Ventilation

Let your home breathe

It’s important that your home has good systems for heating cooling and ventilation. There are many pollutants and other objectionable things in the air inside a home. If you keep re-circulating the same bad air the air quality in your home will continue to suffer - and so will your children and those with allergies. Bad ventilation also results in odors in your home.

Homes with poor ventilation need systems that bring in fresh air from the outside. Many people do this by using portable air conditioners or by opening windows and doors. Some new homes use mechanical systems that suck outdoor air into the house. Some of these systems use energy-efficient heat recovery ventilators, which are also known as air-to-air heat exchangers.


Other ways to control the ventilation in your house are to use air cleaners, humidifiers, dehumidifiers and fans. Don’t forget to ventilate your attic and basement as these rooms are often overlooked. To keep your air clean, make sure you vacuum out your ventilation and return ducts regularly. A ventilation system that runs through your whole house usually starts at $2,000 online.

How’s Your Ventilation?

You will usually be able to tell if your home has poor ventilation. Some key signs include

  • Stubborn and persistent odors, particularly from cooking
  • Musty odor found in bedrooms
  • Mold and mildew growing in corners and seams
  • Condensation inside windows
  • Irritated eyes or other health problems, specifically with breathing

If you experience any of these on a consistent basis, you should look into the ventilation systems that are built into your home.

The solution to any of these problems may be fairly simple. Adding an exhaust fan to your kitchen or bathroom is a good way to improve ventilation. These rooms tend to be the worst for needing ventilation, due to the moisture and odors that are present in them.

If you’re opening your windows and doors to improve ventilation, make sure that you also position a fan near them. A fan will help to force the air to circulate, assuring that the fresh air moves throughout your home, pushing out the used air. There’s not always enough breeze outside to accomplish this with just opening the windows.

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I found your comments useful... and we have just that... musty smells from upstairs waffling down from our upstairs during summer months in our 30 year uld cape cod house. The stale air comes from the storage compartmets located on both sides of the house. The floors are constructed of groove & tongue board covered with OSB and insulated. The roof in the storage is insulated and covered with a vapour barrier and gyprock. However, the gyprock is not seam filled and does not extend completly to the top of the interior six-foot wall. The interior wall is not insulated. The exterior walls of the house are construction with 2 x 6's. How can we solve the problem? We live in Atlantic Canada Energy audit was completed with suggestions to make a better seal in the under eave storage. I do not think that will solve the problem. It gets very hot in the storage area during the summer !! Please email sandcgallant@isnwireless.ca
Posted on 7/11/2010 3:20:00 PM by Anonymous
How do you know if you have the proper installation of roof vents and soffit ventillation. What are the indoor signs of not enough vents?
Posted on 10/29/2009 7:12:00 AM by Anonymous
People breathe, not houses. Before considering adding ventilation in you home it is important to take several things into consideration. 1. Do you know how the air infiltration rate of your house? A home energy audit with a blower door test will determine this information. With this you can than determine how much air you need to make up with mechanical ventilation. Block homes are usually very tight, but frame built homes are usually very drafty. 2. What is your climate? Cold, Hot Humid....? This will help you to decide what type of ventilation you need in your home. For example: Exhaust ventilation in a hot humid climate pulls the outside air in through holes in the structure and allows that humid air to penetrate walls, potentially creating mold problem in the wall cavities. 3. What type of heating cooling system do you have? Can you incorporate the ventilation sytem the present system? First things first, go get an energy audit from a company who has BPI certified auditors. R.Gajarsky
Posted on 6/27/2009 8:57:00 AM by Anonymous
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