safe-indoor-air-quality / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

Washington, D.C. & Ottawa, ON (June 9, 2015) – Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI) and the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) announce a new agreement to promote and advance the WELL Building Standard (WELL) in Canada. The WELL Building Standard is a performance-based system for measuring, certifying and ...

Removing source contaminants and moisture from homes helps keep air healthy for occupants, and helps keep home humidity down. Excess humidity in houses can cause moisture damage, but what is not often considered is that added energy consumption involved, as heating moist air requires significantly more energy than hea...

Mold in homes is a bad sign so how to get rid of it or prevent mold in drywall? Mold and mildew in homes develops in conditions of high humidity, most often in bathrooms, kitchens and basements, unless caused by roof leaks and other building envelope failures. Along with affecting the durability of your home, mold and ...

Green kitchen cabinets - why does it matter? To improve the air quality of your home, that's why! “Indoor air quality” refers to the quality of the air in any home environment. The potential impact of indoor air quality on human health nationally is important for many reasons, including: Americans spend on average abo...

1.) Leave cleaning solvents and bleach behind. The smell of disinfectants that we have been conditioned to think of as 'clean' are anything but. Along with being harmful to the environment in production and use, chemicals like chlorine bleach evaporate into the air in your home. Why not try the following non-toxic alte...

In order to ensure comfort and get the most from the various systems of our house air needs to move around. Our air source heat pump and our heat pump water heater work together in boosting the efficiency, and the ceiling fan is a big part of making that happen. This video explains the relationship between those syste...

Prefab LEED Platinum kit house in Montreal   Ellen and Roman Szumski earned LEED® Platinum certification for their home in Labelle, in the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec and EcoHome took a look. LEED is a point-based green building rating system, so we must emphasize the exceptional performance of this house modeled by...

Radon Gas in Crawlspaces & Basements - why is it a problem? Radon gas was not high on the radar of builders and home owners over the last few decades, but as it is the second leading cause of lung cancer (after smoking) in the USA & Canada, it is quickly becoming a household term. Many newer homes will have rad...

Given that we spend about three quarters of our time indoors (counting both home and work), it is essential that we work to ensure clear indoor air quality. Contrary to what many people believe, indoor air is often more polluted than outdoor air. How is inside air worse that outside air? The air you breathe inside orig...

Livos is a Quebec manufacturer of natural wood finishing oils, and they are very transparent about the composition of their products which are mainly plants and some other natural materials. There are also no heavy metals used in the colouring pigments, so it is a completely sustainably-made and healthy product.  "In o...

How to protect indoor air quality from smoke during wildfires in homes with HVAC? As we move towards summer in Canada and the USA, we're hoping that last years wildfires are not going to be as bad again this year - but unfortunately in areas like Calgary and the North East of the USA, there have already been air qualit...