Proper ventilation is essential to maintaining quality air inside your home. Naturally you may think ventilation is a simple process of bringing outdoor air inside and using some mechanism, typically a fan, to create air movement. But good ventilation in your home is actually created by a combination of:
- Bringing in outdoor air
- Mixing the outdoor air with indoor air
- Circulating this mixed air throughout the home
- Exhausting some portion of the indoor air outside
Without good ventilation, the indoor air quality can deteriorate and foster concentrations of harmful pollutants. Your home’s structure might even be compromised from ventilation-related problems like backdrafting, a build up of radon, or an accumulation of moisture.
Poor ventilation in your home can cause serious problems, including:
- Backdrafting
Air always moves from higher to lower pressure areas and understanding this could save your life. The air pressure in your home can be affected by wind, fans, and temperature changes. Your chimney draws air up because the air pressure inside is lower than the air pressure outside. If the air pressure inside your house gets out of balance, it can pull air down the chimney, drawing dangerous gases (like carbon monoxide) back into the house. This can be very serious, causing injury or even death. Learn more about carbon monoxide… - Radon
Balanced air pressure in the home does not just affect how well your chimney functions. When the air pressure in your home is too low, it draws outdoor air from wherever it can. 15% to 20% of this air can come from the ground and that’s where problems with radon can start. Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas found in soil, rock, and water. If there is radon nearby, and the air pressure in your home is out of balance, there is a high probability that you have an accumulation of radon in your home. This can be a matter of life and death. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), long-term exposure to elevated levels of radon causes over 20,000 lung cancer deaths each year. Learn more about radon… - Moisture
Keeping your home well-ventilated can prevent moisture buildup that causes paint to peel, wood to rot, and mold to grow inside your house. Whether you home is a new and airtight, or a vintage model that could use some additional insulation, proper ventilation is the key to keeping moisture out and making your home cozy and comfortable. Learn more about moisture and humidity… - Interested in what people in your area have experienced with AirAdvice? Click here to learn about people who have had an air quality test and how the results led to improvements in the environment in their homes.
Let us help you. Have a AirAdvice for Homes™ indoor air quality test done today in your home – it’s simple, easy, and is typically offered at low or no cost to you, the homeowner.
AirAdvice Indoor Air Quality Tips:
- Make sure each fuel-burning device, such as a fireplace or furnace, is vented separately
- Verify that each exhaust fan is operational and properly vented to the outdoors rather than to the attic or crawlspace
- Make use of ventilation fans that are installed in your kitchen and bathrooms
- Vent your dryer to the outside
- Find out if and when your home has been tested for radon, and if it has, find out how high were the radon levels
To find an IAQ expert in your area, click on the Find an Expert button at the top of this page. They will be able to determine if the your heating and cooling systems are properly sized and functioning at optimum levels.