Moisture meters are now more interactive and user-friendly then ever before. The future can bring further development in moisture detection.

Paul Laurenzi is vice president of sales and marketing for Delmhorst Instrument Co., a manufacturer of high-quality moisture meters. Initially, Delmhorst sold one model to building superintendents in New York City to help them identify leaks in roofs and plaster walls. Today, the company serves more industries than all of its competitors combined, and is recognized as the market leader in each of those industries. Laurenzi can be reached by e-mail at info@delmhorst.com or by phone at (877) DELMHORST.