We as Americans have a childhood medical
crisis on our hands. 6.8 million,
or 9.8% of American kids have asthma.
Each year they make 14.2 million visits to their physician with asthma as
the primary diagnosis. Every
year these children make 1.8 million visits to emergency
departments with asthma as primary diagnosis. The number of
discharges with asthma as first-listed diagnosis is 439,000 with an average
length of stay of 3.6 days. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) A
key trigger for childhood asthma is mold.
This is a critical component in a 2012 study from New
Zealand. This study shows how energy
improvements in housing, and especially to low income housing, have medical
health savings that save as much money as the entire lifetime of project energy
savings. Meaning, that human health is
the real economic driver of the project.
Example: When energy upgrades happen, air leaks
get sealed up and continuous fresh air ventilation becomes mandatory. This is
often achieved with something as simple as advanced bathroom fans. The air
quality and warmth from the additional insulation and ventilation gets rid of the
conditions that harbor mold; namely relative humidity above 50%.
For decades we’ve had had proof that energy efficiency in
buildings improves worker productivity, lessens eye strain and headaches,
improves student learning outcomes and contributes to selling more merchandise in
retail. We know that workers in building that have had energy retrofits take
fewer sick days off. The beneficial health side effects from the retrofits are
freebies. The investments in energy
savings pay for them.
However, there is a new concept in how or who should pay for the energy
upgrades; have a medical doctor prescribe it. The
health inducing air-quality/comfort upgrade is worth more than the energy measures’s
dollar savings. Energy savings become a side benefit of a more important and valuable job; providing kids the ability
to develop disease free lungs, lessening the percentage likelihood of asthma.
Larry Zarker, CEO of the Building Performance Institute, BPI
was recently interviewed on Corbett Lundfords’
Building Performance podcast. Mr. Zarker mentioned how the difference of being
able to afford these energy/health upgrades can be life changing. People’s eyes
often glaze over when they hear about the details of an energy assessment and
subsequent comfort / efficiency upgrade. But, what does it mean to a parent who
has a child with a respiratory ailment?
Zarker said, “This is exciting”. He describes a girl with asthma is able to
avoid on overnight stay at a hospital and make her Saturday soccer game with
the rest of the team because her asthma is under control. This is because of the house
she lives in now has fresh air ventilation, is warm and has no mold.
The bad alternative to this is a trip to the hospital. The medical
bill for the overnight stay is $880. Avoiding four of those medical trips pays equals
or exceeds the energy /air quality improvement lifetime dollar savings and changes a
child’s life for the better. The home upgrade just doubled the value the energy
investment that already made financial sense counting just energy. Lundsford noted that this flips the real funding
driver. Economic savings data says that health advocates like the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services or your local doctor should be the ones prescribing
energy/air upgrades. So who should be paying for them? A utility sponsored
program with State public benefits money or some form of medical insurance
either personal or health insurance incentivized?
Sam Rashkin is the Chief Architect of the US Department of Energy
Building Technologies Office. He is author of Retooling the U.S. Housing
Industry. Rashkin has been educating American builders how to
build Energystar program houses for decades. These are houses that have offer a higher level
of comfort and energy efficiency by way of a long checklist of higher standards,
best practice standards of insulation levels, efficient heating, air
conditioning and ventilation, air-tightness and high performance windows. The
houses are subject to a number of HERS performance tests like duct leakage
tests and blower door tests and room-by-room air flow tests. The houses are
proven to function well and give the owners a lifetime of low energy bills.
Beyond EnergyStar
for Buildings, the EPA has another home program called Indoor AirPLUS. This advanced home program builds upon Energystar
3.0 with checklists and details for moisture control, radon gas control, pest
control, higher performing HVAC, control/avoidance of combustion pollution and
indoor air pollution. Like so many above-code
construction programs such as LEED, Green Point Ratings, Passive House or the
German Healthy house movement, the programs set a higher bar than to “the
building code”, the worst house you can legally build.
In an interview, Rashkin was noting some of the people who
move into new Indoor airPLUS houses
have kids who use inhalers to control their asthma. He said that after a few
months, the family often throws out the inhalers. "They just don’t need them
anymore."
George Matthews
Building Energy Compliance Testing
www.bect.us
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