Boost Home Ventilation for Better Indoor Air Quality
Controlled home ventilation is critical for healthy air quality and consistent comfort. With the emphasis on energy conservation, homes today are more airtight than ever. The lack of adequate air exchange with the outdoors in well-sealed, energy-efficient houses may result in the concentration of indoor air pollutants to levels that cause physical symptoms such as allergic responses. On the other hand, leaky homes that admit uncontrolled infiltration of outdoor air may accumulate contaminants such as dust, pollen and mold spores. Here are three categories of home ventilation:
Natural ventilation
Simply the act of opening doors and windows admits fresh air to the home. However, this method is often unreliable and the volume of air admitted is usually uncontrolled. Depending on the placement of doors and windows, natural methods may not ventilate the house at a consistent rate in all living spaces. In addition, natural ventilation may add unwanted humidity to the home during summer.
Spot ventilation
The use of exhaust fans in kitchens and bathrooms may help reduce humidity and odors in enclosed areas. However, exhaust fans must vent all the way to the outside and not merely into the attic or some other unconditioned zone. They should move at least 50 cubic feet per minute of air and be wired to a timer or humidistat to control run times.
Heat recovery ventilators (HRV) and energy recovery ventilators (ERV) facilitate balanced home ventilation. These systems use separate intake and exhaust ducts to exchange stale indoor air with fresh outdoor air at a balanced rate. As outgoing air passes through the central unit, a heat exchanger takes heat from the airflow and adds it to incoming fresh air. An ERV also incorporates a process to extract humidity from indoor air and infuse into dry, outdoor air as it’s circulated into the home.
Sobieski Services offers advanced home ventilation technology to clear the air in your home.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC & plumbing systems).
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