We Love Clean Air — And You Should Too
A decade ago, when we lived in Pittsburgh, I met a group that seemed to care about air particle pollution very much. They were a small group of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University who’d created a homeowner version of a particle-reading meter like the county was using to track air pollution. It was called the Speck air quality monitor and sold for around $200. Their idea was that air pollution was a lot more localized than the county’s meters allowed and that some of the worst air quality is found inside of our homes and buildings.
Besides being relatively accurate, the other compelling feature for me was the cost – in Pittsburgh, you could take a meter out at the library for free. Being concerned about air quality and having met the inventor and researchers, I was one of the first to do so. This earned me an interview on NPR’s All Things Considered after borrowing a meter from my local library.
In the interview, there was a bit of tongue and cheek about the fact that we had three air purifiers in our house, but I answered that it was no joke.
“I think anything above good is probably bad. There is no such thing as moderate particles,” I said. My wife who is a physician would agree.
💡 Today, We Still Have A Troop Of Bad Air Fighters.
Lately, here in Saint Paul, the air outside hasn’t exactly inspired confidence. Wildfire smoke has created more than our fair share of bad air days. So we decided to go proactive by adding an ERV to our arsenal.
During one particularly rough episode, when Canadian wildfire smoke sent PM2.5 levels soaring to 180 µg/m³, our ERV kept running — MERV 13 filter installed — while our air purifiers backed it up. That combo made our basement feel safe, protected like a clean-air shelter.
We’ve tried to extend that protection to the first floor and the rest of the house. It’s still a work in progress, but we so feel the difference.
On the podium is the portable air conditioner which is a temporary solution until we get a heat pump. Next in line are the Whirlpool air purifier and a Honeywell dehumidifier. The blue dot in the image above marks the new home of our Broan self-balancing ERV.
💡 What the ERV Actually Does
If you don’t know what an ERV is — Energy Recovery Ventilator — it is a smart, energy-efficient way to bring in fresh air without throwing your heated or cooled air out the window. When it brings in outdoor air, it passes through a heat exchanger. That exchanger pulls the incoming air close enough to the outgoing stale air to share heat between them. So in winter, the warmth from the stale air gets transferred to the fresh air coming in. In summer, the process reverses — helping to keep cool air inside where it belongs.
Here’s how the ERV can help on a hot day:
Our indoor air (say, 72°F from a portable A/C) is exhausted by the ERV
Outdoor air (say, 88°F) is pulled in
A core inside the unit exchanges some of the heat and moisture
The result? The fresh incoming air might be 76–78°F. Not chilly, but noticeably cooler than outside.
⚙️ The Hidden Benefit: We Finally Have Ducts
Our house is heated with radiant in-floor heat the basement in addition to radiators in the rest of the house. No ductwork. The ERV gave us a reason to add a small duct system. It’s not central A/C, but it moves air — and with some creativity, we may one day connect a fan coil unit powered by an air-to-water heat pump to cool key zones.
This is enough to matter, especially when wildfire smoke makes opening windows impossible.
🎯 My Advice to Others
If you’re building, remodeling, or just concerned about air quality:
Measure it. Use a low-cost indoor air quality monitor
Seal your home tight, but ventilate it with an ERV or a fan system that doesn’t just rely on leaks in your walls
Filter it. Combine your ERV’s MERV 13 filter (or better) with portable air purifiers
And if you can… electrify everything and power your home and car with renewable energy
That’s how we win this — one clean-air retrofit at a time.
