The Most Crucial Areas of Your Home for Ventilation
Most of us are attuned these days to thinking in terms of maintaining efficient homes so that we can keep our utility bills lower. The topic of ventilation, which is key to the indoor air quality of our homes, gets much less consideration.
The indoor air quality of most modern homes is poor. Airtight construction keeps the bad air in and fresh air out. Sophisticated ventilation systems exist that will do the job, but not all homeowners are ready to spring for the costs. But if you could improve indoor air quality by installing spot ventilation in some key rooms at a reasonable cost, why wouldn’t you do it?
So which rooms should you ventilate?
Bathrooms
Bathrooms are notorious for unpleasant odors and too much humidity. You can always crack a window, but that lets in cold or humid air, and lets conditioned air out. What’s more, many newer homes don’t even have bathroom windows. All that trapped moisture from showers and flushing can lead to mold and mildew.
Kitchens
Kitchens are certainly the source of stale cooking odors that can hang around the house for days, but they are also well known for trapping moisture from cooking and dish washing. Mold is thus often found around range hoods.
Laundry Rooms
These rooms are often smaller and windowless. Doing loads of laundry and hand washing clothes in the utility room sink create moist conditions. Again, mold can be an issue.
Installing Exhaust Ventilation Fans
Installing fans that are exhausted to the outdoors is one of the simplest solutions to improving the air quality in these rooms. The fans are relatively inexpensive, as is the installation. Ducts from the fans should be installed in these three ways:
- through the ceiling and out through a sidewall
- through the roof
- through the ceiling and down a soffit
The duct work should never terminate in the attic, or moisture will accumulate there and could provide a breeding ground for mold.
For more on ventilation, contact NisAir Air Conditioning and Heating. We serve Palm Beach, Indian River and Martin counties.
