Airflow Bubble Test

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Costs: $1–$2

Opening windows is great, but what you really want to know is if it’s allowing outdoor air into the room so that you’re not spending time in a stagnant air zone.

This inexpensive and easy test is recommended by Kevin Van Den Wymelenberg, an indoor air-safety expert at the Institute for Health in the Built Environment 

  • Open the window(s) on one side of the room and the exit door

  • Stand in the middle of the room. Take a bottle of bubble solution and blow bubbles into the room

    • If the bubbles drift away from the windows, then yes! Opening those windows will bring fresh outside air inside

    • If the bubbles drift toward the windows, it means that the air pressure inside is higher than it is outside. Indoor air is flowing out of the windows rather than providing fresh air from outside

      • To help bring outside air into the room, place a fan in the window to draw fresh air in

      • You can also use two box fans to create a cross-breeze or “wind tunnel” effect in the room. Refer to our Indoor Wind Tunnel hack that will move indoor air out and get fresh air flowing in

  • Repeat the previous step standing in different spots in the room

    • If the bubbles float in some direction, then the air in that spot is moving

    • If the bubbles don’t move around and just hang in the air or fall to the ground, then the air is NOT moving and it is a stagnant air zone