Top 5 Ways to Improve Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)

It is stay at home time. With all the lockdowns, shutdowns, curfews, stay at homes, one is finally getting to spend more time at home. Time where one doesnt really hit the bed but gets to feel the house, the place one buys or rents spending a lot of money, mortgage and heartaching searches. The easiest way to have a pleasant physical time at home is to ensure that the Indoor Air Quality is ambient.

Indoor Air Quality or lack of it can really play havoc with a person's schedule. Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) is the cause for a lot of issues that while by themselves dont look like much, but can affect productivity in a major way. SBS causes headaches, dizziness, fatigue, nausea. The major causes of  sick building syndrome are lack of ventilation, high CO2, ozone levels, presence of allergens, harmful microbes in the air, unhygienic conditions indoor, etc. The best way to improve personal health and productivity is to improve the ventilation / indoor air quality of the place where onespends the majority of a workday.

What are the ways one can go about improving the Indoor Air Quality?

 Letting in the outdoor air from time to time is the easiest and the cheapest way to improve ventilation in a house. Sometimes the air conditioner would just be recycling and cooling or heating the same polluted air. Open a bit of window, ensure cross ventilation multiple times a day. That is by far the cheapest way to ensure a better air quality.

Indoor Plants. Indoor plants are a great way to improve the indoor air quality. Two to three medium sized plant per son in a home ensures that your carbon dioxide gets sapped up to some extent.  They act as natural air purifiers and dehumidifiers. One can also use dehumidifiers in damp climates that are easily available.

Maintain household hygiene to ensure a better indoor air quality. Disinfecting the house regularly, keeping outside, cleaning shoes, outer garments, mopping, sweeping and dusting the home at regular intervals using natural disinfectants, vacuum cleaners, etc ensures that the microbes dont get to settle down and multiply. Bacteria and virus like a congested, humid space to grow. Ensuring personal and home hygeine ensures the chance of a better home quality.

Invisible pollutants are a major cause of sick building syndrome and poor air quality. These invisible pollutants come in our household paints on furniture and walls, glue used in furniture, the household cleaners, air fresheners, dyes, etc. These are all products with high VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds). Try to use products with low VOCs,  that are more natural or have been approved as green.

Air filters used in ours ACs and AHUs are another source of pollution. They need to be kept clean. The fresh intake air source in AHUs should not be near any contaminating source.

The easiest way to ensure that you get the fresh air you need is to install a IAQ measure in your house, especially if you need to use artificial ventilation more. This ensures that the IAQ stays at an acceptable level; else measures are taken. The difference between indoor and outdoor ppm* of CO2 levels should not be more than 600 to have an ambient atmosphere at home. More than that is a cause for worry.

* particles per million



Article by

Ar. Sanghamitra Rath


#stayathome, #airquality, #co2levels, #greenbuilding

Download WOW Addons | Best WoW Addons

Download WOW Addons | Best WoW Addons

It is not enough to have the basic WoW interface, as anyone who plays the game will tell you. It is like having a mobile phone without its apps. The best gameplay/  use of Wow happens when you add the right Addons.

Here are some of the Wow Addons one should have in this list. The Wow Twitch addon will help in adding thes important environment to your Wow game

Check out these Wow addons here listed on PCGames

https://www.pcgamesn.com/world-of-warcraft/best-wow-addons

ElvUI is one hugely recommended add on to WoW

Quartz, Simulationcraft, Recount, Deadlyboss Mods are some of the other recommended Wow addons to download.


The best Wow Addons seem to the ones that can

Track the quests
Track the rewards
Customize the interface
Organize the inventory and more such for a better playing experience

Pennymac | Coronavirus Mortgage Relief

Www.Pennymacusa.Com has some vital information on mortgage. With the earnings and business being severely impacted by the Covid 19, many people are looking for assistance with their mortgages.

The covid 19 resource page of Pennymac has information on

What to do if mortgage payment is affected
Unsure of mortgage payment ability in the future

What is a forbearance plan

Difference between a forbearance plan and a payment deferral

Check out this link below to find out the answer to these questions and more

https://www.pennymacusa.com/covid-19-faqs


Find out more information on home refinancing here

https://www.pennymacusa.com/refinancing

Top 5 DIY Face Mask Dos and Donts

Now that the World is in lockdown, there are some important ways one can remain engaged to serve the community, engage one's time and generally live with oneself.

The biggest need for the hour are face masks. Do go and make those face masks and distribute them amongst your local health workers, sanitary workers and use them yourselves too.

The best way to prepare those DIY Face masks are to use the Government health department directives. That will ensure that the masks maintain the highest standards of hygiene.

While lack of PPE are being felt daily by health care workers, one can do one's small bit to help the people who are helping us fight this deadly virus.

Just creating 10 masks by a billion people can produce 10 billion masks. 

The Dos and Donts of Using a mask

WHO says just masks arent going to be effective. They have to be used in conjunction with frequest washing of hands. Further, masks need to be disposed off properly. 

The masks that are used need to be clean. They should have have been cleaned or disinfected using UV rays, heat, soap water, alcohol, etc. So beware of the multiple DIY masks going around unless one is sure of their genesis.

It is essential at this time that people going out should wear masks. WHO has revised its advisory and is asking people to wear masks. However, one should see that the people with risk have first access to the essential item before grabbing them off the shelves.

Here comes the utility of the DIY masks

The advantages of the DIY home masks are

• They can be reused
• A double layer of cotton mask is somewhat effective though no where near the N95 in filtering. However, its better than no mask, and being strongly recommended by the WHO and Govt agencies 
• Easily made at home and disinfected
• Breathable

All you need to do to create these masks are putting together old clothes, some basic stiching skills, and disinfecting in hot water and soap.

There are multiple sites giving instructions on how to make these DIY masks.

To be effective and cover the face really well, the adult masks should be pleated and be 9 inch X 7 inch in size. The pleats ensure the extra layering to keep out the small droplets.

A strip at either end is stuck to tie the mask to the face. It can be a long strip to tie the mask at the back of the head or can be a loop to loop the mask around the ear.

So here's to creating masks and fighing the Corona Virus our way.