Adequate Ventilation Ensures Your Home’s Comfortable and Safe
Home ventilation may not be at the top of your concerns as you design your new home or an extensive renovation, but it should be. Adequate ventilation freshens the indoor air quality and increases comfort and health.With today’s better building practices and airtight designs, there’s very little exchange of fresh air from outside with stale indoor air.
Here’s what homeowners can do to improve home ventilation.
Natural Ventilation Options
As mentioned above, ventilation allows fresh air in and helps you expel pollutants, such as dust, dust mites, pet dander, pollen, viruses and others, that can build up in your home.
One way to add ventilation is to orient your new home so you can take advantage of natural breezes, and add adequate windows, doors and skylights that makes the most of them.
Make sure the windows and skylights are operable and easy to open, and that there are plenty of them. Install screens on doors so you can open them during mild weather and let in breezes. Position windows on opposite walls so you get cross breezes.
The overall cost of your new home may be increased somewhat by adding these features, but you’ll benefit by providing your home’s occupants with fresher air, and done right, this type of ventilation can help supplement your heating and cooling efforts.
Other Forms of Home Ventilation
Some other ways to ventilate your home:
- Ceiling fans – In winter, they move warm air down from to the level of the home’s occupants, and in summer, they create a breeze so the home’s occupants feel cooler.
- Whole-house fan – These are usually installed between in a hallway between the ceiling and attic. They’re powerful fans and work when the windows are open by drawing in fresh outdoor air and pulling stale warm air into the attic.
- Exhaust fans – Exhaust fans in the kitchen and bathroom remove excess moisture and prevent mold, sending the moisture outdoors.
For more information on home ventilation, contact Apollo Home Heating, Cooling and Plumbing. We’ve provided highly satisfactory service to Cincinnati customers since 1910.
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