Home ventilation is more important than ever in today’s energy-efficient houses. Tightly-sealed construction minimizes heat loss in winter and heat gain in summer, helping to keep operating costs lower. Unfortunately, it also keeps air exchange with the outdoors uncomfortably low. Indoor air quality suffers because fresh air ventilation to dilute airborne contaminants isn’t available in sufficient amounts.
Here are some options to enhance home ventilation and diminish the effects of indoor air pollution:
Utilize Ceiling Fans
These energy-efficient air movers keep air constantly circulating from the ceiling to the floor. This reduces accumulation of air pollutants at the ceiling and allows them to be filtered more effectively by the HVAC system.
Vent The Range Hood
Cooking fumes and odors begin in the kitchen but may permeate the whole house. A range hood vent fan incorporates a dedicated duct that exhausts kitchen pollutants completely out of the home.
Cut Humidity
Excessively humid air promotes mold growth that, in turn, disperses millions of airborne spores into your indoor air. Mold spores are toxic to susceptible individuals. Bathrooms are a primary source of indoor humidity. All bathrooms should have ceiling exhaust fans activated by the light switch or a timer and exhausting directly to the outdoors.
Fans For The Whole House
Installed in the attic, a whole-house fan powerfully pulls a large volume of fresh outdoor air in through open windows and doors in all parts of the home and exhausts stale air through the attic. During moderate seasons when windows can be opened, it’s a fast fix for indoor pollution.
Balance Your Ventilation
Heat recovery ventilators (HRV) and energy recovery ventilators (ERV) utilize dedicated intake and exhaust ductwork to continuously induct fresh outdoor air and exhaust stale indoor air in precisely balanced volume. An HRV incorporates a heat exchanger to transfer heat from the exhaust stream to cold incoming air in winter and vice-versa during summer. ERV’s also extract humidity from incoming outdoor air for enhanced comfort in summer.
To upgrade home ventilation and clear the air in your living spaces, in Fairfax contact the professionals at Brennan’s Heating & Air.
