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Plumbing

For over 28 years; Plumbing Headaches Cured Today! Kitchen & bath fixture replacement. Sump pumps, sewer repair & relining. Rinnai Tankless & traditional hot water heaters.

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Insulation

Ace and Sons Insulation

More than 30,000 satisfied customers since 1981. Our product is 100% green, and save you up to 50% on your energy costs. We honor a lifetime, transferable guarantee. Insulation is all we do, and we do it better than anyone else.

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Water Filtration

Reynolds Water Conditioning Co.

Certified Water Specialist. High performance water systems remove rust and odor from well water. ClearStream point of entry filters for city and well water. PureStream reverse osmosis systems. New salt-free water conditioning.

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Now you can enjoy The Handyman Show with Glenn Haege anytime! Select from one of five recent national broadcasts of the award winning Handyman Show with Glenn Haege and enjoy some clear and concise how-to advise on your schedule.

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Publication date: 11/23/2002

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Fresh-air products help families breathe a winter sigh of relief

It seems simple enough. You breathe in. You breathe out. That's also what your house is supposed to do. With a house, we call it infiltration and exfiltration.
   Open a door or a window and the house breathes in (infiltration). Light a fire in the fireplace, turn up the heat or turn on the dryer and your house breathes out (exfiltration). The trouble is, in winter, we keep the house sealed so tight our homes start gasping for air. In heating contractor talk, we say the house is suffering from negative air pressure.
   Before we started sealing our houses to save energy, air came in easily through cracks in walls and loosely fit windows. Now, with everything caulked, fitted and insulated baggie tight, our homes have an increasingly difficult task breathing. Water condenses on windows, air grows stale and polluted and zebra stripes form on walls and ceilings.
   When the furnace or drier goes on, air is forced out of the house, creating a partial vacuum. The house tries desperately to find "make-up" air to make the internal air pressure equal to the outside air pressure.
   To do this, air is sucked in through the attic insulation, through the drier vent or down the fireplace chimney. By the time the clean outside air is pulled through the cobwebs, mouse droppings, dusty insulation, carbon encrusted fireplace chimney or lint laden drier vent line, it is filthy.
   Unfortunately, that is what most of us are breathing in all winter long. I have long preached the installation of passive air make-up systems like the Skuttle model 216, (800) 848-9786, or the Equaliz-Air by Xavier, (734) 462-1033. Whenever the house "goes negative" the Skuttle and the Equaliz-Air open a little vent that permits fresh air to come into the house and make up the air pressure deficit.
   That is fine as far as it goes, but neither system assures that a continuous supply of fresh air enters the house unless the furnace or some other appliance is exfiltrating old air out of the house.
   If you want a continuous supply of fresh air, you have to have a mechanical method of pushing stale air out and pulling fresh air in. As companies become aware of the importance of make-up air, they are developing many techniques to accomplish this purpose.
   Some health-conscious contractors install a roof top fan that operates continuously, assuring a negative air pressure that pulls fresh air into the house. This works well as long as you have something like an Equaliz-Air unit letting fresh air in. If you don't, the fan just pulls air in through the cracks.
   Ninety Plus efficient furnaces help to prevent negative air because they bring in as much fresh air as they exfiltrate during operation. Heat Recovery Ventilators available from most heating and cooling contractors do the same thing with the additional benefit that they use the heat of the air being exfiltrated to warm the incoming air making the heating system more efficient.
   The problem with these two systems is that they only satisfy the furnace's need for air. They do nothing to assure a stream of fresh air for the home's inhabitants or to make up air lost by operation of dryer vents, bathroom and kitchen fans or fireplaces.
   Air make-up units called Energy Recovery Ventilator's bring in fresh air continuously. They also dehumidify indoor air when the humidity outside is lower than inside. Some of the most popular ventilators are the Honeywell HR200, (800) 328-5111; the Carrier V-series, (800) 227-7437; Research Products' April Aire 8100, (608) 257-8801; Broan-Nutone Guardian ERV100 HC, (888) 882-7626; and the Stirling Technology Recoupaerator, (800) 535-3448.
   Broan-Nutone also makes the Guardian Plus, which is a heat recovery ventilator, a whole-house fresh air ventilator and a HEPA stand alone by-pass filter. The combination of the three needed features in one economical package makes the unit increasingly popular.
   The term stand alone by-pass filter means that the filter is not attached to the furnace and has its own power, bringing in fresh air while filtering a third or more of all of the the air going through the home's duct work.
   The Amaircare, Air Wash System, (877) 839-3036, www.amaircare.com, is another highly efficient stand alone HEPA filtration system that brings in fresh air and operates continuously cleaning the home's air.
   If your home has a damp basement, Therma-Stor Products, (800) 533-7533, a Wisconsin manufacturer of high efficiency dehumidifiers has introduced the Ultra-Air A.P.D.. The unit dehumidifies, filters and brings in fresh air. It is so efficient that it virtually eliminates mold, mildew, dust mites and bacteria that need a humidity level of 50 percent or above.
   As you can see, air make-up units are definitely not one size fits all. Our homes require a plentiful supply of fresh air, but it is up to each of us to determine exactly what you need before using the most powerful tool in your toolbox, your checkbook. Learn all you can before you do, then brag about it.

Note: This article was accurate at the date of publication. However, information contained in it may have changed. If you plan to use the information contained herein for any purpose, verification of its continued accuracy is your responsibility.