ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 72

COLUMN BUILDING SCIENCES
Joseph W. Lstiburek

PHOTO 1 Carpet as a Filter. Discoloration of carpeting due to particulate
accumulation.

PHOTO 2 Brownian Motion. "Ghosting" of framing members on the interior gypsum
board surfaces of exterior walls.

Up In Smoke
BY JOSEPH W. LSTIBUREK, PH.D., P.ENG., FELLOW ASHRAE

So what do candles and joints (aka "doobies") have in common with baseboard electric
resistance heating and heat pumps? Read on Macduff.*
Over the years I have been in countless buildings that
experienced discoloration of carpeting due to particulate accumulation (Photo 1). I have also observed particulate deposits on window blinds, inside of kitchen cabinets and on appliance surfaces (microwave ovens and
refrigerators). Additionally, I have seen lots of "ghosting" of framing members on the interior gypsum board
surfaces of exterior walls. Yes, of course, more with steel
studs...but also with wood studs. Yup, wood (Photo 2).
It used to be smokers that caused all the problems....
we solved that by banning smoking in buildings and
throwing them outside to face Mother Nature's furies.
We had a relapse with candles, especially the scented/
aromatic ones. Ah, ambience and decoration (Photo 3).
Who would have thought that those candles could cause

so much damage and generate so much soot? A wonderful "bench top" experiment by an old school engineer†
shows the amount of soot from a 30 minute candle burn
(Photo 4).
The issue kind of went away for a while and now is
back-with heat pumps. Huh? Time to set things up a bit
so sit back and read on.
The problems of particulate accumulation and deposition all share similar characteristics. The only big differences are the sources of the particles.
The problems are related to four deposition mechanisms: ﬁltration, electrostatic attraction, thermal deposition due to Brownian motion and impaction. These
deposition mechanisms cause tiny microscopic airborne
particles to:

*Apologies to Shakespeare and Haggard. The correct quote from Macbeth is "Lay on, Macduff." "Lead on Macduff" comes from King
Solomon's Mines and H.R. Haggard.
The legendary Ron Bailey from Florida. I remember sitting across a table from him in a bar in Tampa way back when asking him about all
of the ghosting and carpet discoloration I was seeing. I asked him directly "What do you think?" He immediately responded right back
"What do you think?" We both laughed and agreed to write our answer on a bar napkin and exchange napkins. We did and then immediately both burst out laughing. We both pegged candles, which at the time seemed like a crazy thing. Ron, being Ron goes out and builds
a plywood environmental chamber and the rest is history.
72

ASHRAE JOURNAL

ashrae.org

N O V E M B E R 2 0 19

ASHRAE Journal - November 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASHRAE Journal - November 2019

Contents
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - Intro
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - Cover1
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - Cover2
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 1
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - Contents
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 3
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 4
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 5
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 6
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 7
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 8
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 9
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 10
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 11
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 12
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 13
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 14
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 15
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 16
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 17
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 18
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 19
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 20
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 21
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 22
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 23
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 24
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 25
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 26
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 27
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 28
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 29
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 30
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 31
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 32
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 33
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 34
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 35
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 36
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 37
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 38
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 39
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 40
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 41
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 42
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 43
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 44
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 45
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 46
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 47
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 48
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 49
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 50
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 51
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 52
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 53
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 54
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 55
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 56
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 57
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 58
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 59
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 60
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 61
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 62
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 63
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 64
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 65
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 66
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 67
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 68
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 69
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 70
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 71
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 72
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 73
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 74
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ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - 78
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ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - Cover3
ASHRAE Journal - November 2019 - Cover4
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