deleted_user
Super User
This discussion and DIY plans should be on every forum.
I merely suggested that the discussion on the necessity and extent that society is regulated may be veering too far.
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Radon gas mitigation in our home.
- Thread starter John Conroy
- Start date
I merely suggested that the discussion on the necessity and extent that society is regulated may be veering too far.
Six O Two
(Marco)
Revisiting this thread. It prompted me to order a Radon detector, and I've had it running in the basement for 3 days now. My results are the same as John's in that they're much worse than what the mail in report showed. My mail-in results showed 222 Bq/m^3 at one end of the basement, and 170 Bq/m^3 at the other. Granted, these were done in the spring/summer. The readings in these first few days during winter are markedly higher.
At the time, I wasn't aware that the Canadian guidance around 200 Bq/m^3 was double the WHO's. Anyways, fan has been ordered. Our home is relatively new construction (1990's) and appears to have rough-in already for mitigation, so hopefully the install will be pretty straightforward. I think I can run the exhaust up from the basement floor and straight out the back side of the house at basement ceiling level. I'll have to see how loud the fan is, because if it's pretty noisy, I might want to run the pipe towards the garage and have the fan in the garage rafters.
Thanks for the write up @John Conroy. I will have to order a meter for my house and check the levels. I have thought about it before, but always put it off.
I've hung a radon test and will send it in after 90 days. Those results may result in the purchase of a detector/remediation.
Chicken lights
Forum Pony Express Driver
I’m not that old but I remember travelling as a kid to the east coast in the back of a blazer or a station wagon, with a mattress to nap on. No car seat, no seat belts nothing.
Fast forward 30 years- I took my stepsister and her oldest boy for a ride in the big horse and she FREAKED that he wasn’t in a car seat, no seatbelt no air bags nothing. Started babbling about child services and not getting spotted.
I didn’t even bother (much) trying to explain that being inside a 35,000 pound rig was probably far safer than him in a car seat in a 2500 pound SUV. I don’t know what’s happened to this country but common sense doesn’t seem to stick to city folk. Or am I the dinosaur that doesn’t have a problem with kids not belted in?
Details please.....
It's funny how few people actually do understand. It's really plain old physics.
It's not probably. Your big horse IS WAY SAFER than any SUV.
Next time you see her, you could try pointing out that trains, buses, and ships don't have belts either. If she asks about jumbo jets, you might have to get into the physics of 3D travel a bit. But I doubt she will ask.
The company my son works for (electrical contractor out of Okotoks) also does radon gas testing. One of their methods involves a kit where you hang a the appliance (looks like an ant trap) in a frequented room (family room). They typically hang them with dental floss from a smoke detector. You let it sit there for90 days, then fill out a form, mail it away and they test it.
anywhoo, I've been lending the odd tool to my son for use on the jobsite for a while so he was able to get me one of the tests. I'm going to see how it turns out before I invest in an electronic one.
Six O Two
(Marco)
This won't be of much help in Alberta, but for any BC residents who are curious, there are some outfits in the province here that provide free testing of this kind. That's where we started. Here in the Kootenays, there's the Donna Schmidt Lung Cancer Prevention Society. There's some outfits specific to the Okanagan as well. Maybe check with your local or provincial lung cancer foundation and see if there's anything available. Although having said that, if you can't get them for free, the mail-in tests are quite affordable as I recall.
Did you make sure you reset the unit . Your unit looks the same as mine (Different brand name) . Taking the batteries out does not reset the unit. After installing the batteries you need to do the reset procedure.
Any of the Calgary (and area) guys that would like to test their houses are welcome to borrow my testing unit.
PM sent
Six O Two
(Marco)
There's a reset function on the back accessible with a thumbtack or paperclip. But in my case, it was two different testing devices. The first test was the long-term hanging units with mail-in results, and the second test with the higher reading was with a brand new, fresh short-term digital test unit.
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That’s similar to the path I took. A coworker lent me his electronic meter (which came back high), then I got a certified test done (which confirmed the high reading) and then I purchased an electronic one so I could see the seasonal changes and how well my mitigation worked.
The electronic Radon meter stopped working after 7 years, perhaps the technology is similar to smoke detectors where the radiation source decays? (Pure guess).
Since there seems to be continuing interest in Radon Testing and Mitigation, (such as in this thread: (Nicholson File Deals) ), I wanted to provide an update on the new Radon Detector I started up last week.
It’s an AirThings Wave-Plus “Air Quality” detector (Radon, CO2, humidity, temp, airborne chemicals (VOCs) and pressure) that I purchased for $100 off from Amazon.ca.
Loading the app was no problem (iPad/iPhone version, also available on android) and connecting the device was a non-issue.
The sensor is currently in the basement below the living room and so far there have been no issues connecting to it bluetooth-lessly. I don’t yet know how much onboard memory it has, so how long it is between synchronization with it’s app before you start losing data (I’ve asked).
I do like the app, which give a great overview. There is a web based version accessible from within the app, which I suspect keeps all the data and adds more functionality.
Here’s a screen shot of the web based display.
Since I won’t be getting an official test, I have no idea how accurate it is.
So far so good. If it keeps on working for at least two years I’ll be happy with it.
It’s an AirThings Wave-Plus “Air Quality” detector (Radon, CO2, humidity, temp, airborne chemicals (VOCs) and pressure) that I purchased for $100 off from Amazon.ca.
Loading the app was no problem (iPad/iPhone version, also available on android) and connecting the device was a non-issue.
The sensor is currently in the basement below the living room and so far there have been no issues connecting to it bluetooth-lessly. I don’t yet know how much onboard memory it has, so how long it is between synchronization with it’s app before you start losing data (I’ve asked).
I do like the app, which give a great overview. There is a web based version accessible from within the app, which I suspect keeps all the data and adds more functionality.
Here’s a screen shot of the web based display.
Since I won’t be getting an official test, I have no idea how accurate it is.
So far so good. If it keeps on working for at least two years I’ll be happy with it.
"web based version" ?? Does this upload all of your home data to the cloud? (The servers of company that sells the units ?)
The concern here was if you ever have to sell the property. If you have tested and find that it exceed 200 becquerels... "this is a material latent defect and you must disclose the defect to potential buyers"
Now I'm assuming there are people who would not want to disclose this information.
I like the triple sensors on this. It would be nice to also see a carbon monoxide reading.
The data is probably uploaded to the cloud, I’ve yet to check that though.
Initially, I was concerned about having a house with a radon fan. However I had a friend point out that seeing a radon fan would be a plus for him, since he could see that it had been mitigated. I think he’s right, especially since Winnipeg is a radon hotspot.
Not only are Manitoban’s friendly, they glow with radiant enthusiasm.
You’ll want to check again after freeze-up, that’s when levels start increasing.
I find it interesting how variable radon is with respect to location, it all depends on what type of rocks are below you etc. etc. etc. All the neighbours around us that have tested have high levels (there were a couple who didn’t want to borrow my Radon meter to find out…)
Dabbler
ersatz engineer
I will. buying my own meter today, in fact.