Poor Ventilation: Household Enemy #1

From Dan on June 17th, 2008 in Air Conditioning & Heating

fan Home ventilation is vital to the lifetime of a house. Poor ventilation leads to notorious home hazards such as mold and mildew. Here are a few steps you can take to ensure proper airflow. It is not only great for your comfort and your wallet, but also for your indoor environment.

Install gable end vents. Many homes do not have proper attic ventilation. Making sure you have properly vented soffits and installing vents at gable ends will provide good airflow through your attic and help reduce cooling costs. You can also have attic fans installed as part of the gable vents and, if you’d like to avoid any wiring issues and take the eco-friendly route, check out solar powered fans. Plus, if it’s time for a new roof, ask your roofing contractor about ridge venting. This venting technique runs a length of plastic venting along the length of your home’s ridge line, leaving no high areas for warm air to be trapped.

Ceiling fans are a great option for summer and winter ventilation. They help circulate air around the house and draw cool air up from the floor on hot days. In winter, reverse the fan and it will help to spread warm air around the house. This is especially effective if you use a fireplace because warm air comes out of the hearth and immediately rises. Ceiling fans help distribute this warm air around the house, significantly improving the heating efficiency of your fireplace.

Perhaps the most substantial step you can take to improve ventilation and save on heating and cooling costs is to have a heat recovery ventilator (HRV) installed. These very nifty additions to your HVAC system not only ventilate the building but also recycle a good amount of heat in exhausted air that would otherwise be lost. HRVs save up to 80% of otherwise lost heat, all the while circulating fresh air into your home.

6 Responses to “Poor Ventilation: Household Enemy #1”

Let Your Appliances Breathe: Update Appliance Vents » Remodeling Blog Says:

June 30th, 2008 at 9:48 am

[...] established before how important ventilation is throughout the home. Just as you need to keep air flowing throughout the house, you also need to [...]

CalFinder Remodeling Blog » No One Can Sleep Up There! Addressing Attic Ventilation Says:

October 17th, 2008 at 9:18 am

[...] This is not only uncomfortable but bad for the building materials up there. Thankfully, there are plenty of solutions for providing air flow through the [...]

CalFinder Remodeling Blog » When Animals Invade the Roof Says:

October 23rd, 2008 at 9:08 am

[...] some ways your house needs holes in the attic, but when it comes to the pitter-patter of four-legged feet above your head, it’s a [...]

CalFinder Remodeling Blog » Good Old Attic Storage Techniques Says:

November 3rd, 2008 at 10:25 am

[...] of the attic. This gives a clear path to access items as they are needed. Be careful not to block air vents or any exposed [...]

Ventilationsløsninger Says:

January 11th, 2009 at 10:38 pm

You can’t call home a home when you are not comfortable in it, specially the ventilation.

jessimen Says:

August 30th, 2010 at 4:33 am

Hello,
Very vital information provided. pay attention to your attic ventilation is the effect poor ventilation has on your roof’s performance. Under vented attics get very hot in most summer climates and can bake the shingle from the inside out.Proper ventilation is simple to enforce. The biggest mistake I have seen homeowners make is to build a roof with proper ventilation and then install insulation covering the soffits (the area adjacent to the eaves where the air enters the attic through the soffit vents). Another similar mistake is storing items that block the soffits. This makes the ventilation system worthless. Instead, be sure to install insulation clear of this area and store your items away from the vents to allow proper air flow.

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About the Author:

Dan Harding
I have lived from coast to coast; I've also spent time in Eugene and Lincoln City. I moved to Oregon about five years ago from Michigan. It was there, in Michigan, that I was tearing out some basement walls for a friend when I met her remodeling contractor...I've been in the trade ever since. I have always enjoyed working, playing, reading, writing, and the outdoors. I graduated from Michigan State University in 2002 with a degree in English and a focus on technical and creative writing. My interest in writing, carpentry, and remodeling led me to CalFinder.