The average American spends about 90% of their life indoors. Before the pandemic, a huge percentage of that time was spent in an office. Five years later, for many, a majority of that time is now spent at home. And, now that homeowners are more educated on the effects poor indoor air quality (IAQ) can have on their health, residential indoor air quality IAQ monitoring devices are gaining in popularity.
Fortunately, today’s industry solutions are growing right along with the demand. To meet this demand and aid in its growth, contractors have to first understand where it’s coming from, know their role after install, and continue to educate homeowners on the effects of poor IAQ and how monitoring solutions can help.
“Residential IAQ monitoring is an investment in wellness, popular among affluent homeowners and middle-income earners who are concerned about invisible threats like COVID, mold spores, viruses, and other pollutants,” said Georgia Rei, owner of Mr. Duct Cleaner. “The emergence of IAQ companies and the addition of IAQ products and services by existing companies is evidence that monitoring of IAQ is here to stay.”
– Russell Pope
industry development manager
Panasonic
Market Demand
The types of homeowners interested in IAQ monitoring will likely be those who are now better educated on IAQ in general — the ones who see what cannot be seen by the eye, so to speak.
“Once we continue to educate consumers about how important their IAQ is, they’ll start considering these types of systems just as part of their overall health and wellbeing,” said Russell Pope, industry development manager at Panasonic.
What type of residential IAQ solution is used really depends on why the homeowner is interested. A lot of times, the demand comes from homeowners with an occupant who has some kind of immunity challenge.
“Asthma is one of the ones that people really pay a lot of attention to because it’s scientific, and doctors have proven the immediate effects from improving their IAQ for those that are asthmatic,” Pope said.
These days, IAQ has moved outside the sphere of autoimmune deficiencies, allergies, and respiratory illnesses, now gaining popularity among average homeowners who simply have a lot of children, pets, and guest traffic.
INVEST IN IAQ: Residential IAQ monitoring is an investment in wellness, that many homeowners are now wanting. (Courtesy of Mr. Duct Cleaner)
“They recognize that IAQ is one of the factors that contributes to health and monitoring; it is the first step to ensuring that it is good,” Rei said. “There are a few physical indicators of IAQ: large dust accumulation, black spots on the vent covers and physical surfaces, etc. However, smaller bad actors are invisible to the naked eye — thus, the monitoring becomes more important.”
This has led to more homeowners looking for IAQ solutions that can protect them against what they can’t see.
“We are seeing more of an interest in multifamily markets (high-rises, townhomes, condos, etc.) as well as single-family residential homes,” said Zehnder. “With continued education, demand for balanced ventilation will be a major player in future ventilation markets.”
This is a direct correlation of not only COVID, but also recent wildfires. Just shrubbery and trees burning produces toxic air, but when buildings and everything inside of them are tossed into the mix — like plastic or lamination from furniture, floors, and decorations — that smoke becomes much more toxic.
“Every human responds to asthma and allergy triggers in different ways,” said Ken Nelson, group sales manager at Panasonic. “But with wildfire smoke, anything with a respiratory system will be affected. Not it ‘can’ be, it ‘will’ be. Wildfire smoke contains all sorts of things that no creature, small or large, can survive.”
Residential Monitoring Options
Once a contractor understands the specific reasons why a homeowner wants to monitor their IAQ, they can work them on a solution.
Currently, multiple brands have products to measure and display containments like CO2, radon, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), humidity, temperature, PM1, PM2.5, barometric pressure, etc.
“There are radon and carbon monoxide detectors that will set off an alarm when above dangerous levels,” said Rei. “There are professional pieces of equipment that can be set up and give a flash report in 30 minutes or a one-day, three-day, and seven-day report.”
FLASH REPORT: Mr. Duct’s Air Advice machine provides a report to homeowners that that measures variables such as VOC levels, humidity levels, particulate matter, chemicals, and carbon monoxide. (Courtesy of Mr. Duct Cleaner)
Mr. Duct Cleaner’s Air Advice machine provides a report that measures variables such as VOC levels, humidity levels, particulate matter, chemicals, and carbon monoxide. The report also typically will indicate when certain maintenance steps can be taken to mitigate the high levels of VOCs and humidity. More recently, 24-hour home monitors are being used that attach to a mobile app, giving homeowners instant IAQ results.
“The market for these is still emerging, as the technology is refining itself to meet the needs of the homeowner,” Rei said. “These are sensitive to the area they are placed and limited in scope.”
According to Michael Zehnder, director of business development for ventilation units in North America at Zehnder Group, the monitoring of the IAQ in a residential space can be done in two ways: demand-control monitoring or independent monitors. Demand-control monitors are connected to the H/ERV ventilation system; independent monitors are not connected to the H/ERV ventilation system.
From the perspective of Nelson, monitoring should be used as a trigger mechanism. For example, in the case of ventilation, monitoring can be used to trigger the ventilation system to speed up or slow down, depending on the amount of containment in the space.
“If I have more contaminants in the house, I can speed it up,” Nelson said. “But on the other hand, if the IAQ of the house is in a great place, I can slow it down and not waste energy.”
Typically, a homeowner will track their IAQ through the reports their monitoring equipment produces. After installation, the contractor’s role is following up to make sure it’s still running correctly to maintain accurate readings, Zehnder said, plus doing any maintenance the homeowner may need.
“This is also an educational sale in that the homeowner needs to learn how to use the app that accompanies the monitor,” Rei said. “When the contractor uses their own equipment to give the homeowner a report, it is imperative that the contractor review the report with the homeowner and go over some of the solutions if there is an area of improvement necessary. It is necessary for the contractor to maintain the equipment and have it calibrated after a designated amount of usages.”
Of course, while monitoring IAQ is important, it’s only one part of the process. Contractors must also know how to fix any potential issues they may find.
“A trusted contractor will monitor IAQ and then offer products and services that are long-term fixes,” Rei said.
The Human Impact
Monitoring the IAQ of a home has proven beneficial to homeowners and building health alike. By preventing mold growth and dampness, the longevity of a home and its systems can increase. The same goes for its human inhabitants.
“It’s really a good way to monitor what’s happening to make sure that you’re not unintentionally compromising your health,” Pope said. “Scientifically, there are studies that talk about ‘disability-adjusted life years’ — you might not die in a year from poor IAQ in your house, but over a period of 20-30 years, it can cause health conditions that reduce your quality of life.”
IAQ monitoring will show ventilation rates, humidity spikes, and increases in VOCs.
“You can kill a world-class athlete in 90 days with moisture in your house, because moisture is going to bring mold and mildew, which brings asthma and allergies, which also brings pneumonia,” said Nelson. “And pneumonia doesn’t care what kind of physicality you have, it will drown you in no time.”
With VOCs, he said, it takes longer, but the effect is just as bad.
“You wind up ingesting or inhaling them, they pass through your lungs into your bloodstream, and it passes into that bloodstream that passes through your bone marrow. As soon as you get a broken a broken piece of DNA strain in your bone marrow, that’s where leukemia comes from,” said Nelson. “And leukemia is treatable, but it’s not curable.”
Needless to say, all of this can have really dramatic effects on human health.
“You may have [health-related] symptoms of poor air quality that you may have been attributing to other factors. … The sooner you know there is poor air quality, the easier it most likely will be to fix it and hopefully mitigate the effects,” said Rei. “Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.”
Leveraging Data for Retention
The benefits of IAQ monitoring don’t just stop at the homeowner. In fact, all the data that IAQ monitoring can provide for homeowners can also be beneficial to contractors in terms of customer satisfaction, retention, and overall sales.
“IAQ monitoring and demand-controlled ventilation can be a new market approach by smart contractors who are looking for a new option to improve sales,” said Zehnder. “IAQ is an important topic, especially with the new IECC and IRC code requirements. The market is demanding builders to build airtight, high-performance homes, and these structures need ventilation to have safe and acceptable IAQ. A simple example is a submarine or a doomsday bunker. You can have stored food, water, and the best comfort in them, but without clean air, they are uninhabitable. Until we have an option to bring in fresh filtered air with a simple device based on the IAQ, demand ventilation is the full solution.”
Providing IAQ data to homeowners is also a great way to show them that they made the right choice in deciding to monitor their IAQ.
DATA TO KNOWLEDGE: If used correctly, IAQ monitoring data is knowledge that can turn into wisdom. (Courtesy of Zehnder Group)
“The most important thing is to monitor the data and identify the trends and utilize those trends to provide the support to their customers that they have provided the right solution, and retain that business through that loyalty,” Pope said. “And the other part is when they do identify problems, get in and resolve those quickly, and as they resolve those quickly, they’re going to retain that customer because they are also going to generate a lot of word of mouth — there’s not a parent in the world that would not want to share a positive experience that they had about improving their home with their friends, family, and neighbors.”
TRUST: Customers want to trust the IAQ monitoring system and have peace of mind that it works, without their input. (Courtesy of Zehnder Group)
To Nelson, data is king.
“If I have data sets that say every day at 5:30 when everybody gets home, my VOCs rise because we’re cooking dinner on a gas range — it makes sense that I should then start running the range hood,” said Nelson. “And I can effect change by actually running the ranges, and IAQ monitoring makes it so that homeowners can see those changes,” said Nelson. “And when a contractor, builder, or professional comes in and says there’s a definitive cause and effect, that resonates to any homeowner. But we have to show this cause and effect.”
For contractors, it’s a great step to building trust. What is likely to have more of an impact on a homeowner: a contractor saying they “think” they know what’s causing an issue, or a contractor linking direct causes and effects via a report with real data from the home?
“Monitoring helps educate the customer that they have a problem and it is being measured,” said Rei. “Retention happens if the contractor not only identifies a problem, but offers and performs a solution or improvement.”