I still had to do a double take, even knowing it was the testers' channel, to see if it wasn't a Furze video. They conformed it pretty well to Colin's own style.
Greetings from Arizona, USA. We have radon gas potential too, and this video was a great balance of entertainment and actually public awareness. Well done!
you clearly aint seen colinfurze or colingfurze2 on here :P been following entire survival series , my guys coling has known for years world war 3 is coming hes gunna be safe
I grew up around Devon and Cornwall so have known of radon all my life, the old boys always say it's the granite that gives it off. People rarely worry about it so it will be interesting to see Colins results!
I'm from Belgium and heard about Radon a few years ago. I conducted a test with FANC(Federal Agency for Nuclear Control), and the results were OK. Now, I have an Airthings electronic tester, and I've noticed that during the winter when everything is closed, I experience higher Radon concentrations compared to the summer months. Additionally, the levels can vary from day to day; some days, I observe levels almost reaching 200 or even higher, while on other days, it's lower than 50. However, my average Radon concentration on a yearly basis remains below 100.
I use AirThings Wave radon detector and very satisfied with it. You can get measurements within a day and monitor changes if you make adjustments in ventilation.
I was going to mention AirThings if someone else hadn't already. I live in a high-radon area in 2019 new construction and the levels in our basement were very high. The builder had put in a 'passive' mitigation system, which is just a PVC pipe from under the basement slab up through the roof to give it a path of least resistance, but it wasn't enough. We had to convert it to an 'active' system by installing a fan in said pipe to constantly suck from beneath the slab, and that dropped levels well below the safe point. I keep an AirThings sensor in the basement, and have one in my first floor office and one in our master bedroom on the second floor. There latter two also monitor CO2, VOCs, humidity, etc. Using these we found the CO2 levels in our home were often very elevated. The perils of modern, highly efficient construction - very little gas exchange. So we installed an ERV (Energy Recovery Ventilation) system to improve the air exchange without too much energy loss and that really improved overall air quality too. I like these AirThings sensors. They track all kinds of things you might not otherwise think about.
I'm in the US and we ran a radon test on the house we purchased, and our real estate agent had the sellers pay to have a radon system installed, which consisted of drilling a hole in the basement floor and fitting a plastic pipe underneath it, then there's a fan that pulls the gas out from under the foundation and up a tube and vents it above the roof
It may be their channel but this video has Colin’s stamp all over it, the quality, the professional way it’s presented, the audio quality, the whole thing has a Furze vibe to it. So a thumbs up to Colin for helping this channel out and I hope they do well.
@@question_themwell count me as foolish. I didn’t even check who posted it and just assumed i was recommended a video on Furze’s channel. Good looking out!
Thank you for that lovely comment, Colin is a great guy and we are so lucky to have had the chance to film this with him… He had no input with the production, that was me on iMovie so I’m feeling very chuffed right now! 😂 - Dan
@@Glencoe-Radvac, I guess I was assuming to much, you guys did a great job with your video. I hope we get to hear the results from you when they come in. Good luck in the future!
From midwest USA here. Radon is everywhere, we install radon mitigation systems that essentially suck the gas from under our home foundations and pipe it outside near the roof line
In Massachusetts, when buying our house, our home inspector did a couple of overnight radon tests, and it failed, so the previous owner paid for a radon system much like yours. It sucks air from under the foundation and from a crawlspace up a pipe that vents out the roof. It's just a small fan that runs all the time. With the system in place, the house passed the test just fine. Doing a multi-month test is impressive.
This made me realize. Radon is one of those things that I had a vague idea about, but didn't know much about. Like, I knew it was a radioactive gas. I know it sometimes show up in houses, and that's a bad thing (presumably related to the radioactivity.) So this turned out very informative. Thank you.
Should throw a centrally mounted pps in either way to help with his condensation in the tunnel, hes got working extraction at the bunker end thats drawing moisture from tunnel and garage end exacerbating the problem. You could also get him to install a ventilation shaft whilst its still under construction so you can install a more powerful loft unit instead of a ppsf which will struggle with such a large open area.
After thinking about it further, positive pressure is probably not the best way to go due to the house access and the potential of the positive air pressure feeding radon into the living space. A more cautious and directed option would be better; by installing sump extraction pumps strategically at both ends of the tunnel at surface level directing the radon away from the bunker in the first place with the air exhausting above the roofline of the property, couple this with radon barrier coverings/sealant in the bunker area as belt and braces. Still have a centrally mounted PPs/f to deal with any moisture creation, Colin likes the odd cup of tea.
@@justlooking3572The positive pressure works by reversing the airflow so the radon won't seep in. Instead the clean air will "seep out." So there will not be any radon to be pumped from the bunker to the house.
@@AnttiBrax it doesn't reverse it, it creates a positive pressure as a barrier to redirect the radon particles, and will use any available gap to push any away, including through the kitchen entrance to the house. And as the entrance doesn't have a proper seal, or is even closed very often, its barrier making ability will be compromised and any air will take the path of least resistance, entering into the property and no positive pressure will be created at all, all it will do is create a cold draught into the kitchen, effectively providing a superhighway for any radon particles to get into the house from the cooler bunker and will also give the tenant a pretty valid reason to switch it off if it makes their house cold. An external sump unit will redirect the radon away from the bunker all together. If the bunker wasn't directly attached to the property, positive pressure would be the perfect option but it is, so its not.
I live in one of the highest radon areas in Eastern Ontario, Canada. My 110-year old house has a stone foundation, with a rammed-earth floor in the basement. Testing on the 2nd level of the house showed a long-term average of 60bcq/m3. The WHO recommended "action threshold" is 100 bcq/m3. But most countries have adopted a 200bcq/m3 limit.
Honestly seems like the next perfect boogieman next to global warming/cooling/climate/normal-fvcking-weather and covid. Just another way to suck money out of your wallet.
East Tennessee, USA here. Lots of radon with porous limestone bedrock in this region. Your readings vary from house to house so get tested. Recommend AirThings monitors to keep an eye on your levels.
Love that a government agency is working with this madlad for the purpose of educating about the harms of radon gas. Absolutely love that, excellent work boys.
We have nothing to do with the government, we are family run business, just trying to spread awareness of radon gas because most people in the UK have never heard of it and could be living amongst it. Thanks for the comment though! 👍🏼
I remember talking about Radon in High School chemistry in the states. Where I live it is also standard with the walk-thru inspection as I know my basement has radon. The sellers paid for a portion of the mitigation system but it is fairly common in my area.
I just had radon mitigation installed in my house. Huge difference. Colin, you should have put a layer of rocks beneath your tunnel, then they could have installed a fan to vent it outside! Also helps with moisture!
Wow I had no idea how common it was. I live in Australia, luckily my area is low risk. But still there. Good luck with your testing, hoping your levels are safe.
Yes yes yes…so very common… like not an issue till like 30 years ago. Here in the USA in the mid 90’s lots of money spent on studies and companies, governments came out and try to scare people with it. It’s all about money, companies found they could make money with it. And yes I built 72 houses from 1996-2011. Question to ask yourself why does it take 3 months to do a test… air out your house, keep the moisture down, run a dehumidifier. In the USA: 1: cigarette smoking, 2. Pipe and cigar smoking, 3 passive or second-hand smoke, 4 asbestos, 5. Radon Gas, 6. Genetics, 7. Lung disease, 8. Air pollution, 9. Previous Lung Cancer, 10. Ingesting Arsenic. So you decide…. But to me it’s about creating fear and making money. 80% of lung cancer is caused by smoking. But you decide…..
The annoying thing about radon is you can't see it. And those measurements takes ages. By the time you get a reading you're already panicking in case it's high. I know it's not too worrisome with a reading of 200-300 for a few months but it's like everything else that increases risk; It doesn't hurt to reduce it if you can. In my case I had a gap between the concrete floor and the foundation wall in basement (very old house, no barrier) and it was sucking air in from under the foundation. Taking care of that reduced radon in the rest of the house by 2/3 ! For peace of mind I got an AirThings View+ so I can see plots of daily, weekly, monthly and it's staggering how little was needed to improve it.
I was going to buy a house but when the radon test came back it was considered too hazardous for occupation. The owners spend a lot of money getting the numbers down. It was built in a very rocky area.
As I see it, it's a naturally occurring phenomena that humans have been living with in blissful ignorance for hundreds of thousands of years. So why start worrying about it now?
@@nefariumxxx I did some research on this and there is so much conflicting information I don't see any consensus. Its all over the place. Exact opposite information in many cases. I suspect there is a lot of woo pedaling going on to maximize profit.
@@RS-ls7mm I'm pretty familiar with the topic living in moderately high radon zipcode. I can tell you my levels go way higher in the winter time because my baseboard heaters come on and convection heating action pulls air up from under the house/crawlspace. It's just dirt down there, no basement. Levels will also spike when barometric pressure drops a lot or after a fresh rain following several days of dryness (radon washout). The radon literally gets washed or scrubbed out of the air. But yes, it's a money making thing. However you don't have to spend a lot to learn on your own. Buy an Airthings radon detector and use it. If you want faster / 10 minute updates get a Radon Eye.
People are slowly learning about it. 2nd leading cause of lung cancer after smoking is no joke. You can google for "radon survey map in my area" and see if there's a map already made. If in moderate or high risk area, you can buy a detector for less than a hundred bucks. Look up Corentium Airthings.
I actually worked somewhere where we made parts of radon detectors, and the company moved to a building specially engineered to keep radon out and ventilate it away so it didn't contaminate the detectors. The trick with radon, though it isn't 100% positive one way or the other, is if you're dealing with limestone assume there's lots of it, there's a reason they correlate on the national maps, and of course Colin has been dealing with nothing but limestone which is presumably why people were screeching. Miners deal with it all the time, where it becomes a Big Deal - you can actually deal with it to a decent extent with ventilation, one of the benefits of it being a gas, but it decays to radioactive lead and bismuth and that's the real issue with it that people don't generally understand.
I was wondering when this was going to come up for Colin. It's pretty common up here in Canada, so we tend to keep our basements well ventilated. Well, the ones who are aware that is.
Here in Finland radon is taken in to account every time a new building is being planned. Usyally on high risk areas a set of pipes with holes are buried under the house and then you have a motor on the roof that sucks air out of the pipes below your house to lower the level of radon gas inside the house.
Thanks for the head's up. I live near a quarry, and checking the map, it does show as high for Radon. Luckily, it's far enough away from me not to concern me. Looking around Stamford heck, it's all a bit purple.
Pretty easy stuff to deal with if it’s an issue for ya. Our part of Canada we put in a single vent straight to the roof from under the basement slab. It’s part of the building code. *old homes aren’t required to retrofit.
Now that Colin is bringing in outside consultants... perhaps it's time to invite Pekka from Stalatube to test the stainless steel hollow sections. Their diametrically opposed attitudes would be a blast (and perhaps in the form of matter and antimatter colliding).
A lot of the ionizing radiation given off by the radium decay chain is alpha particles which can't penetrate the watch crystal or body. Some isotopes in the decay chain give off beta particles, most of which won't be able to penetrate the crystal or body. So you would receive very, very little ionizing radiation from wearing an old glow-in-the-dark watch. Just don't open it up as you would then have an increased risk of breathing in radioactive dust from the interior of the watch, and then the alpha and beta particles would have direct access to your lung cells.
Devon is also a Radon hot spot. I was told is was because of the geology of the area - heavy granite substrate around these parts. I got a Radon survey when I got my house.
Im sure its a problem over there somewhere as well, but in the US some areas have an issue with radon coming in through the well water because surprise surprise radon dissolves in water like Co2. Whole complex water systems to remove the radon before it goes into your house that usually involve the well pump filling a tub with lots of baffles inside it and an exhaust fan that sucks the air and radon out of the tub and sends it outside while its in use. Then you have to have a little pump because the tub separates your house from your well pump with an air gap. also plastic and metal only slow radon down. Radon diffuses right through it eventually.
Wells are very uncommon in the UK. Most homes are connected to the mains water supply from their local water treatment facility. You would have to be significantly outside of a town in order to have a well here.
I learned about radon in school I was building houses in Ireland 25 years ago and we always put down a red radon barrier under the sub floor they don't do in that in the UK
Hi Colin Building Control would usually pick up on the need for Radon precautions which made me wonder how you have dealt with the building regs aspect of the project.
I thought it was a a gas from decomposing washing powder and went away when they stopped making it. 🙂 maybe they used the Radon gas to help Radon washing powder give whiter whites.
May be the radioactive gas is affecting my keyboard. Does this mean I've now got to go and get rad-hardened replacement chips. Or is it just plain old age and bad eyesight, I expect the latter.🙂
Nasty stuff, I have a test meter and recorder which is checked and data logged every 3 months, have had various Radon recording instruments in my home over the past 40 years and part of the mortgage was an agreement to install solid concrete downstairs floors with a radon barrier prior to purchase of the house.
I used to look after buildings that had Radon recorders, they had to be checked and calibrated annually. Its strange stuff as one side of a road might be OK and the other not. As long as your taking the right precautions you should be ok, only thing is though you might have a problem selling your house. 😎
I think it would be pretty cool if you had a pully mechanism that brings you up and down the ladder from from garage, so you are on a piece of ladder but poles are on each side that it would slide up and down...Please make that, that would be a great addition to your place!
I had no idea this was a thing to even be worried about, just so happens I have lived in an area with little to no radon all my life and don't smoke. Phew haha
Baffles me how you can get anywhere near an accurate result with one test in 24 hours! The levels will change frequently, so how do you know what your annual exposure is?
@@Glencoe-Radvac A 24 hour reading is just general ballpark so you can observe large rise and falls. Barometric pressure drops and convection heating in the winter can make a huge spike in just a few hours. Fresh rains after a dry spell (washout)... etc. I have observed all of this here. Technology has improved. Short and long term, as well as all-time readings are all helpful. You don't need to wait three months. The Airthings detectors show this data and work well for the price.
had roughly 1200 bq/m3 in our basement on a 3month average - installed hrv system, and it dropped to roughly 50bq/m3 now. still have the odd daily/weekly increase to 150 (using these electronic measurement (airthings) devices). an hrv system was much more affordable and attainable (and increased the value of the house + better overall indoor climate) than digging up the entire basement and sealing everything - for 'possible' reduction. so yeah, i second what the guys are saying, get better airflow and air movement, radon disperses and dilutes rapidly with proper air movement, being a plumber - i'm sure you can install some channels (perhaps even use the hollow steelbars as air channels ? (might be too restrictive)).
By building the bunker by his house, and the sump that they mentioned, you may have actually reduced the amount of radon that is building up in your house cause it’s now has somewhere to go downwards. The question is how much time do you spend in your basement versus your house?
Get a Radiacode 102/103 , it´s a cheap scintilation detector which can show you a gamma spectrum / integrate it over a long time. You will see the decays of the radon chain as peaks in the spectrum. Get a background spectrum in your area where you know there is no radon and then get a spectra in your bunker. B.t.w. there is even radioactive steel, as some cobalt-60 sources made it into the steel recycling chain back in the days. There are even building which had to be torn down, as the steel beams generated unsafe levels of radiation inside them.
I've got a collection of geiger counter/scints. For this specific purpose, It's better to just get a dedicated radon meter. They are much cheaper also. The Airthings ones show you a short, long, and all time average which is great to know. Display is in picoCuries/Liter and the EPA recommended action limit is at 4.0
As someone who knows enough about radiation to not be scared any time it is mentioned, how do the levels in bequerels/m³ mentioned in the video translate to µS/hr?
I’m 6ft and it is higher than me, it’s just that odd feeling like I had to duck even though I didn’t 😂 thanks for the comment hope you enjoyed the video! 😊
So now in a place with condensation problems you have to pump in outside air. Here in the us we put daylight drains in under concrete for the gas to escape.
