Top 4 Ways to Ventilate Your Home
It seems like lately everyone has been talking about the importance of good indoor air quality. And while ventilation systems may be new, ventilation is anything but. When homes were built 100 years ago, we didn’t have the technology we have now – meaning there were small cracks left between siding, roof tiles, and window panels. Fast forward to the 21st century and home’s are built with laser precision.
While this may seem great to the average penny-saving, energy-conscious consumer, these leaks actually play an important role in your home’s ventilation. Without proper ventilation, your house is susceptible to mold, mildew, and other indoor air pollutants.
Your top ventilation options are:
Natural ventilation: As one of the more uncommon solutions, natural ventilation pushes ‘stale air’ out the top of your house and pulls fresh air in. This is most often done with a solar chimney – a machine that heats air in the house. Once the air reaches a high enough temperature, it rises into ceiling vents. When this happens, the pressure in the home changes and fresh air is drawn in.
Exhaust-only mechanical ventilation: By running small exhaust fans in bathrooms, closets and bedrooms either continuously or periodically, you can expel dry air from your home. This is one of the most common and cost-effective methods of ventilation.
Supply-only mechanical ventilation: As the name suggests, this method relies on one or more fans to bring fresh air in from outside. And because this system pressurizes a house, it can help prevent radon and other contaminants from entering a home.
Balanced ventilation: As one of the best ways to ventilate a house, balanced ventilation allows you to control how separate fans drive airflow in and out of individual areas. With this system, you can direct fresh air into the most used rooms in the house, like the living room and bedrooms, and pull air from rooms where contaminants could be lurking, like the bathroom and kitchen.
At Leslie Heating & Cooling, we’re dedicated to keeping you comfortable and helping you save on heating costs. We are a family-owned and operated business based in Woodridge, Illinois and are here for all of your HVAC emergency needs, heating installation, and maintenance. To learn more, give us a call at (630) 576-9235.
