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GBlist: Vacuums suck (can be a good thing)



Just a quick thought on vacuums, with regard to IAQ issues.  The best 
scenario is built in vac systems that exhaust to the outside.  A really 
good idea for people with sensitivities to all the bad things mentioned 
in other posts.  The typical installation has a stationary unit outside 
the living space (usually in the garage if there is one) and a hard-piped 
set of inlets (with accompanying low voltage wiring) around the house.  
So you just plug in the hose and the vac turns on automatically - no 
exhaust air blowing out of the vac into the room, stirring up dust, and 
no semi-filtered exhaust air redistributing the fine detritus around the 
house.  Also, it may be loud in the garage, but not in the house.  I 
suspect you could probably rig up something similar with a good strong 
conventional vac and your own piping system.

Possible downsides - hard to retrofit an existing house, not cheap even 
in new construction, they create a strong though temporary negative air 
pressure in the house, and if you accidently vacuum up your lost tickets 
to the symphony, you have to go out to the garage and dig around in some 
really creepy stuff to retrieve them.  Oh yeah, you still have to empty 
that trash every once and a while.




David Eisenberg
Director
Development Center for Appropriate Technology (DCAT)
PO Box 41144
Tucson, Arizona 85717
strawnet@aol.com
(520) 624-6628 (phone & fax)


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