Is E0 grade board really environmentally friendly?

 In home decoration, board materials are one of the main sources of formaldehyde.

Everyone knows that formaldehyde is harmful, and everyone knows that they should buy environmentally friendly materials with low formaldehyde content. Therefore, many students will not buy anything other than E0 grade boards, believing that boards that meet the E0 grade standard must be environmentally friendly.

But is this really the case?

Before answering this question, let's first look at how formaldehyde content is measured. There are three methods to test the formaldehyde content/emission of boards:

1. Perforation Extraction Method

Drill a hole in the board to take a sample, and then test the formaldehyde content of the sample.

Unit of measurement: mg/100g

Applicable objects: various medium density fiberboards, high density fiberboards, particleboards, oriented strand boards, etc.

2. Desiccator method

Place the board in a closed desiccator, dissolve the formaldehyde released within 24 hours in a certain amount of absorption liquid, and then measure the ratio.

Unit of measurement: mg/L

Applicable objects: plywood, decorative veneer plywood, blockboard (core board), etc.

3. Climate chamber method

Place 1 m2 of board in a 1 cubic meter climate chamber. The air in the chamber circulates continuously and is filtered through the solution, and then the formaldehyde content in the solution is measured.

Unit of measurement: mg/m3

Applicable objects: impregnated paper laminated wood flooring, solid wood composite flooring, bamboo flooring, impregnated film paper veneer artificial board, etc.

Tips: The measurement units of the above three detection methods are different. You can know the detection method through the measurement units of the test results.

So, when using these three methods to detect the formaldehyde content of E0-grade boards, what standards must be met to be considered qualified?

Drilling extraction method: ≤4mg/100g

Dessicator method: ≤0.5mg/L

Climate chamber method: ≤0.12mg/m3

Here we want to focus on the climate chamber method.
Why?

Because China uses the 1 cubic meter climate chamber method as the arbitration test method for formaldehyde emission of board materials.
What does this mean?
It means that if you find that the formaldehyde in your home exceeds the standard after renovation and suspect that it is a problem with the board materials, and want to sue the business, the final determination of whether the board materials have excessive formaldehyde is to use the climate chamber method.

The climate chamber method has a series of strict prerequisites:

1. Place a 1-meter-long, 50-centimeter-wide board into a 1-cubic-meter climate chamber. The front of the board is 0.5 square meters, and the back is 0.5 square meters, for a total of exactly 1 square meter.
2. The temperature inside the climate chamber is between 22.5-23.5°C. It must not exceed 23.5°C.
3. The humidity inside the chamber is between 42% and 48%, and cannot exceed 48%. (The humidity in Changsha is often above 60 degrees Celsius, and can even reach 70 or 80 degrees Celsius when it rains.)
4. The air replacement rate inside the chamber is between 0.95-1.05, which means that the air is exchanged approximately once every hour. Ladies and gentlemen, it is impossible to achieve a full-house air exchange of once an hour with the air conditioner on and the doors and windows closed, unless you have a fresh air system installed.
5. The air velocity over the sample surface is 0.1-0.3 meters per second, which means there should be a breeze of about level 1.

When all the above conditions are met at the same time, continuous testing is conducted for 10-28 days. If the formaldehyde emission is lower than 0.12mg/m3, it can be called E0 grade board.

Sounds good, doesn't it? The testing is pretty strict, right?

Then I can rest assured if I buy qualified E0 grade boards from regular manufacturers, right?

That's completely wrong!
The panels aren't used in a lab, they're moved into your home. Can you guarantee that your home meets the testing conditions 24/7, 365 days a year?
Can the temperature in your home always be below 23.5°C?
Can the humidity in your home always be below 48%?
Can you change the air in your entire house every hour? (Those of you who have installed fresh air systems can rest assured-you probably can do this.)

If just one of these conditions isn't met, then it's possible that panels that clearly test as meeting the formaldehyde emission standards might actually exceed the formaldehyde emission standards in your home! This
is because formaldehyde release accelerates in hot and humid conditions!
What does "hot" mean? Temperatures above 23.5°C!
What does "humid" mean? Humidity above 48%!
Panels that clearly passed the test, when placed in your home's hot and humid environment, will not meet the emission standards! You still have no recourse! This is because China uses the 1m3 climate chamber method as the arbitration test method for panel formaldehyde emissions! You claim that your panels exceed the formaldehyde standards, but when you send them for testing, they're actually no longer exceeding the standards when placed in a non-hot and humid environment with a temperature of 23.5°C and a humidity of 48%.

Some wealthy students would say, "My family is not short of money!" In the summer, if we turn on the air conditioner 24 hours a day, we can guarantee that the temperature is below 23.5℃. Even if the kitchen is equipped with an air

conditioner and it is turned on 24 hours a day (I am so impressed); because the air conditioner is on, the humidity is not high; I also have fresh air, and the air is changed every hour! Oh, dear, please take a closer look at the first test condition~ Note that only 0.5㎡ of board is placed in every cubic meter of air!
Can the amount of board used in your home really be controlled to be so small?
Come, let's take a shoe cabinet as an example to calculate:

The shoe cabinet shown in the picture is 1m long, 1m high, and 0.35m deep. The volume of air it occupies is 1m*1m*0.35m=0.35m³.
So how many square meters of board material does it use in total?
A. Back panel: 1m*1m=1㎡
B. Door panels: 0.82m*0.5m*2 panels=0.82㎡
C. Long horizontal partitions: 1m*0.35m*5 panels=1.75㎡
D. Short horizontal partitions: 0.5m*0.35m*1 panel=0.175㎡
E. Long vertical partitions on both sides: 1m*0.35m*2 panels=0.7㎡
F. Center vertical partition: 0.82m*0.35m*1 panel=0.287㎡
Within 0.35m³ of air, a total of 4.732㎡ of board material is used, equivalent to 13.5㎡ of board material per cubic meter of air.
And that 13.5 square meters is only one side; the test is calculated based on the area of ​​both sides!
In other words, a small shoe cabinet is equivalent to 27 square meters of wood per cubic meter of air! That's 27 times more than the test environment!

If a qualified wood board releases 0.12 mg of formaldehyde per square meter of air, then a shoe cabinet made of this qualified wood board should emit 0.12 mg * 27 = 3.24 mg of formaldehyde!
This is because the density of use in your home exceeds 27 times the test environment!

Of course, this is just a simple and lazy calculation; in reality, your home is unlikely to be filled with cabinets. Perhaps you only have one shoe cabinet in a hallway that's 2 meters long, 1.2 meters wide, and 2.7 meters high. In this case, you're using 27 square meters of wood board in a space of 2 * 1.2 * 2.7 = 6.48 square meters.
But this... still exceeds the 1 square meter/1 m3 ratio in the test environment!

I have no doubt that many qualified wood boards on the market meet national formaldehyde emission standards. My concern isn't about the board's formaldehyde emissions being substandard. My concern is that my own home doesn't meet the environmental standards for formaldehyde testing!
My home can't keep the temperature below 23.5°C 24/7, 365 days a year;
I can't keep the air dryness below 48% (especially in the basement);
and I can't use only 1 square meter of board per cubic meter of air.

Since I can't do that, I can only choose materials with even less formaldehyde.

For example, using logs + wood wax oil:

For example, using other materials instead of boards:

Finally, here is a tip for removing formaldehyde.

We often recommend letting a renovated home air out for a few days before moving in, as formaldehyde releases more rapidly in hot and humid environments. The high temperatures of the dog days are a given, and summer is also much more humid than winter (otherwise, why would you apply moisturizer to dry skin in winter?). During these hot and humid days, formaldehyde from renovations is quickly released, making it much safer to move in.

So what if the dog days of summer have already passed after the renovation? Here’s a clever trick – artificially create a dog days of summer!

Place a large basin of water in each room (if possible, you can also place a humidifier in each room and refill it regularly). Then close the doors and windows and turn on the floor heating, air conditioning, or a solar heater. Don't be reluctant to spend the electricity and gas bills; they are nothing compared to the health of you and your family.
After 10-30 days, open the doors and windows again to let the accelerated formaldehyde out. Leave the doors and windows open for a few days, preferably on a windy day, and the formaldehyde will basically dissipate.