What is the health cost of poor home maintenance?A survey of privatized housing units at 200 military facilities has an important lesson for all. Poor maintenance habits will make you sick! July’s newsletter article summarizes our new report on the relationships between environmental illnesses, mold, maintenance, HVAC (comfort conditioning), plumbing, building structure, and many other issues. Read our full report (linked at the end of the summary) to learn more details from a unique, large scale survey conducted by the Military Family Advisory Network, and our analyses of MFAN survey results!
Poor Home Maintenance = Increased Health Risks
July 20, 2019
MFAN (Military Family Advisory Network) survey data from 16,000 respondents living in privatized military housing are used to examine trends and linkages between environmental illness and home maintenance. The MFAN data was collected from 200 US facilities spread across North America and Hawaii in response to the MFAN organization’s investigation of dissatisfaction in privatized military housing. Privatized military housing management firms self-report high satisfaction rates (80%) to the US military that conflicts with dissatisfaction reports received by MFAN from housing residents. We use the MFAN survey data as a reflection on rental housing in general, and assert that observed trends and relations are valid beyond privatized military housing.
Environmental illnesses are strongly linked to visible mold. Mold occurrence correlates with HVAC (comfort conditioning) systems, plumbing, and building structure problems. HVAC, plumbing and building structure issues are directly linked with survey respondents’ dissatisfaction with maintenance. And, housing residents’ dissatisfaction with maintenance is a strong factor in residents’ overall housing satisfaction. In other words, improved maintenance practices that reduce HVAC, plumbing and building structure problems will significantly improve resident health and housing satisfaction.
Housing dissatisfaction increases as home occupant income decreases. Lower income housing residents receive poorer maintenance with a resulting environmental illness increase. In addition to higher levels of home occupant dissatisfaction and increased prevalence of environmental illness, lower income housing residents are taxed with higher out-of-pocket expenses related to self-remediated health problems, maintenance fixes, and elevated utility bills. A destabilizing set of circumstances forms in which the hidden expenses of lower cost housing cut disproportionately into a household’s precious discretionary income.
Smart ventilation and comfort conditioning systems represent disruptive technologies that can improve housing maintenance efficiency and lower maintenance costs. Estimates of the value of smart housing technologies and potential environmental illness and energy savings are discussed.
Trends and relationships among survey topics and housing satisfaction are summarized below.
Rental housing residents suffer from poor maintenance practices as building owners seek to maximize profit by minimizing cost. Housing residents and the populace as a whole are affected by poor maintenance elevating health and energy costs. Today’s “smart” technologies, such as CERV2 smart ventilation and comfort conditioning systems are disruptive technologies that can decrease maintenance costs while improving indoor environmental quality.
The results of this report identify pathways for the US military leadership to improve privatized housing problems. Improved maintenance coupled with smart ventilation and comfort conditioning technologies will provide the most bang for the buck in improved housing satisfaction and reduced operating costs. Military leadership would also gain direct access to privatized military housing performance through smart monitoring and control of ventilation and comfort conditioning.
Home owners also benefit by the lessons learned from the MFAN survey and this report’s analyses. No matter how “green” you have designed and constructed a home, a poorly maintained home will make its occupants sick and increase energy usage.
High performance Vermod Homes have it all:
Smart ventilation, high performance minisplit heat pump, and heat pump water heating for the best air quality, excellent comfort, and high energy efficiency. The CERV2 provides online diagnostics and OTA (over-the-air upgrading) for responsive maintenance
Read our full report on environmental illness and maintenance:
