Ventilation Systems | Home Ventilation

Proper home ventilation is a key factor in maintaining a healthy, comfortable, and safe environment for you and your family. Without a working ventilation system, you could be harming your heating and cooling systems, building up moisture within your home, or increasing pollutants in the air that you breath.

In this article, we will describe the importance of home ventilation, how it interacts with your heating system, and ways that you can provide greater air flow for your house.

The Importance of Ventilation For Your Home

Why is Ventilation Important?

There are many reasons to make sure that your house is ventilated. We will list a few of these below:

You could be causing damage to various appliances within your home, including your furnace, air conditioner, dryer, and others, without proper ventilation. These appliances require fresh air to function properly.
Increased air movement throughout your house can provide a longer life span for its building materials.
Your family needs fresh, clean air to breath. Poor circulation and ventilation can increase the number of allergens and pollutants within your home's environment.
A build-up of moisture can be extremely damaging to your home and to your family. Without ventilation, mold can build up in your walls, attic, bathroom, and furnishings. Mold and high levels of humidity can lead to numerous damages to your home's structure and to your health.

Heating and Ventilation Systems

It is extremely important to provide proper ventilation to your heating system and furnace for a couple of reasons.

First, your furnace needs fresh air in order to function. The furnace pulls in air, which it heats, and distributes to the rest of the house. If it is using a dirty, polluted air supply, your furnace could be damaged and have a much shorter life span.

Secondly, the air that is distributed to the living areas of your house should be as clean as possible. If you are recycling non-ventilated, harmful air through the furnace, it could lead to damaging effects for you and your family.

There are two main ways that a furnace receives the airflow that it needs to work.

1) A vent that pulls air directly from outside of your home and sends it through the furnace.

2) A furnace that draws air from its surrounding environment within your home.

In today's new homes, a furnace that doesn't receive outside ventilation could be a cause of concern. Energy-efficient homes allow less air movement than older built structures, which could lead to poor ventilation for your furnace.

The key is to plan ventilation and heating systems that are linked and function together properly. With careful planning, you can ensure that your furnace is receiving the necessary ventilation.

Types of Home Ventilation

Listed below are a few of the types of ventilation that allow proper air flow within your home:

Infiltration: This is when air leaks through cracks and gaps in the building envelope. This is especially prevalent in older homes, where air can leak through window and door frames. Exfiltration is when interior air exits your building.
Natural Ventilation: This occurs when outside air enters through open windows and doors. Air movement is affected by different temperatures between areas or by wind. Natural ventilation is less reliable or predictable than other methods.
Mechanical Ventilation: This is when you have fans or other mechanisms installed in your home that can provide controlled air movement. They include exhaust fans, ductwork fans, dryer vents and others than will provide increased ventilation for your home's interior.

Proper home ventilation is extremely important. Inadequate ventilation can lead to increased nose and throat irritation, dry skin, dust mites, allergies, asthma, and even carbon monoxide poisoning. You should make an effort to increase the ventilation within your home whenever you can. This means that you should open windows and doors, and use air exchanger, such as bathroom exhaust fans, attic ventilation fans, and kitchen exhaust fans, on a regular basis. In this way, you will have a better, cleaner airflow throughout your home.

Air Filters - One of the easiest things to do in order to receive the most efficient, longest lasting service from your air conditioning or heating system is to regularly check and replace your air filter. Clogged and dirty filters can cause your air conditioner to work much harder than it should. This can lead to wasted energy and an eventual breakdown of your system.

How to Maintain Your Furnace - here are some of the key steps you should take to prevent any damage or inefficiency to your furnace, including a carbon monoxide test, cleaning and inspection of motors, burners, fan, and air filters, and proper system lubrication.