It sure is refreshing and pleasant to open up your windows on a nice spring or autumn day to let the sun and fresh air inside. Unfortunately, it's often too downright cold or too hot and humid outside to rely on natural ventilation to boost your indoor air quality. So, what's a homeowner with a well-sealed home to do? Read on to learn where and how to properly ventilate your home and make it more healthful year-round.
Ventilate the areas in your home where you spend the most time. Places like your kitchen, bathrooms and attic space need air movement, but your kitchen and baths use spot ventilating fans (and you probably don't spend much time in your attic). Focus your ventilating efforts on your bedrooms and common living areas, such as a family room, home office and/or multi-media room. With more fresh air replacing stuffy and contaminated air in these spaces, you'll enjoy better comfort, leisure time and may sleep better, too.
Your best choice for ventilating your home is a ventilation system that you control when and where your home is ventilated with minimal disruption to your comfort and energy budget. That perfectly describes a popular system called a whole-home heat-recovery ventilator (HRV). HRVs use an air intake and an air exhaust fan to bring fresh air into your home while simultaneously removing stale and stuffy air. So, it's a balanced ventilator that won't disrupt indoor air pressure, which could force air leaks through your home's envelope and/or an attached garage -- two things you don't want. In addition to making your indoor air quality more healthful, HRVs use a heat-exchange core to transfer heat energy between supply air and indoor air. This substantially reduces the burden on your furnace and A/C to heat and cool fresh air, and allows you to ventilate your home any time of the year with little added energy expense. If you would like more healthful air quality in your southeast Virginia home, please contact Russell's Heating & Cooling today to discuss your best home ventilation options. Our goal is to help educate our customers in Chesapeake, Virginia and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about ventilation and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Guide or call us at 757-750-1831. Credit/Copyright Attribution: “clker-free-vector-images/Pixabay”