3 Types of Ventilation Your Home Needs

Ventilation is the exchange of outdoor and indoor air. When you don’t have proper ventilation, your home, regardless of how airtight and insulated it may be, will seal in dangerous pollutants, like carbon monoxide. It can also seal in moisture which can damage your home. To improve indoor air quality, an effective way is to rid your home of pollutants and/or reduce their emissions through proper ventilation.

There are three main types of home ventilation:

Natural ventilation
Whole house ventilation
Spot ventilation

Let’s go over these in more detail.

Natural Ventilation
Natural ventilation refers to uncontrolled air movement from doors, windows and cracks in your home. In the past, this was the more common method of ventilation and allowed the fresh outdoor air to replace your home’s indoor air.

Natural ventilation relies on the outdoor wind as well as the “chimney effect” of keeping a home cool and indoor air quality good. It works best in climates with regular breezes and cool nights. When the wind is blowing against your house, air is being forced into your windows located on the side of your home facing into the wind. On the downwind side of your home, there’s a natural vacuum effect drawing air out of your windows.

You can diminish or enhance natural ventilation through landscaping. Depending on the wind direction and house design, air can be forced either away or into nearby windows by creating a windbreak like hedges, a row of trees or a fence that blocks the wind.

Whole House Ventilation
With whole-house ventilation, you’re using one or more duct systems and fans to exhaust stale air out of your home or draw in fresh air from the outdoors into your home. A good example is a whole house fan.

Whole house fans are an inexpensive and simple way to cool your home and bring in fresh air. A whole house fan draws the cool air into your home from the outdoors through open windows and then exhausts the hot air from inside your home to the outside through the attic.

Spot Ventilation
Spot ventilation uses localized exhaust fans to control air movement and quickly remove moisture and pollutants at the source. Some examples include:

Attic ventilation: Through the use of an attic fan, you can protect the contents in your attic, protect your roof and prevent ice dams and mold.

Bathroom ventilation: Use a bathroom exhaust fan to prevent mildew, moisture and mold.

Kitchen ventilation: Helps with problems of smoke, grease and odors that other ventilation systems don’t tackle.

Garage ventilation: A garage exhaust fan will help with chemical off-gassing.

Most home forced air-conditioning and air-heating systems don’t bring the air from the outdoors into the home mechanically. Therefore, natural ventilation is relied on to draw in the fresh outdoor air and force out the stale, polluted indoor air. This is where whole house fans and natural ventilation can help.

If you’re looking for whole house fan ventilation or spot ventilation through an attic fan or garage exhaust fan for examples, please peruse our website and/or give us a call here at WholeHouseFan.com at 1.888.229.5757. We can help you find the perfect solutions for your home.