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Where is all the dust coming from? Julie 09-16-2007
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Posted by Noozer on September 16, 2007, 8:58 pm

> I've done all that I can do and think of and I'm stumped. I need fresh
> input.
>
> My 10+ year old 2000 sqft house is always dusty.
>
> We have no carpets or drapery.
> The doors and windows are always closed.
> We have leather and wood furniture.
> We don't have children.
> We do have one dog that does shed and she mostly sleeps.
> I don't use the central AC because I suspect there's dust in the ductwork
> so I put in several window AC's (happily, my electrical bill plummeted).
> We don't live in a dusty area (e.g. a desert).

Get rid of the window A/C units. If you suspect dust in the ventilation, pay
someone to vacuum it out, even just for the piece of mind.

Secondly, any equipment that you have in the house, that is trapping dust,
is doing a good job. As long as it isn't sucking air in from the outside,
let it run.

Third, Try this...
- Pick a room. Preferably a room that isn't used too often, but still gets
dusty.
- Clean it as much as you can.
- Put tape around the seams of the windows, over the outlet holes, even over
the gap between the floor and baseboard. You want to see off ANY place that
might be introducing dust.
- Leave the room for a week or so (long enough that it should be dusty)
- Go back in... Any dust? If so, you missed something. The smoke from some
incense can help you find drafts. Clean it up and seal it tighter. Look for
ANY drafts.
- If there is no dust, then you found one source in that room someplace.
Remove tape from one particular area... Just the outlets or just the window,
etc.
- Close the door and tape seal it shut again.
- Go back to the room again after a week...
...etc.
Eventually you will find the source for the dust in that room. Once you know
that you will probably have your answer.




Posted by on September 17, 2007, 9:53 am

>I've done all that I can do and think of and I'm stumped. I need fresh
>input.
>
>My 10+ year old 2000 sqft house is always dusty.
>
snip

Do a CSI and find out the composition of the "dust" This could go a
long way toward finding the source. Maybe the local high school
science lab has a microscope.

Dust bunnies and lint balls are really hair and fibers, dust is earth,
pollen, other particles, etc.

Posted by Nick Danger on September 17, 2007, 9:48 pm
First, try performing a little experiment. Lock yourself in a room. Stay
there overnight. In the morning, observe that you are still alive. (If you
are not alive, you need not continue with the experiment.) Since you have
not used up all the oxygen in the room and died, this indicates that air
must be getting into the room from somewhere else. You might want to repeat
the experiment (assuming you are still alive), but with the entire house,
and for a longer period. If you are still alive, then air is probably
getting in from the outside - and bringing dust with it. If you do succeed
in sealing out all air from the outside, you will likely find that this does
not improve the quality of your life, even if it does reduce the amount of
dust that gets in.

You are not the first person to confront this issue. The semiconductor
industry has been working on it for a long time. They need to build Clean
Rooms. Let's see what they do. You can get a pretty good description at
http://www.coastwidelabs.com/Technical%20Articles/Cleaning%20the%20Cleanroom.htm.According
to this article: "Typical office building air contains from500,000 to 1,000,000
particles (0.5 microns or larger) per cubic foot ofair." The article seems to
imply (but doesn't really state explicitly) that100 particles is about as clean
as you can get. What I would like to know ishow they count those 1,000,000
particles in the typical office. I wouldguess you could add another zero for my
office.OK - I've been a bit flippant in the last couple paragraphs, but
seriously,it might be time to compromise. I spent a lot of years battling
against dust(but probably with not quite as much determination as you). Reading
yourpost about all the scrubbing and cleaning you do, my fist thought was I
wishyou could move in with me. In time, I came to accept that the world is avery
messy place, and trying to remove the dust, even from one house, islike trying
to drain the water from one section of the ocean. It may well bethat dust is
like bacteria - that it's not good to be exposed to a lot ofit, but you need
some around to keep up your resistance to its bad effects.One day, even we will
turn back into dust, and our efforts to keep ourhouses clean won't make any
difference at all. Is all that scrubbing reallythe best thing you can do with
your time to improve the quality of yourlife? As someone who still remembers
when every house and public buildingreeked of cigarette smoke, I'm just happy to
be rid of that smell, and Ifind dust to be little more than a minor
inconvenience that can be kept inabeyance by vacuuming once a week. There's also
a certain visceral sense ofsatisfaction that comes from getting into an
out-of-the-way corner andvacuuming a big ball of dust.


Posted by Nick Danger on September 17, 2007, 10:22 pm
Resubmitting my previous post. Hopefully Outlook Express won't mutilate it
so horribly this time.

First, try performing a little experiment. Lock yourself in a room. Stay
there overnight. In the morning, observe that you are still alive. (If you
are not alive, you need not continue with the experiment.) Since you have
not used up all the oxygen in the room and died, this indicates that air
must be getting into the room from somewhere else. You might want to repeat
the experiment (assuming you are still alive), but with the entire house,
and for a longer period. If you are still alive, then air is probably
getting in from the outside - and bringing dust with it. If you do succeed
in sealing out all air from the outside, you will likely find that this does
not improve the quality of your life, even if it does reduce the amount of
dust that gets in.

You are not the first person to confront this issue. The semiconductor
industry has been working on it for a long time. They need to build Clean
Rooms. Let's see what they do. You can get a pretty good description at
http://www.coastwidelabs.com/Technical%20Articles/Cleaning%20the%20Cleanroom.htm
.
According to this article: "Typical office building air contains from500,000
to 1,000,000 particles (0.5 microns or larger) per cubic foot of air." The
article seems to imply (but doesn't really state explicitly) that100
particles is about as clean as you can get. What I would like to know is how
they count those 1,000,000 particles in the typical office. I would guess
you could add another zero for my office.

OK - I've been a bit flippant in the last couple paragraphs, but
seriously,it might be time to compromise. I spent a lot of years battling
against dust (but probably with not quite as much determination as you).
Reading your post about all the scrubbing and cleaning you do, my fist
thought was I wish you could move in with me. In time, I came to accept that
the world is a very messy place, and trying to remove the dust, even from
one house, is like trying to drain the water from one section of the ocean.
It may well be that dust is like bacteria - that it's not good to be exposed
to a lot of it, but you need some around to keep up your resistance to its
bad effects.One day, even we will turn back into dust, and our efforts to
keep our houses clean won't make any difference at all. Is all that
scrubbing really the best thing you can do with your time to improve the
quality of your life? As someone who still remembers when every house and
public building reeked of cigarette smoke, I'm just happy to be rid of that
smell, and I find dust to be little more than a minor inconvenience that can
be kept in abeyance by vacuuming once a week. There's also a certain
visceral sense of satisfaction that comes from getting into an
out-of-the-way corner and vacuuming a big ball of dust.



Posted by Uncle Monster on September 18, 2007, 5:31 am
Julie wrote:
> I've done all that I can do and think of and I'm stumped. I need fresh
> input.
>
> My 10+ year old 2000 sqft house is always dusty.
>
> We have no carpets or drapery.
> The doors and windows are always closed.
> We have leather and wood furniture.
> We don't have children.
> We do have one dog that does shed and she mostly sleeps.
> I don't use the central AC because I suspect there's dust in the
> ductwork so I put in several window AC's (happily, my electrical bill
> plummeted).
> We don't live in a dusty area (e.g. a desert).
>
> There are dust bunnies under the couch several days after I vacuum and
> the leather chair that isn't used is covered with a layer of dust within
> days of being damp cleaned.
>
> So, I bought six( 6) Sharper Image Quadra units. After running them for
> a week or two, they all picked up near zero particles. When I returned
> them, the metal blades were still nice and shiny.
>
> I brought back all of the Quadra units and bought four (4) of the
> multi-fan driven Sharper Image Hybrids. Nearly $2,000. After a week,
> they didn't collect any dust either and I brought them all back.
>
> I bought five(5) of the severely maligned Sharper Image Ionic Breezes
> off of eBay. These units actually do collect tons of dust and I have to
> clean them weekly but the house is still very dusty. However, my
> chronic sneezing and dripping nose came to an immediate end with the
> Sharper Image air purifiers.
>
> Then I bought four (4) IQAir HealthPro Plus Air Purifiers
> (http://www.amazon.com/IQAir-HealthPro-Plus-HEPA-Purifier/dp/B00028P0S2).
>
> These are the size of small refrigerators. Each one is rated to clean
> 900 sqft at max fan speed. I leave them running at max speed for over 20
> hours/day but the house is still dusty. I have two (2) IQAir running on
> opposite ends of the open area downstairs plus a Sharper Image unit.
>
> The IQAir units are quite powerful. If you put a small piece of tissue
> paper on the floor about 6" away from the bottom of the unit, the tissue
> paper travels across the floor and gets sucked up.
>
> I went on a multi-week cleaning rampage. I tore the house apart and
> washed everything from ceiling to floor and then did it all over again
> and again. Call me compulsive or extremely thorough.
>
> I water vacuum wash the floors once/week to ensure that the floors are
> truly spotless.
>
> Even with the 5 Sharper Image cleaners and the 4 IQAir units, the house
> is still substantially dusty (small particles and long fibers). Even
> the filters to the air conditioners have to be cleaned every few weeks.
>
> My latest idea was to turn on all the ceiling fans in each room to
> prevent dust from settling and let the air purifiers do their job.
>
> Where is all the dust coming from? What more can I do?

When you had an HVAC company check your system, did
the tech check for a leak in the return air duct. A
leak in the return air duct would tend to draw a lot
of dust into your home, especially if the air handler
is located in the attic.

[8~{} Uncle Monster

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