Question

The PCB concentration in the air inside a typical house is 400 ng/m3 , and the ventilation rate is such that it takes, on average, 10 h to change the indoor air. If the indoor PCBs are coming from a leaking capacitor, how much leaks per year?

ANSWER IS 160MG PER YEAR, but need help reaching that solution

Answer 1

In order to solve this question, the volume of the house is also needed.

If we take the area for this typical house to be 185.80608 m² and its average height to be 2.5 m. Then,

Total Volume of the House = 185.80608 m² x 2.5 m = 464.5152 m³

Total amount of PCBs = 464.5152 m³ x 400 x 10^-9 g/ m³ = 1.86 x 10^-4

Thus the Flow = 1.86 x 10^-4/10 hrs  = 1.858 x 10^-5 g/hr = 0.1627 g/yr = 162.7 mg/yr