Indoor Air Purification Systems
For A Healthy Low-Energy Home
Air Purification System to Keep Air in Your Home Covid-19 free
Buyers want proof that their new home will be healthy, and we want to ensure we provide the systems to do that. Purifying the home's air is not limited to viruses either, but to mold and allergens as well. Integrating the Panasonic Cosmos into your new home will be an option to ensure pure air quality for you and your family.
Green Hybrid Habitats utilizes energy-saving indoor air quality systems to address COVID-19 and the need for buyers to have a healthy home.
"The unprecedented public response to Covid-19, including social distancing requirements and remote work, has brought a renewed sense of the importance of 'home'"
-NAHB Builder Outlook
Indoor air quality was a hot sales button even before staying at home became a national battle cry. "We've never needed to convince our buyers that health is important," says CEO Colie Dooley, which is partnering with Energy and Environmental Building Alliance (EEBA) to build a passive, near zero, healthy home. "We just need to show them how we support it," he says.
Beyond the Standard
Indoor air quality, "IAQ," has long been a cornerstone of the brand, and the builder has followed the standards of the Environmental Protection Agency's Indoor airPLUS program, contributing to the 16,584 homes certified since 2016.
You could call the Green Hybrid Habitats home "Indoor airPLUS Plus," after we augmented the EPA's baseline. "We wanted to use this model to show ways to integrate IAQ products to maintain a healthy environment," Dooley says.
Key System Elements
Exhaust-only ventilation: Fresh air will be provided by what Dooley calls a "prefab balanced system." An exhaust fan in the laundry room will continuously run at how speed to remove stale air, while a fresh-air supply fan in the basement's mechanical room will provide makeup air into the HVAC return. That fan includes a MERV 8 air filter and sensors that regulate the fan within the preset temperature and humidity parameters.
Advanced filtration: Air introduced to the return plenum will be further purified by an air cleaner, then delivered to the home's air handling unit programmed to run continuously at low speed. the electrostatic MERV 13 filter is designed to remove 99% of airborne allergens.
Humidification: Proper indoor humidity is crucial for good health. "Humans are healthiest at a relative humidity between 35%-45%," says Aprilaire, a manufacturer of IAQ-related products. For North and South Carolina's climate, the home will include Aprilaire's whole-house humidifier to maintain indoor relative humidity at healthy levels using a forced air distribution system.
Active Radon Mitigation: Beneath a home's basement slab is a sealed vapor barrier over a horizontal perforated pipe buried in 4 inches of dean gravel. The pipe will connect to a vertical pipe that extends through he roof, and a continuously running in-line exhaust fan in the attic will actively mitigate any radon gas.
Monitoring and Control: Panasonic's new Cosmos air quality system uses sensors in the bedroom, kitchen, and living room to communicate wirelessly with a router to ramp up the home's exhaust fans or to turn on the range hood when VOC'S, carbon dioxide, or particulates exceed preset levels.
Key Elements of Green Hybrid Habitats, LLC home's integrated indoor air quality system will include the Aprilaire 5000 air cleaner, and Panasonic's Cosmo air quality monitor, and WhisperGreen Select local exhaust fans.
Lasting Value
Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic has made people even more anxious about health issues, perhaps permanently so. "The message that a Green Hybrid Habitat home is the safest, healthiest place to be will linger long after the pandemic has passed," Dooley says, giving healthy homes with managed indoor air quality an edge in every market.