Air Changes Per Hour

I've just been reading about this.  Indoor air sealing is measured with a Blower Door Test, which applies a very slight pressure (50 Pascals, less than one psi) and determines airflow.  Results are typically provided in ACH50, Air Changes per Hour at 50 Pascals.

But what most people really want to know is how many air changes there are under natural conditions, without a blower door applying air pressure.  ACH by definition cannot be measured (it's "natural") but can be estimated applying factors related to building height, climate, and building shielding from plants and other structures.

Suppose I get an ACH50 of 3, a very good number.  A correction factor for a single story unshielded home in Austin is 16.7.  I'm figuring a good number for me would be about 15, since there is some shielding from other nearby homes and my fence.  So than the natural ACH would be 3 / 15 or 0.2.  0.2 would mean about 5 natural air changes per day.  That does seem a lot higher than I would expect for a well sealed building.

Cleaning the Fleetwood window with 409 Glass and Surface cleaner

The contractor did some quick cleaning inside the building before they left.  But there was still visible crud on the window, and it had only gotten worse.  I decided I would reread the Fleetwood care instructions before cleaning to be sure I did it right.

Fleetwood calls for a non-ammonia based commercial window cleaner, and, if that doesn't work, isopropanol (rubbing alcohol).  Windex, with Ammonia-D, doesn't qualify.  BTW, Ammonia-D is plain old Ammonia, NH3, toxic as ever.  I'm not exactly sure why they call it D.  Windex does not smell too bad, possibly because they use a small concentration of NH3 and possibly because of fragrances.  That's where the D comes from.

I looked at my cleaning stuff and noticed I had an old bottle of 409 Glass and Surface cleaner.  I would have used that last week but the purple color has faded slightly.  I thought I'd get a new bottle of it, but didn't get around to it.  The local HEB doesn't carry it.  They had a generic brand that looked like it might be similar, but it was hard to read the ingredients through the bottle.

409 Glass and Surface Cleaner mainly relies on isopropanol, in a 5% solution.  That's a great streak free cleaner, and not too much of it.  It also has a surfactant and defoamer commonly found in laundry detergent and even bar soap, those are said to be non-toxic in the MSDS.  It looks like a great formula to me.  Isopropanol is a great cleaner, and it might be somewhat less toxic than ammonia, particularly in a mere 5% solution, rubbing alcohol is usually a 70% solution.  It smells better for sure.

One reason why Fleetwood recommends a non-ammonia based cleaner is that ammonia is hard on aluminum.  Most ammonia-based cleaner do not recommend usage on aluminum.  People often use them on aluminum framed windows anyway.

On Sunday night, or actually early Monday morning, just after I opened the window the full way to capture the northern breeze, I decided this was the perfect time to clean the window.  The window was wide open, it was nicely warm outside, but no excess heat from sunlight to make the job difficult.  Also I worried some of the bad smell, possibly a lot of it, might be coming from the window itself.  Glass is actually very good at picking up VOC's, you can visually see how well grungy stuff sticks to it, but it doesn't hold onto them well enough to keep them there, so they boil off later.

I cleaned the window both sides with my old bottle of 409 Glass and Surface cleaner.  Some tiny specs of foam or paint I scraped off with my fingernail.  I trimmed my fingernails after that and washed my hands.  I had to use an old T-shirt because all my cleaning cloths were dirty.

I'm not sure if there has been any related change in building smell after the window cleaning.  There was smell on Monday morning, and less on Monday night, but nothing detectable on Tuesday possibly because of the fan.

I had previously cleaned the glass on the French doors.  I can't remember what I used on them.  Since those windows are effectively framed by plastic moldings, and the door itself is made of steel, it is fine to use an ammonia based cleaner.  But I'm now thinking I'll use 409 Glass and Surface for that from now on.

Forced outgassing

I've tried to maximize outgassing ever since the polyurethane spray foam was installed in January.  But it the past few weeks, I've pushed it harder.  I run the ceiling fan 24 hours a day.  I added three 40 watt incandescent light bulbs which I run continuously so that there is infrared energy inside the building 24/7 also, and therefore a little extra heat, which might be especially helpful when it cools slightly in the early morning.  The forced heating from the light helps prevent the outgassing from reversing temporarily when it gets relatively cool in the early morning.  Or at least that was one of the ideas that inspired it.

On Sunday night, I noticed that the smell could be smelled twenty or more feet away from Lyndhurst on the outside.  I had two ideas: the air was so still that the smell wasn't actively being blown away from my property.  The air was very humid, so the formaldehyde was essentially "going into solution" with the humidity in the air.  The latter image was very compelling, and I imagined that if nothing else the smell outside the building suggests that the outgassing rate is high for some reason, probably the humidity.  But this special case of high heat (it was still above 90 at 10pm) and humidity was not well being taken advantage of, I thought, because there was no breeze or fan moving air into or outside the building.

So I moved the new fan I bought last week from my master bedroom (where it had proven quite nice for a few days) to Lyndhurst, which was what I bought it for.

While I typically see winds from the east, particularly the SE, on Sunday night the air was moving in very slowly from the north.  So I cranked the Fleetwood casement window all the way open, and I felt a tiny bit of air movement inward.

So I decided to place the new fan in the doorway, blowing out.  That would tend to suck air in through the window, providing forced crossflow ventilation.  Although I worried that the doorway is so wide that any air blowing out would be immediately cancelled out by air sliding back in, it didn't seem to work badly.  With the fan running, I could feel air blowing out through the entire doorway, as if the doorway were operating as some kind of horn for expanding the airflow.  And more air was coming in through the window.  I found it worked fine with the fan a few feet inside the building also, so it would almost always tend to pull in air that was inside the building.  And it would also tend to draw from the window just 6 feet or so behind it.

The fan blew all day on Monday.  On Monday night, fearing rain, I closed the window slightly, but increased the fan speed from 1 to 2.  That was actually at 1am in the morning.  At about 4am I changed it back to 1, fearing the added noise might disturb the neighbor (though unlikely).  Even at 2 the fan makes less noise than an A/C compressor.

I'm noticing that the smell seems more likely when there is heat, but maybe even moreso when there is humidity and just some lingering heat.  I'm thinking that both water and formaldehyde are small molecules that can leak through the tiniest of pores (most building materials are vapor permeable).  Also, water and formaldehyde are soluble, but formaldehyde has the additional property of attracting oily compounds.  Anyway, the water vapor has a greater ability to leech out the formaldehyde when the humidity is high.  The effect of humidity on formaldehyde emmission is well known, but not so often explained.

One nice thing is that once I finish the "outgassing" phase of the project, hopefully in mid September this year, and close the doors and start the climate control, the inside temperature and humidity will be controlled to points where there isn't much outgassing.  If the humidity is below 50, and the temperature below 80, based on what I'm already seeing, I suspect there won't be much outgassing.  Meanwhile, during the outgassing phase, I can force much more outgassing than will be possible under climate control.

 It's also possible the watering I have done in the past few days around Lyndhurst has helped created a high humidity bubble around Lyndhurst which both increases outgassing and tends to hold on to the formaldehyde smell temporarily.

The high temperature outside reached over 100 on Monday and over 106 on Tuesday.  With the fans blowing the hot air into and around inside the building, this is great for outgassing.  I'm also thinking outgassing could be occuring on the "outside" of the building now, from the sheathing outward.  Inside the sheathing there is a 1.5 inch layer of closed cell polyurethane which is about as hard and impermeable as metal.  So formaldehyde in the sheathing plywood can't escape to the inside of the building, but it might escape outward, through the hardi panel, through gaps in the caulk, and through the bottom seams.

Formaldehyde test kit

Here's a company with a variety of IAQ test kits.  They have a radon kit, mold and bacteria kit, and formaldehyde kit.  The formaldehyde kit is said to be the best available, accurate to 0.01ppm, and $49.

I had been planning to do a broader test, like the one I've linked earlier for $249.  Whatever kit I get should have 0.01ppm formadehyde resolution because 0.1ppm is the threshold level for safety, and people can generally smell below 0.1pm but not usually 0.01ppm.

I've read that tests showed an average of 255 days being required for formaldehyde outgassing to fall 50%.  To get to 10% (like 0.01 in 0.1) would require 3.3 times that much time, or 2.3 years.

It would be reasonable to guess I have something like 0.1ppm now (inside the room when door has been closed awhile with 90 degrees ambient), so 2.3 years should get me to the point where the formaldehyde can't even be smelled, even if the room has been closed, under those same conditions.

On Thursday night, having had one door open for awhile, I smelled absolutely nothing, anywhere in the room.  On Friday afternoon, ambient temperature above 90, with both doors open since the previous midnight, I smelled very little, it took effort to smell anything at all.  So it seems to me that in the months since construction of the various parts that might be causing the smell, it has decreased somewhat notably since the interior painting was done in Jan-Feb.  But unfortunately I never took careful notes about when and how much the smell would go away.

That 255 day number, however, is determined from actual homes in various locations.  I'm trying to beat that through keeping the building as open as possible for an entire summer, cleaning interior surfaces, continuous fan operation, continuous incandescent light operation, and whatever else I come up with.  I'm still thinking about using high power lights like 500W halogens to speed up paint curing and outgassing.  I was also thinking about using a humidifier.

They do in fact say that formaldehyde outgassing can be accelerated with heat and humidity.

Finally tested the security camera

I've bought a Swann security camera kit almost a year ago, and had it installed about 9 months ago.  It monitors the side yard passage to the back yard, and also the windows facing the side yard.  I was inspired by Ronnie's seemingly bogus complaint that his old wheelbarrow had been stolen.  A friend joked, who would want that, it was the most sorry looking thing ever, half filled with old concrete.

But it took until this week, well I started on Sunday actually, for me to get around to seeing if I could actually play back any of my video recordings.  I had set it up for continuous record, or motion detect, but never tested it.  Obviously I should have tested the day after setup.  All this time, it might not have been working at all.

On Sunday, it wasn't working very well.  I could only play back the first 2 minutes out of each half hour!

I meant to call Swann on Monday, then on Tuesday.  Finally, on Tuesday night I dug up the actual manual, and found that the Search screen also has a "Playback" button.  You simply click that if you want continuous playback.  For some reason, Search only plays back two minutes.

The pictures are actually quite nice from the 580 security camera.  During the daytime, the color picture is nice.  At night, it's very sensitive, and I have a motion detect light also.  I can not only see people coming up the coming into the side yard, I can see cars and (very few) pedestrians on the street.

If I had a second camera on the other side, I could see anyone coming from either side.

Outgassing continues...formaldehyde?

I try to keep at least one door open, and the window open a crack, to allow for outgassing, even if there's a slight probability of rain.  If it's clear and not too windy, I open both doors.

On Tuesday afternoon I was going to close one door and the window because of 20% chance of rain.  However, at around 1am, I noticed NO smell.  It hasn't always been that way, even late at night.  I decided that I should let the smell purging continue at that point.  Best to keep the smell at no smell as much as possible to avoid reabsorption.  With only one door open, very little rain would get onto the floor and it would quickly dry.

I've been wondering if the current smell is mainly from formaldehyde.  I would describe it as sweet and pungent, somewhat earthy, and that also describes formaldehyde.

Formaldehyde could be in just about everything, but mainly the plywood (for which the plywood shelves are particularly important, less so the plywood wall sheathing on the outside of the foam insulation), the floor grout and quickset, and the oil based paint.

Here is some information on formaldehyde outgassing.

Some important points:

1) High heat and humidity accelerate outgassing and shorten the time during which the smell is noticeable.  (That's why I got the electric lightbulbs, and I have been thinking about using high power lights and a humidifier.)

2) People are very sensitive to formaldehyde smell, and can detect it at very low concentrations far below where it is acutely toxic.

3) Formaldehyde is carcinogenic.  The trailers FEMA provided for displaced New Orleans residents often had formaldehyde outgassing at many times the regulated "safe" level.

4) Formaldehyde release diminishes over time.  In one test, it took particleboard 216 days for the formaldehyde outgassing to be reduced 50%.  Most release occurs in the first year.  It can still be smelled after 5 years, and possibly 10.

5) Just as I had thought, evaporating formaldehyde fumes can be absorbed and later re-released by plywood, paints, and wall board.  That is why workshop must be kept warm and open for the outgassing period, and the fan kept operating.

6) Once the building is to be used, keeping it as cool and dry as much as possible will minimize formaldehyde outgassing.

7) Stain blocking paints can block formaldehyde emissions.  Examples: Polyureseal BP, hard seal, acrilyac.

Here is another link about formaldehyde outgassing.

Sugar Daddy Day, June 17

No fathers here, so it's Sugar Daddy day.  Sugar Daddy speaking.  I celebrated most of the day, as I would have anyway.  But I had plan to start working on yard earlier than usual time.  Usual time is around 7pm, leaving me two hours of daylight at most, followed by another hour of dark for cleanup.  But now I wanted to finish by 9pm, so I could listen to Pipe Dreams on KPAC.

Plan worked, or at least I started work just before 5pm, washing full face respirator for weedwacking.  Left out in sun to dry, that's better preparation than usual.  But then quickly discovered that reel was out of line, and I had no more replacement reels.  Though I did have the required string to fill another reel, this would be the first time ever for me to do it that way.  By the time I was finished, little time for anything else.  I could string the reel after dark.  So I decided to let the weedwacking go and concentrate on other projects.

The grass around Lyndhurst SW was looking surprisingly good, especially in front of the french doors.  Last year my back yard was a virtual desert, torn up by contractors, festooned with debris.  I mowed around Lindhurst, leaving the back for the weedwacker some time in future.

The I tackled a project that has been bugging me for 6 months.  I moved all the hoses, garden tools, and related junk from the west side of the house.  That stuff had been sitting there since I quickly moved it all out of the way for the contractor last May!  The grass and weeds had grown up to 4 feet high for the first ten feet from my house.  I couldn't mow or whack because it would damage my hoses and stuff.

I had sort of been expecting I would put all that stuff in my shed, the shed that became Lyndhurst.  Then, after Lyndhurst plans got too fancy for that, with nicely finished interior, I decided I would get a second shed to go behind Lyndhurst.  That's where the extra tools and stuff will go.  But I haven't got it yet, so I just moved all the hoses and stuff to the NW corner of my lot, where it's out of the way for now.  That spot tends not to grow anything in summer anyway because it's shaded by a neighbor's tree.

So I was finally able to mow the first ten feet to the west of the house.  Now it looks civilized for the first time in more than a year.  It looks nicer than I ever remember it looking, thanks to Lyndhurst, which provides afternoon shade to the grass, and landscape framing.

I also carried two bags of topsoil from the garage and poured them around the gaps around the SW corner of my house foundation.  I filled in a gap a few feet away from the house there (caused by the lack of Rainhandler gutter--one contractor knocked it off last year and I hadn't fixed that until April) with a bag of sand that had been sitting on top of it since April.  I wondered if sand was the best material for that location, but I didn't want to bring the now dirty bag of sand back to the garage.  After spreading out the dirt and sand, I sculpted and raked it in.

After a bit more weed pulling, and trimming grass around the bamboo, it was time for Pipe Dreams.  I got back out later and watered the Bamboo and the newly mowed grass on the north and west sides of the house, and on the south side of Lyndhurst.

On Monday I got out to Lyndhurst to replace the LED light bulbs with 40W incandescents to help the paint and other materials offgas.  My thinking was that part of the problem is that during the nights, everything cools down, outgassing stops, and outgassing might even be partially reversed, as damp surfaces re-absorb chemical smells.  So now interior drying and outgassing is going to be assisted by three 40W incandescent bulbs, 120W total, running day and night.

I noticed the ceramic sockets said "60W maximum" so I might get larger bulbs for the next round.  I've also been thinking of getting big 500W contractor halogen lights to do assisted paint curing, pointing the light at the shelves, but lights like that would have to be set up carefully and monitored to be sure a fire is not started.

It's probably my imagination, but I though I noticed an improvement in the character and quantity of the chemical smell on Monday night.  On many previous occasions in the past I've thought I made a big improvement, only to find later I made little or no improvement.

Expecting rain, and already feeling high winds, I closed the french doors and left the window open a crack on Tuesday afternoon.

I had hoped to do this on Sunday night, but it didn't get done until Monday night: I watered the grass on the south side of the house.  Lots of grass has filled in this year because of the good spring rains.  Spots that I had been trying to fill in with grass for two or more years finally got filled in.  But now I have to keep watering it, or it will be for naught.  Watering the south side is also good for the house foundation.  That side sinks slightly during the summer, exposing a small crack near the ceiling in my master bedroom.  To keep the grass doing well, it would have to be watered about twice a week or more.  I've never kept that up.  So I'm now thinking about getting a sprinkler system, at least for the south side.

I went to Solar San Antonio presentation on Tuesday night.  I'm not sure if I want to do my solar carport this year.  There are so many other things I want to do to make my estate more liveable.

Source Peterson!

After 24 hours of purging my Reverse Osmosis system, as described in the manual, and a day of repeatedly flushing both the tank and my refrigerator, I decided to taste the water.  I had not yet done a sterilization with chlorine, as only recommended (and thereby not required) in the manual.

Best tasting water I've ever tasted!  Clean, crisp, pure.

I decided not to do the chlorine sterilization.  It would be complicated by the connection of the refrigerator to the RO system.  It might be hard to flush both sufficiently afterwards to get rid of any chlorine taste.  In fact, it might be impossible to get rid of any chlorine taste afterwards.

I now have the best tasting water on the planet, and have finally joined the elite set who have filtered water, filtered chilled water, and filtered water ice, all made automatically, and served in my kitchen.  Why go anywhere else?

I noticed that the plumber wasn't doing or mentioning the sterilization as he was doing the pressure test, so I asked him about it.  He said it wasn't necessary.  I had been planning to do it anyway after he left, just to be safe, and because I like doing things the best way possible.  But now I've decided that if the plumber said it wasn't necessary, it probably isn't actually necessary.  If it were, with all the RO installations he had done (and he said he had done many) he would have known by now if the chlorine sterilization were actually necessary.

Both the reverse osmosis system, and the refrigerator icemaker and water dispenser lines, had never been used.  Both were two and a half years old, but had never even connected to water.

The reverse osmosis system had been removed from the box when the previous plumber started to install it two years ago, but then returned to the box afterwards.  It came from the factory with all filters preattached to the filter manifold, thereby reducing the possibility of anything getting contaminated during installation.

In contrast, the refrigerator has actually been in use for two and a half years.  That worries me a bit more.  I'm worried that kitchen air could get into the refrigerator water line, bringing with it bacteriological contamination.  But it probably wouldn't amount to much, and I've now flushed 5 gallons of water or so through the refrigerator chilled water dispenser and disposed of a few gallons of ice as well.  I believe the refrigerator water line had a cap on it also, to help keep it clean.

After the first 2 gallons or so, after I had repeatedly flushed the RO system itself, I removed the charcoal water filter in the refrigerator (now 2 years old, though never actually used).  I initially did this while thinking I would do the chlorine flush.  Obviously I would not want to do the chlorine flush with that filter in place because the chlorine would be filtered and not make it all the way to the chilled water dispenser.  Also because the chorine would foul the taste from the filter itself.  But then after I removed the refrigerator filter, and after I decided I wouldn't be doing the chlorine flushing anyway, I decided I'd get a new filter.  Then finally I decided it was fine to run without a filter on that point, since the entire refrigerator is being supplied with filtered water.  The water circulates fine with the filter removed, the manual says you can do that if you don't want the refrigerator to do any filtering.

A friend of mine who is a biochemist and a very exacting home brewer has had a reverse osmosis system hooked up to his refrigerator for 20 years now, and has NEVER sterilized it with chlorine in all that time.  He changes the carbon filters every year or two (instead of every 6 months the manual calls for) and has never had to replace the membrane.  He says he mainly uses the RO tap and not the chilled water dispenser in the refrigerator.

I've already ordered ($9 plus $3 shipping) a bacteriological water test kit.  My plan is that in lieu of chlorination I'll do periodic testing, just as if this were a spring water source.  In fact, I like to think of it as my own spring water source.

Just like a spring water source, once the water has passed the prefilter there is little or no chlorine in the system.  That is why there is a slight risk of contamination in the system after that point.  Anything that was in the water line prior to connection might start growing.  And very small amounts of bacteria* can even pass through unintended holes in the membrane.   But there is also little stuff in the water, after being filtered by the RO membrane, for anything to grow on.  The most likely places for anything to grow is in the filter cartridges themselves, and they get replaced periodically.  (That was another good reason to remove the old filter in the refrigerator.)

*I start with clean San Antonio city water which has already been sterilized with chlorine by the water utility.  It's sterilized for delivery, mainly, because the deep well sources in the Edwards Aquifer are bacteriologically clean to start with.  The chlorine kills almost everything that gets picked up with the water during processing and transport, but not absolutely everything.  Then my RO membrane filters out most everything that is not pure water, but 5% or less of the original remains.  So the bacteria which passes into the unchlorinated part of my filtered water system is greatly reduced twice, and hopefully reduced to the point of being inconsequential.  By the way, there are bacteria in your nice glass of chlorinated water also.  The best thing for me to do is to keep the water flowing through my system with daily usage, so as not to let the water sit and the bacteria level increase.

Anyway, it tastes like the cleanest of spring water sources, and its water is uncontaminated by chlorine, just like a real potable water spring.  Source Peterson!  A friend suggests I could start a business bottling water.

My homebrewer friend likes his reverse osmosis water also.  But I like to think mine is extra special because of all the special work I did in purging and flushing.  Also, I like the way I arranged the water tubes with none (except the heavy stainless steel line for the refrigerator) touching the floor of the cabinet.  On Monday I leveled the water tank and then did another flush.

One concern of mine had been the possibility that bacteria (if any) from the refrigerator water line might contaminate the water going back to the RO faucet.  Yes, that is possible, but like most appliances the refrigerator is equipped with anti-backflow valves.  The valves only open up when water is being drawn into the refrigerator.  Now there could be some tiny amount of leakage backwards, but probably not enough to make any difference.

I can see now why the RO system has to have an air gap for the sewer line.  We don't want any contamination from the sewer back up into the RO system itself.  Anti-backflow valves would not be good enough to prevent that.

One thing I haven't figured out is how much water is stored in the refrigerator for the "chilled water" feature.  I've seen the water tank for a GE refrigerator, and it looks like it holds a quart or two of water.  I haven't yet found a picture of the water tank for a Whirlpool refrigerator.  The manual says to flush it out before use with 2-3 gallons of water, and I've used much more than that, but I think it only holds a quart or two of water.

plumber pricing model

I called the plumbing company on June 15 to complain about the high price I had been charged the previous day.  I argued that for two hours of total time, including 45 minutes for a trip to the plumbing supply store, I payed $765 for labor, an exhorbitant amount.  While I agreed to the first charge (for reverse osmosis installation), and agreed in advance to whatever the second charge (for icemaker water hookup) was going to be, I was then charged $365 for the hookup, which took 15 actual minutes of labor.  I believed that the flat rate charges for both items included the addition of a water supply cutoff valve, which was not necessary in my case as the previous plumber had already installed on, so I was being charged twice for something that didn't even have to be done.

Their counterarguments were that with a flat rate charge, sometimes it will take less time than expected and other times more.  The installer I had was very good and fast (I agreed).  The charges have to account for the 30 day warranty and potential liability.

I had to wait about 25 minutes on the phone before being connected to the big boss, who particularly made the point about the warranty.  He apologized for the long wait, said he had to make sure he had all the information.  He apologized for not having given me the Angie's List discount, so for that he was giving me the normal 10% discount and an additional 5% discount because they erred on this, lowering the cost to $651.  He didn't recognize that they had made any mistake in charging me.  He also was extending my warranty from 30 days to 6 months.

I thanked him and accepted the offer.  He said my card payment hadn't been made yet and so would be adjusted to the new amount.

I accepted the offer because I figured it was the best the owner would do, because he was not going to be inclined to admit they had made any other mistakes other than not giving me the Angie's List discount.

I had been hoping for about $200 off, based on the arguments I had been making, instead of about $115 off.  I would feel entirely comfortable for the RO installation with icemaker hookup at about $550, just over $200 off.  Mind you, if my old contractor Mark (brother-in-law's friend) in San Diego were still alive, I couldn't imagine him charging me more than $200 for this job now (or $150 back then), and he would do everything perfectly, to the highest standards, with a complete explanation.  That's the kind of price and service you could expect from a good friend.   I've looked on the web and it seems icemaker hookup typically costs around $125 instead of $360.  With my 15% discount, the new price is $306 for the icemaker, and $396 for the RO installation.

One way, however, that I can be happy with this is remembering that the plumber also fixed my expansion valve with a bicycle pump on the same visit (that was how it started).  For that, I was charged only a $39 service call, virtually a giveaway.  I would have been willing to pay $160 for that, even though it only took 15 minutes of onsite work, simply because of the plumber coming out and applying his knowledge and skill to the situation.  So if I lost $100 on the second part of the job, I had gained it on the first.  So considering everything, I can't be horribly upset.  Compared with typical plumber (they are always high priced, especially good ones) experience, it is typical.

And part of my cost is the lesson, always ask for hard estimate in advance.

I had been thinking, wrongly it turns out, that since the plumber didn't have to give me an exact estimate on the icemaker hookup, and it took so little time, he would be lenient on the charge, given that it takes time and effort to do the estimate itself.  So he would, I hoped, pass on the time savings as a discount to me.

But now I see why it doesn't work this way.  The plumber is only going to give you the best price he has to give you.  If you don't agree to a price in advance, he'll pull out some book showing astronomical charges (as this one did).  But if he has to offer a price first, he's forced to make a better price, because otherwise you may not agree.  He may then find creative ways to lower the book charges.  I have seen that happen so many times I was wrongly expecting it in this case.

So now consider the typical recommendation to get 3 estimates for any significant work.  The time it takes for contractors to do 2 extra estimates for every job is very substantial.  They could possibly do twice as many paying jobs otherwise!  Who pays that cost?  Well, if possible, the extra cost is paid for by the sucker who doesn't get an estimate first.  Since he's not demanding the best price, he doesn't get it!

So why not always get three estimates, if you aren't going to be paying for them, and even likely saving money thereby?  Well one good reason not to is that it takes a lot of time and effort on the part of the homeowner to get these estimates!  Each estimate requires waiting at home, using vacation time or comp hours.  There's the hassle of getting up early, cleaning up, etc., beforehand.  I'd say that if I were charging contractors to give me an estimate, I'd charge about $100 for my time and effort for each estimate.  So by not getting three estimates first on Thursday's work, I saved $200 of my own time and effort as compared with going with competitive estimates first.

So there you see it the other way.  The contractor CAN charge more when there are no competitive estimates, and DOES charge more, but it might still be worth it, from the homeowners perspective to save his own time, but that is all the more reason why the contractor CAN and WILL charge more.

The plumber's name, btw, is Will's Plumbing.

More briefly, it's not cost that determines price, but need.  If they need to get you a lower price to get your business, they might charge you a lower price.  But if they don't need to, they won't.  That's the basic pricing model.

Now I remember that my previous plumber, which I had many other issues with, did charge basically on an hourly rate.  I think that works better for the homeowner.  Not only do you not get stuck with astronomical charges for a generalized situation, the plumber has no incentive to cut corners to take less time.

June 14, Household Plumbing Day

I wasn't planning to do any plumbing work.  I've been procrastinating on installing my Reverse Osmosis unit for 2 1/2 years.  About 2 years ago I called on my previous preferred plumber (now no longer in business and not necessarily missed) to install it, and the two plumbers who came out that day refused to install it because a hole needed to be drilled in my formica countertop, and the lead guy said "We are plumbers, and plumbers do not do that."  They did install two faucets and new hookups for washing machine and dishwasher that day anyway.  But the RO project sat on hold.  I tried to get my previous contractor Ronnie to do it, he said he would before finishing the workshop.  I dismissed him, and for many good reasons, before that.

It started out with water on top of the lowboy electric water heater, which at first I thought was coming from the piping connected to the water heater expansion tank, and I'd been noticing problems that suggested the expansion tank wasn't working for at least a year or so.  That should have been dealt with immediately, a year ago, since expansion tank failures can cause explosion or flooding.

So now seeing water, I called the plumber, same company I called in January and liked very much, but this time they sent Ronnie instead of Ian.

Just after I called, I noticed that the A/C technician had forgotten to replace the drain cleanout cap.  It was sucking a bit of air, and that could explain the water.  It was dripping from the A/C evaporator coils.  There was no sign of water on anything (I checked that before calling the plumber) but apparently water was dripping through the HEPA filter media.  That would explain the problem, and after I put the cap back on, and cleaned the top of the water heater, there was no sign of water again.

Anyway, I had called the plumber, and he should check the expansion tank.  I explained to him the problems, including the occasionally dripping kitchen faucet (when handle is turned to hot, but not cold).  He didn't see how expansion tank could cause overpressure at first.  But he did know how to fix the expansion tank.  He brought out a bicycle pump and pumped the internal bladder to about 60psi (which he said was the best he could do and about right).  He didn't think the water pressure, as such, needed testing, he said he could tell when it was too high and mine wasn't.  That seemed a bit slacker, but I agreed with him.  This had all been done in about 15 minutes.

Anyway, he said he could only charge me for the service call, $39.  I paid cash.  It was about 3pm.  I then asked about the Reverse Osmosis.  He said he could drill the hole, and he could install it this afternoon.  He showed me the price in his book, $405.  There was another price there too, $330, but he said that was part of a special prepaid program they no longer did.  I decided that though $405 sounded high, it was including drilling the hole (which could cost $150 or so just to get the carpenter out) and it could be done RIGHT NOW.  So I decided to go for it.

It took only about 45 minutes to install the RO, including drilling the hole.  For all the talk about being careful with the formica, using tape, etc, he didn't bother to use tape or any of that.  He just got out his big drill and drilled.  Wham.  At first he though there might be a problem with the water supply coupling.  Later he just said it wouldn't be a problem.  Finally, before he finished, I asked again, and he explained that the plastic tubing was 1/4 inch and fit the compression fitting just like metal tubing would, so there was no problem.

Then I asked about the refrigerator icemaker hookup.  He said he could do that too.  He said asked if I needed a price first.  No, I said, go ahead and do it.  He found he needed an extra extension tube (since one tube wasn't long enough) so he went to the plumbing store, from 4:00 to 4:45.  By 5:00 he had the refrigerator hooked up, and brought me the bill for $765 total.  $360 was charged for the icemaker hookup.   That seems way too much, $765 for less than 2 hours work, relatively easy work (or so he made it seem, fortunately) and I plan to complain to the company.

The work did seem well done, however, except the cleanup (which took me about 40 minutes) of sawdust everywhere.  And it was important that it finally got done, a big step forwards.

Fixing the expansion tank and A/C were even more important.  It was a good thing I noticed something was amiss this afternoon.

Whole House Ventilation Systems

I pooh poohed this almost a year ago, after deciding I would opt for a sealed and air conditioned room, to keep everything stored in top condition yet at low energy cost.

But now I am back considering the possibility of a ventilation system.  Here is an excellent factsheet from the DOE.

The recommendations are for 0.35 air changes per hour, or 15 cfm per person, whichever is greater.  That seems like an awful lot to me (particularly the 0.35 air changes) if you are trying to achieve energy efficiency.

What I was calling "positive pressure" they call "supply ventilation."  The opposite is "exhaust ventilation."  A combination of the two they call "balanced ventilation."

Room pressurization

If I add a single ventilation tube and put a fan in it, blowing air inside, this could deter air from leaking in through the usual gaps (such as under baseboards) and bringing chemical odors with it.

I believe that with all the weatherstripping in place (I still haven't added door weatherstripping, which I bought last week; also I still haven't finished sealing the A/C unit either) the room will be VERY WELL SEALED.  That is the benefit of having sealed the entire building with 1.5 inches of polyurethane closed cell foam, combined with 4 inches of open cell foam, combined with rigourously sealing all the gaps around electrical boxes, etc.

With this very well sealed room, it might only take a trickle of incoming air to keep the room pressurized, preventing chemical smell sources from draining inside the room, and forcing them to drain outside.

That was my latest idea, anyway.  For that matter, if the air being forced in (through clean stainless steel ventilation tube) is sufficient, it will positively ventilate the room, forcing out air through the usual gaps, as well as preventing any additional air from coming in through those gaps.  That would be "normal positive ventilation."  So that possibility is #2.

The third possibility is to have two ventilation tubes.  With two separate tubes, it's harder to arrange positive ventilation (both tubes would have to have working fans) but you can have several flavors of passive, assisted passive, and other types of ventilation as well as positive and negative ventilation.  A full on passive system with crossflow could provide very good ventilation at the cost of energy loss.  But the tubes could both have reversible fans, and closeable doors on both side, so that many ventilation options are possible, and if the doors can be closed at the right times, relatively little energy loss.

Back before I was considering A/C, I though of the idea of having two ventilation tubes mounted at near ceiling height.  That was also consistent with the idea of having solar power and sealed storage batteries, as even the best sealed batteries might leak H2 under some circumstances.  Regular storage batteries need lots of ventilation and would be better housed in a separate highly open structure.  Anyway, that is why I already have sealed stainless steel ventilation tubes.

With an air conditioned structure, it's not so good to have ventilation to keep cost down, ventilation will bring in hot air during the summer and even bring heat through the pipe itself.  At least that was what I thought, and why the current design has no ventilation system other than the doors and window (which work VERY WELL, by the way, when the building can be left open, because the crossflow ventilation is excellent.)

Anyway, my original idea was to have both tubes on the north side but near east and west corners, thus capturing ventilation from the normally SE windflow.

But clearly the maximum air pressure occurs on the east side, and a tube added at ceiling height near the SE corner would do the best job of capturing that.   Such a tube might not even need a fan, it would work simply on typical outside wind pressures.  A fully passive design could be realized with an oversized horn-like intake.  I like the idea of having both a fan and a damper door.  The tube should be mounted so the outside register is mostly in the shade so as not to conduct summer heat inside.

It's not clear whether this would work better than an inside-only VOC filtration system.  The filtration system would contribute a small amount of heat, 60 watts or so, operating constantly at it's lowest speed.  That is nothing compared with the 1000 watts or so of heat an outside ventilation tube might bring in on a hot day.  So I think the air filter is actually a better idea from the standpoint of energy conservation.  But the question is how well the filter actually works.  I know that a sufficient amount of ventilation from outside works.  But there also, I don't know how much ventilation would be required.  And also, I don't know how much energy "loss" (including unwanted heat gain that needs to be air conditioned away) would be created by any particular ventilation strategy.

So for now, it seems like going ahead with plan to cure building in the summer sun this summer, then add a VOC filter in the fall, is still the best start.  Only if there is still a problem after filter is added should ventilation options be explored.

Another option might be to replace the A/C with a new Friedrich Chill model that has an integrated selectable exhaust vent (I think that works on negative ventilation, therefore negative pressure).  But I've already got a brand new A/C, actually the XStar that I have is more expensive than the Chill units, I wonder if the one I already have is actually better made.  And positive pressure, provided by an auxiliary ventilation system, might work better.

*****

Standing under ceiling fan was where I got the strongest smell of chemicals (after french doors had been open a few hours).  Funny, over in the room corners underneath the shelves I didn't smell anything.  This made me wonder if smell isn't coming from the floor itself, from the flexbond and poly grout which are still curing.  Or possibly from the ceiling, which picked up smells but has never been cleaned.

I'm going to stop worrying and learn to love the chemical smell

That's the plan, anyway, until I can get the smell to go away.  Here are some supporting ideas.

The very fact that I can smell something has at least two positive aspects:

a) I can reliably smell something which is there.

b) Whatever is there is being outgassed.  Such a process cannot go on forever, as there is a finite amount of out-gassable stuff.

Unfortunately, the worry is that while the process may not go on forever, it might go on for a long time, say, measured in years.*  That seems unlikely, but since it could happen, it's a lingering fear.  Along with that fear is the fear that the whole project will have to be scrapped, building torn down to the foundation and rebuilt, in order to ultimately eradicate the smell.  So I'm out not only the $19,000 in structure construction costs, but the cost of demolition.  Or perhaps if that is not affordable, I'd simply have to write off the total $25,000 in costs including slab.  In which case, the building becomes a useless monument to my foolishness.  And then there was all the time and worry I put into building it as well, time which could have been more fruitfully invested in some other project.  (Is worry an investment, and worrying about one thing an opportunity wasted when there are so many other things one could be worried about?  Actually, I sometimes see worries as a gift, all the better not to have to find other things more stressful to worry about.)

(*There would have to be some reservoir of chemical somewhere to keep the smell going for years.  The most likely candidate for a problem like that would be the polyurethane foam, which is 6" or so thick in many places.  I suspect it is no longer coming from the foam anyway, but I could be wrong.)

So that is the worry.  The very assumed problem doesn't seem that likely.  Though I don't know how or when, I feel it is likely I will ultimately conquer the chemical smell problem--and possibly be a better person for it.  I might well have learned one of the keys to successful life in the future.  All too often we humans ignore chemical smells or other poisons we ourselves have created.  Assuming the smell is conquered, I will have a history for it, and likely a little understanding of it as well.

So that touches on one of many positive aspects of this experience:

1) I will learn something about smells and how to defeat them.  This knowledge may be useful for me in the future and for others.

2) I have already learned things about cleaning walls and woodwork.

3) I will get exercise in the process of cleaning the inside.

4) I will have experiences to write about (such as right here) and talk to other people about.

*****

Now there are many issues, most of them I find quite interesting.  One question is what the smell is made up of mostly, how many other chemical smells are there in addition to the most important one, and are there any other chemical vapors with health consequences?  What building material(s) or process(es) contributed to the smell?

Another question: is the chemical smell coming from the surface of the walls, or from gaps around the edges of walls, the baseboard, french doors, window, A/C cavity?

Does the chemical smell pass through paint?  Does it pass through grout or sealant?  Does it pass through wall board?

Is the chemical smell attracted to things (such as the oil paint) which are not where it initially comes from (such as if it comes from under the baseboard because it leaks out from the walls, but gets attracted to things like the shelves because the smell has chemical or ionic attraction to them).

How much effect will a summer of outgassing have?  How much effect will each stage of the cleaning process have.  (This experience might help to localize the origin of the smell.)

If the smell persists after summer and after thorough cleaning of the walls and such, how much effect will a VOC filter have?  I'm now thinking of waiting until at least September to get a VOC filter, in the hopes of outgassing as much as possible first, to keep that out of the 5-year carbon filter.  If one filter doesn't solve the problem, I could return it in 30 days and try another.

******

Even if cleaning and months of time don't eliminate the problem, even if the VOC filter doesn't eliminate the problem, there are other things that can be done with the project:

1) Fulltime ventilation.  I have resisted this because it would increase air conditioning cost, but possibly it could be done in a limited way so as not to increase air conditioning cost much.  I already have two 3" diameter stainless steel tubes which I bought for ventilation purposes, and holes could easily be made in the walls for them by a good carpenter.  The original plan for the building was for it to have controlled ventilation and NOT air conditioning, to rely on fans and thermal mass to maintain acceptible temperature.  After mentally messing with the storage issues while renting a climate controlled storage unit, I decided fulltime climate control was a better idea because then you can put EVERYTHING somewhere, without thinking about how it would handle the heat or cold.  There is probably a combination of A/C and ventilation that would, ultimately, have to work in eliminating smell, and most likely the A/C bill still wouldn't be that high, especially if I seek to maintain only "safe storage" temperatures (55-85 degrees F) and not comfortable living temperatures on a continuous basis.  Note that I only plan to do fulltime ventilation if no VOC filter works, I consider the combination of a fully sealed room and VOC filter "normal" and part of a successful project if that elimates chemical gasses.

A cheap and immediate way to do fulltime ventilation: open the window a crack.  I'm actually doing that today.  I didn't open up the doors and windows because of nearby roofing work and a slight possibility of rain.  With the window open only a crack, I don't think much rain will get in even in most serious thunderstorms.  If there turns out to be a problem with that, I could attach a polycarbonate window sill (something I thought of a few months ago) to prevent water from damaging the window sill.


2) Limited Use.  Even if all of the above were to do nothing about the smell, the building can still be used for full time storage of non-critical items (of which I have plenty), or critical items which have been sufficiently well sealed.  And then, once and awhile, open the doors and use it for a party or project.

Actually, limited use is all I ever intended, and may be all I ever give this building anyway.  But I really wanted this to be a desirable place to be, so it would be a disappointment if the building never meets that goal.  But not a disaster that would have to be demolished and trucked away.

If it really were a disaster, a Love Canal that needs to be demolished and trucked away, then it's a discovery, something that can be told to others to avoid the same mistake.    Even the worst disaster in this case wouldn't be too costly because it's just not that big.  The worst of all would be serious health problems caused by the building...I also think that would be highly unlikely, particularly in the "limited use" scenario.

Cleaned Shelves

On Sunday afternoon I cleaned the tops and sides of all built-in shelves using detergent and baking soda.  I also cleaned the bottom in certain areas, but will have to complete cleaning the bottom sometime later.

I really had high hopes that this cleaning would be the turning point in smell reduction.   The big shelf in back was especially covered with brown grime.  I vaguely one of the builders told me he would clean that except the paint wasn't ready to be cleaned.  It could have had dust from the Flexbond or colored grout, which would explain part of the smell.  The shelves were pained with a relatively high VOC oil based paint provided by the builders, instead of the low VOC paint I provided.  Last Sunday two friends specifically identified the shelves as being the source of the worst smell.

I also removed the parts from the canopy (many of which were rusty or dirty) from the shelves and moved them to the garage (which gets some ventilation).  I also moved a pile of 6 spare tiles for the floor.  The spare tiles did have the annoying smell.

Sunday night I was reveling in the new smell-less building.  It really did seem like the smell had been eliminated.  I was enjoying how the breeze blows into the doorway from the gap between my house and the neighbor's house.  With the french doors and casement window open, there is usually excellent cross ventilation.  From the doorway, which is a very nice place to sit, I can see the eastern half of the nighttime sky.

On Monday morning I closed the doors in anticipation that a neighbor would resume roof repair operations.  On Monday afternoon I had the opportunity to check the smell in the late afternoon after having the doors closed for more than 6 hours.  The best test for smell is in late afternoon after the doors have been closed all day.  Higher temperatures cause more smell to be released, and the closed doors trap the smell inside.

Unfortunately, not only has the smell not been eliminated, it's not even clear it has been reduced.

Friday June 1

Needed to go out early in the morning.  When I got back, since there was no longer rain in the forecast, I opened the workshop doors and window.  But just an hour or so later I noticed a tar or oily smell.  Right at front door, it was smelling worse outside than inside.  I closed and locked the door and window.  It later appeared the smell was just the diesel fuel used by my neighbor's gardener.  Though a house visible from the workshop door had it's wood roof deck replaced yesterday.  I need to be careful not to leave door open when roofing paper and shingles are installed, that is really stinky.  So I may be keeping door closed for awhile.

Friedrich customer engineer has confirmed that my X Star air condition recirculates all indoor air; it has no ventilation function.

I pulled some ivy in the back which was starting to climb the back wall of the workshop again.  Need to keep up with that, it can ruin the perfectionistic paint job that keeps Lindhurst from looking like a shack.

I took another look at the back for sizing up garden tool sheds.  Lindhurst is no more than 7 feet away from the power company transformer in the back s/w corner.  At minimum I will always need to leave space there, between transformer and building, to allow the front cover of the transformer to be removed by power company personnel.

Moving just north of the transformer, the distance from Lindhurst to back fence is 13 feet.  I need to allow comfortable walking room at least to transformer.

I was just thinking that a 7.5 x 7.5 shed, as I was looking at yesterday, would fit the space nicely, at the northwest corner of the building.  It overlaps the easment somewhat, but gives full access to the transformer and area around it.  Even walking up from the gate, utility people could see the transformer (I think that has psychological benefit, as compared with not even seeing transformer).  The door would face north for convenience.

The garden sink I've promised a friend would either have to be on side of building nearest transformer, which will be inconvenient and worrisome, or on north side of Lyndhurst.  I think I've already discussed this with her.  The north side location is convenient and also in nice afternoon shade.  The garden sink could also be up next to main house.

I measured gaps from concrete patio and walkway to house to be filled with self-leveling caulk I bought last month.  I need to get appropriate backing rods.

The patio gap is from 3.25 inches to 3 inches across 8 feet.  The front walkway is between 1.25 and 2 inches across 15 feet.  The backing rods are inexpensive but the shipping from Best Materials is not so I want to be sure I order the right things.  Update: ordered a whole set of backer rods from 1" to 4".  The small ones cost pennies so I got many extras for those, might use on sidewalk (not yet measured).   The items cost $58 and the shipping cost $58.

This weekend, I plan to wash all the shelves with my Dawn/Baking Soda solution.