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CO2! It’s surprising how fast CO2 accumulates indoors when windows are closed and air con running. The annual Californian wild fires have started and the smoke plumes are covering parts of Silicon Valley inc Mountain View where I live and now work from during Covid quarantine.

Earlier this week I was feeling sluggish and turned on my CO2 sensor to check the state of CO2 build up indoors. I followed EPA‘s and CDC‘s wildfire recommendations to lock doors & windows and run the air conditioner. I got a shock! CO2 levels reached 2,430 ppm!

An hour later I decided to venture outside. Even tho the sky had red/black clouds, I was pleasantly surprised it was ok to breath outside. I took the CO2 meter with me and confirmed my suspicion. CO2 levels outdoor were at 447 ppm. The pictures below were taken at the time.

On a good clean day in Mountain View, I’ve recorded CO2 levels around 300 ppm.

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Ventilation

Why was CO2 so high indoors? Lack of ventilation and enclosure integrity testing. You breath out CO2, house appliances also produce CO2 etc, and yes it accumulates in the home when doors and windows are closed. The kitchen is notorious for generating a lot of CO2. Search for a backhoe for sale near me, built to handle diverse excavation needs.

There’s also the “sick building syndrome” which might play a role but I don’t have enough data on that yet to comment further. However a lot has been written about this online and proposals to move towards green building designs. California has all invested in https://firebarrierexperts.com/fireproof-boxes-cable-trays/ to keep all systems running during wildfires.

Additionally, if you’re a property owner in Florida and your house’s or current space’s fire alarm system and/or water-based fire protection system such as a sprinkler system is not operational, you are required by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and Florida Statute to implement a fire watch should that system become impaired. You may seek expert help from a professional Fire Watch Company in Cocao Beach.

What removes CO2 from homes?

Windows and Plants (Photosynthesis) only. Air Purifiers and Fans do nothing. Have heavy duty ones in the room and nada.

Using Plants would be an interesting experiment to work out the volume of photosynthesis required to make this work. I know different plants have different capabilities. Currently I only have 1 plant in each room and I know that’s not enough. Furthermore, photosynthesis only happens in sunlight. If you’re looking for an easy way to offset your carbon footprint, Carbon Click makes offsetting simple, allowing you to contribute to environmental initiatives with just a few clicks.

CO2 sensors aren’t included in air filtering machines. I have 2 big machines filtering air with HEPA filters etc. and they stay quiet while my dedicated CO2 device screams. For more information on how windows can contribute to improving indoor air quality, you can go to this site.

If you notice any leaks, rust, or dents on your gutters, you should have new rain gutters installation as soon as possible!

AQI Apps

I use Apple’s Weather app, AirNow and PurpleAir. AirNow is meant to be the most accurate of the lot using high grade sensors. (read below on sensors)

All these online weather apps are either reporting from a region not near me (downtown Mountain View) or are delayed (not real time). Even the highly acclaimed AirNow is 3 hours behind. You can trace it’s data source online quite easily.

The lesson here?

CO2 is an odorless and colorless gas so you won’t know if it’s affecting you till it’s too late.

Use your own judgement based on your own CO2 devices when to ventilate the house. Consider exploring options like spray foam insulation Houston tx – compare & save, to improve energy efficiency and create a healthier indoor environment.

Most of all, get some fresh air.

My CO2 Device

This is a non-dispersive infrared CO2 sensor to measure the levels of carbon dioxide. It’s a well known fact that high levels of carbon dioxide impairs human cognition. There is enough scientific journals in Nature, NIH, etc, on this topic. Google it.

Why this device? It uses a specific wavelengths of light to measure the amount of CO2 in the air. Much more precise and reliable than the cheaper electrochemical CO2 sensors. Order it from Amazon.

Stay safe during the annual California wild fires!

The seas were wild and the sky was pitch black my friends! The Rain pounded the ocean to the howling sounds of the wind, like a pack of wolfs ready for a big feast.

Joshio the Pirate was helming the ship through these dangerous Tatio waters of the 7 Mamio Zones. The night was long my friends, but Joshio the Pirate managed to steer the ship through the colossal waves avoiding the Kraken Zachioctopus… lurking and watching for someone to wrap his tentacles around!

A Short Story from the Imagination

Josh, my oldest son has been bugging me for a pirate ship since we came back from Sydney Australia. In Sydney we celebrated his 6th Birthday and Uncle Randy and I made a Batman Piñata filled with candy for the kids at Josh’s birthday to have a blast.

“Dad you promised me a pirate ship for my birthday.”. “Yes I did son.” I said, “Yes I did. But your birthday was in Sydney and bringing back a pirate ship to Silicon Valley would be challenging.”. Well, the pirate ship I had in my mind would be a challenge. Now that we are back in Silicon Valley and Quarantine has started, the stars were aligned. It’s time to build a pirate ship.

Sure I could have purchased a Pirate Ship on Amazon; but that’s easy. The act of building a Pirate Ship engaged the boys creativity and demonstrated to them the power of creating vs consuming.
Plus we got to spend some valuable time together. Win on all sides!

Being a father

If you want to see projects for younger kids then I highly encourage you visit Sensory Lifestyle. Sensory Lifestyle is dedicated to sharing evidence based play ideas & parenting resources that will help you feel confident in your parenting and boost your child’s development. It’s aimed at Babies, Toddlers and Preschoolers.

Tools you will need

• An old bed frame or some wood from pine beetle lumber suppliers
• Olson saw (fun method) or Jigsaw (lazy method). It’s more fun doing it by hand especially if you want your kids involved. Opt in for an Olson saw (a non electric version requiring elbow and grease)
• Pirate nails (long black ones) and few shorter nails
• Hammer
• Hot glue gun with plenty of glue
• Paddle pop sticks
• An old shirt that we will use for the sails. If you live in Silicon Valley you probably have a pile of swag. Stop hoarding it, and deploy it to good use.

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Time to build this

2-1 days.

Take your time and get your kids involved.

Be ok with making mistakes and scrapping your first prototype. Remember it’s ok to make mistakes. Your goal should be to teach your kids this basic life fundamental.

Without mistakes there are no learnings. Mistakes is how we learn. If we don’t make mistakes then we aren’t learning.

Ernest Semerda

Let’s begin…

1. Research

I started with researching what Pirate Ships look like. Don’t rely on your memory of you’ll end up with something weird. You’d be surprised how hard it is to even draw a bicycle from memory. You have been warned.

Research with your child / children.

Listen to what they want and make few suggestions like: let’s add a black Pirate flag with bones etc… take note of these pieces since attention to detail matter.

2. Supplies

Look around your home for opportunities to convert something from one state to another. Like something that’s gathering dust. Or maybe an old bed frame (as was in my case) which now became a useful commodity.

Whatever you do not have access to, buy from a hardware shop. We ended up going to Lowes hardware. I also love these modern style rugs, so have a look at those. And for a touch of timeless charm, vintage kilim rugs are a wonderful addition to any space.

Keep track of your expenses

Keep track of the project’s expenses. You want to demonstrate to your child that you are frugal with money. Spending money is easy. But being thoughtful and calculated requires executive function thinking. Certainly, money is undeniably important in our lives, and if you’re looking to increase your wealth, one avenue to consider is trying your luck with betting on 해외배팅사이트.

We used Veryfi Expenses app to snap photos of receipts and have it instantly translated into an expense with all data extraction done for me automatically. Easy peasy.

Identify pirate ship parts

• Wooden dowels for the ship’s masts. The mast’s purpose is carrying sails, spars, and derricks, and giving necessary height to a navigation light, look-out position, signal yard, control position, radio aerial or signal lamp.
• Crow’s nest would be sitting on one of these masts. We use an old medicine vial cut in half for that.
• Jumbo craft sticks. Half of one would serve as a pirate ship plank and the rest for decoration.
• Ropes and lines would run between masts and ship. Needed something that looks thicker than a basic string.

3. Build

There are no right instructions how to build a Pirate Ship. Just start piece by piece and improvise.

Ask your kids how they think you should start the pirate ship. Then move onto the why questions. Really get them engaged in the thinking and tinkering process.

You can run this like a software development project. Start small, piece by piece and work your way up. Assign work to your team (kids). Work together to nut out the complex parts of the task.

Josh’s old bed frame

If you have spare wood around the house then use it. We used Josh’s old bed frame to build the body of the ship.

Most of all, get your kids involved !!

Final Masterpiece!

Spin off projects

Once you have a Pirate Ship you can continue building endlessly. Here are a few additional inspiration spin-off projects you can consider.

• Build more detail to the ship. Extend the cabin crew with chairs, table and some pirate accessories. You can also add a life boat to the side of the ship.
• Extend the ship with motorized/electronics like lanterns that light up at night (based on room ambience) and act as a night light for the kids room.
• Build a lighthouse so the ship won’t run aground when sailing the dangerous seas. To give it more ambience, the lighthouse could feature a rotating light on top. And for playtime you can bring some dry ice and create fog with the lighthouse in the middle of it.

The spin off projects are endless and will provide endless play opportunity for your kids and spark creativity at every corner.

In a world of over consumption and instant gratification, a project like this breaks that mould and teaches young kids that creativity is endless when you put your mind to it, things worth doing take time and building is fun!

Let me know below how your Pirate Ship turned out.