8 Ways To Improve Ventilation In Your Home

The ventilation of your home is vital to ensuring that the air you breathe is minimally polluted. If you find yourself breathing in poor quality air, it leaves a detrimental effect on your mentality, negatively impacting your concentration. Furthermore, rooms that produce a lot of moisture, such as the kitchen and bathroom, require more ventilation in order to prevent condensation, and consequently, mold.

Additionally, all rooms containing gas appliances require proper ventilation as, without enough oxygen to burn, the appliance can produce carbon monoxide. Finally, ventilation is more important than ever in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, preventing us from breathing in harmful germs. But how do you ensure that your home is properly ventilated?

1. Open the Windows

It is important to open your kitchen windows whilst cooking, the bathroom windows whilst bathing or showering, and the windows of rooms where you are hanging clothes to dry. As you do this, you should keep the doors to the room closed, in order to prevent condensation from spreading throughout the house. Furthermore, you should regularly air out your home, ensuring to open your windows three times a day during the winter months.

2. Open the Doors

When you are not cooking, bathing/showering, or drying clothes, you should keep all the internal doors of your home open. This allows for a freer airflow.

3. Use Fans

The airflow can also be encouraged by desk, floor, or ceiling fans. You may also want to run the fan whilst boiling the kettle in order to decrease the humidity of your kitchen. Fans are also extremely cost-effective, as ceiling fans will blow warm air from the top of the room back down to ground level, allowing you to adjust the temperature of the central heating.

4. Get Some House Plants

House plants reduce carbon dioxide levels and remove harmful airborne toxins. When paired with good airflow and an indoor fan, house plants will drastically improve your home’s ventilation.

5. Get an Air Purifier

Air purifiers will assist the ventilation of your home and significantly improve your air quality. This is because they are designed to trap pollutants and allergens, leaving you with the purest air.

6. Install Roof Vents

Ventilated roof tiles and air vents are available for purchase from many different retailers and allow for ventilation of lofts and attics. Without the proper means of circulation, the temperature of the loft/attic will rise, causing damage to roof tiles. Additionally, poorly ventilated roofs result in damp problems since moisture is unable to escape. If untreated, this can cause severe structural issues in your home.

7. Install Extractor Fans

Extractor fans should be installed above your kitchen hob, as well as in your bathroom and these need to be used whenever cooking, bathing, or showering. If your bathroom is particularly steamy, after showering, keep the extractor fan running for another half an hour after you leave the room. When installing, you must ensure that the extractor fans are linked up to an exterior vent, in order to prevent the recycling of air that has been sucked in.

8. Install An Air Conditioner

Air conditioning systems keep the air fresh, preventing the breathing of stale air. They contain a filter that removes particles and allergens from the air, cleaning the air that you breathe. Similarly, they draw moisture from the air, preventing damp and mold.

Reasons Why Your Home Needs Good Ventilation

1. To eliminate condensation that harms a home

Condensation has been witnessed first-hand if you have ever observed the water droplets that appear on the outside of a canned beverage when you remove it from the refrigerator. The temperature, the air, and the water vapor are all factors in why this occurs. When air moves over the can, the temperature on its surface drops. The relative humidity of the air increases as it cools, turning water vapor into moisture. The moisture in the air that is flowing over the can is unable to be retained, so it condenses into droplets that fall to the chilly surface of the can.

As the temperature inside the house lowers, especially at night when the heating is off, this is what thousands of homes throughout the country experience. The amount of moisture we produce in our houses eventually overwhelms the air, which causes it to move to the surfaces that are the coldest—windows, walls, and behind furniture—where it manifests as condensation or the more common sight of streaming windows.

Winter is the season when condensation is most obvious since there is a big temperature difference inside and outside the house. It indicates that as soon as the heater is turned off, the interior temperature rapidly lowers and quickly approaches 100% saturation. Some of the water can no longer be kept in the form of invisible water vapor as the air cools more, and it starts to form liquid droplets. The most frequent type of wetness is condensation, which eventually encourages the formation of mold. If it is allowed to progress over time, wet spots may begin to emerge on the walls, which might lead to wallpaper peeling and eventually the growth of black mold. This causes musty odors, harms to the house’s structure, and may even have negative health effects.

A stagnant and stale atmosphere may be changed into a fresh, healthy, and condensation-free environment by adding appropriate ventilation and a condensation control device from a central location, such as the landing.

2. To improve indoor air quality and lessen asthma

Did you realize that a moist and moldy environment can be significant asthma trigger?

If a home’s ventilation system is inadequate and the humidity level is high, dust mites can thrive in this environment. These dust mites and the debris they release into the air flourish in poorly ventilated dwellings. Their waste can trigger allergic responses that result in asthma attacks, eczema, watery eyes, itching, sneezing, and runny nose when it comes into contact with the skin or is breathed. An efficient ventilation system may considerably alleviate these problems, and several asthmatics have seen rapid advantages after installing one in their houses.

3. To assist in reducing hay fever symptoms

Many people experience anguish and suffering from hay fever in the summer. Larger particles, like pollen, can be filtered out by a strong ventilation system, keeping them out of the house. There is no need to open the window, which can be problematic for people who have pollen allergies if there is a ventilation system in place. The solution to a more pleasant summer may lie in a ventilation system.

Several people who have seasonal illnesses like hay fever and pollen allergies have seen improvements in their symptoms after installing an efficient ventilation system. Pollutants in the interior environment can be reduced with a steady flow of filtered fresh air entering the home, which may improve health.

4. In order to lessen the negative consequences of naturally occurring Radon gas

Radon gas affects several areas of the nation. This is a radioactive gas that has no color or smell and is created when minute quantities of uranium, which are present naturally in all rocks and soils, decay. This results in the creation of another radioactive element known as Radon’s Daughters, which may cling to airborne dust particles and adhere to the lungs’ airways if breathed.

Radon is common in regions like the Southwest and the East Midlands and is mostly found in locations with significant concentrations of granite and other volcanic rocks. A Positive Input Ventilation system may be able to assist decrease Radon to acceptable levels, lowering the hazards to your health, if you live in a radon-affected region. It is recommended to have testing done in your house.

5. To lessen the impact of VOCs

Invisible gases called volatile organic compounds, or VOCs as they are commonly known can cause a variety of health issues in the home. Up to 900 substances, according to the Scientific Council on Health and Environmental Risks, may be found in indoor air, with unfavorable side effects being far more prevalent in homes with inadequate ventilation.

VOCs, come from a variety of products, including permanent markers, air fresheners, and cosmetics. VOC levels may be up to a thousand times greater than background outside levels after certain tasks like cleaning and paint removal. By establishing an efficient ventilation system designed to continuously bring in clean, fresh air from the outside to saturate and limit VOCs in the home, homeowners may take precautions to protect themselves and their families.

6. Reduce the Spread of Bacteria

Similar to mold, bacteria like damp places to grow. If your house is very wet, bacteria colonies may grow on the wood walls, flooring, and other organic materials in your house. Such germs can pose a risk to one’s health and result in potentially harmful illnesses. It is crucial to ventilate your home correctly to prevent an outbreak of dangerous germs. This will also keep the moisture level in your home at a healthy level.

The ventilation in your house may be significantly enhanced by installing micro split systems. Traditional central HVAC systems are more difficult and expensive to install than ductless mini-split systems. They are also a more energy-efficient approach to enhancing the ventilation in your house. Shop Pioneer Mini Split’s wide range of choices today to buy a wall-mounted, floor-mounted, ceiling cassette, or multi-zone micro split system.

7. Reduces Backdrafting Risks

The term “negative pressure” refers to the condition when the pressure within a residence is lower than the pressure outside. Backdrafting is the process of drawing outside air into a house that has negative pressure. When combustion gases, such as carbon monoxide, are drawn back into a chimney or other opening and concentrated within a dwelling, this can turn harmful. In a home, ventilation may aid in regulating pressure.

8. Comfortable Home

Your family will breathe easier if there is minimal humidity and excellent ventilation throughout the house. Bad air within the house may be reduced with easy actions like opening windows, putting on a fan, sealing ducts, and routine HVAC maintenance. A vital first step to a cozier and healthier home is having your HVAC system maintained.

9. Health Benefits

The beneficial effects on health and well-being that come from effective ventilation systems are another advantage. Headaches, allergies, asthma, rashes, and sinusitis are just a few of the health concerns that can result from indoor air pollution and poor ventilation. With the construction of a suitable ventilation system, this may be prevented.

Conclusion

There is no denying that ventilation is vital to maintaining your own health and the wellbeing of your home. By taking these steps, you can be sure that you and your home are in the safest position possible.