Could my house run out of air?

CrowdScience

BBC

Science, Technology

4.8 • 985 Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2022

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If your home is drafty, filling in holes and cracks can help tackle rising energy bills, and lower your carbon footprint. But is there a limit to how airtight we should make our homes? That’s what CrowdScience listeners Jeff and Angie wondered when weatherproofing their doors and sealing up cracks for the winter. Once every last gap is blocked, will enough air get in for them to breathe properly? How would they know if they’ve gone too far?

With Covid-19 making us more aware than ever of the importance of good ventilation, CrowdScience investigates how to make your home cosy and energy-efficient without sacrificing fresh air in the process. And we find out how, in hotter climates, you can carefully tap into your drafts, to reduce energy-intensive air conditioning.

With contributions from Kimble Smith, Professor Nicola Carslaw, Dr Iain Walker, Marion Baeli and Dr Yashkumar Shukla.

Presented by Marnie Chesterton Produced by Cathy Edwards for the BBC World Service

Transcript

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0:00.0	Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of
0:07.0	Happiness Podcast.
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0:14.4	to share that science with you.
0:16.1	And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley.
0:19.4	I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that
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0:30.3	World Football in Qatar is the podcast taking you behind the scenes with all 32 teams at the World Cup.
0:38.0	We're hearing from the players, the fans and people in Qatar telling the truly global story of the competition.
0:46.6	That's World Football in Qatar from the BBC World Service.
0:50.8	Find it wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
0:56.0	Can you see it here?
0:58.0	The light through the top of the door.
1:00.0	The gaps in the doors, and this has been our experience in pretty much every place we've ever lived in California is that there are gaps around the doors that are so large that light literally shines through.
1:10.0	This is just ridiculous.
1:12.0	And I actually don't know how to put this weather stripping onto that door.
1:17.0	This is crowd science from the BBC World Service.
1:21.0	I'm Marnie Chesterton and I'm on a call with
1:24.1	listeners Jeff and Angie, a Canadian couple now living in sunny California.
1:28.4	They're showing me their leaky house as well as Angie's attempts to seal it up.
1:34.2	If you see all the white, I had a couple of different types of weather stripping in the house.
1:38.6	One is sort of like plasticine.
	...

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