Indoor Air quality is greatly affected by Radon, which can cause lung cancer. When we moved to Colorado, we tested the house for Radon and installed a radon mitigation system.
Consider the diagram below as a model for radioactive indoor air pollution.
Assume the soil under my single story house emits 1.5pCi/m2 of Radon. To be conservative, assume that all this Radon seeps through the floor and into the house. The floor space is 250 m2 and the ceiling height is 3m. The air exchange in the house is 0.9 air changes per hour.
Answer the following questions
a) Calculate the decay rate of radon in units of hr-1.
b) Develop a mass balance equation for the concentration of radon in the house using the diagram above.
c) Assuming steady state, what is the concentration of radon in the house in pCi/m3. Let the ambient outdoor concentration be negligible.