Air qulity assessment?

[arib]

Aliza and I have noticed that we're feeling fairly crummy when were at home. I'm getting headaches, and Aliza's generally feeling nauseous and icky.

Generally, when were at work, we feel fine. Things get particularly lousy when the heating turns on.

The only thing I know for sure is that our apartment has a fairly new carbon monoxide detector, which has not gone off.

Anyone know how to go about checking air quality in a dwelling?

Comments

[arib.livejournal.com]

We've got the old-school coiled pipe radiators that get hot water pumped through them from the boiler downstairs.

(Now that the radiators are in an off cycle and the windows are opened, we're feeling a bit better.)

[dizzdvl.livejournal.com]

Ignore my above comment!

[cellio]

Ok, if you have radiators, it's pretty unlikely to be something in your heating system. But, as you noted, when you run the heat you also close the windows, so this suggests that there might be something in your house that doesn't get to vent its way out in cold weather. It could be mold (there's overlap in the symptoms I've heard and what you describe), but it could well be other things.

I wonder if it's a slow buildup or something faster. I wonder what would happen if you left some windows open when you're not home, maybe running a fan, and closed them when you got home. Would that get you through the night? It's obviously not a long-term viable solution, but if it gets you to the repairman's visit, that might be less uncomfortable than opening the windows while you're trying to {sleep, eat, work, whatever}.