Home Ventilation Systems: How can I improve my home ventilation?
Improving home ventilation has many benefits for your health. The improved air quality from an efficient home ventilation system decreases the likelihood of your family or house members getting sick frequently. On the other hand, when ventilation isn’t sufficient, air moisture, and mould can directly cause respiratory illnesses. In addition, you may notice your household items become damaged by mould.
Unfortunately, New Zealand homes are renowned for being cold and damp, lacking healthy air ventilation systems. In 2019 alone, there were 87,500 respiratory hospital admissions in New Zealand. The 2020 Housing in Aotearoa report revealed 46% of people live in damp and mouldy homes. 37% experienced regular condensation on windows and 29% would need to remove this on a daily basis. The healthy home standard has been implemented for rental properties to help avoid these health risks.
Proper ventilation is key to a healthy and happy home and family. Good ventilation will remove any moisture in the air and keep out any funky smells or mould. But how do you improve home ventilation?
You are doing the right thing by being proactive in your quest to improve your home’s air quality. Here are the actions you can take to improve your home ventilation.
Home Ventilation System
Home ventilation systems are purposefully designed to improve air quality and enable a healthy home environment. A high quality home ventilation system will create a healthy and dry home regardless of home specifications and weather conditions. What’s more, this system enables a warm home due to dry air being significantly easier to heat and the systems’ ability to move warm air throughout the home. This will give you peace of mind so you and your family can live your best, healthy life.
How do home ventilation systems work? You may be wondering. There are many different types of home ventilation systems, however, they all work under the same premise. Home ventilation systems push moisture and air out of the house and bring in fresh air, filtering out pollutants and allergens. In this manner, you not only create a healthy and dry home but a warm home, too.
In addition to the health benefits, your home will feel and smell dramatically more fresh and clean, and your belongings will no longer be at risk of mould or condensation damage.
Home ventilation systems have a larger positive impact in the winter when natural ventilation is more difficult. A combination of being unable to keep doors and windows open, the cooler temperature, higher moisture levels and higher risk of illness makes these systems a no-brainer.
Hang your washing outdoors
Keeping damp clothes in your home to dry off will only increase the moisture in the air, which can lead to mould. For homes prone to this, it will only make your air quality worse. Instead, aim to put your clothes horses outside to dry off or hang your clothing and bedding on an outdoor washing line. Communicate with other household members to ensure there is space on the line and plan to do washing on a clear day.
Increase air flow with windows and doors
There are many manual daily actions you can take to help encourage air flow throughout your home. Opening windows and doors throughout your home will allow clean air to flow through and air moisture to escape. When you are home, it’s recommended to open ranch sliders and other doors. You will notice a huge difference with fresh air and it will no longer feel ‘stuffy’.
At night, you can keep your window slightly open to further assist in lowering air moisture. This is viable when it’s mild, although it may have adverse effects in the winter by letting warm air out.
However, often, this isn’t enough for healthy air quality. The best thing you can do for your home is to install a home ventilation system. This will help protect, most importantly, your health but also the foundations of the house from mould and mildew damage. There are various home ventilation systems in the market and some will be more suitable for your home than others. Speak to the home ventilation experts to get the most efficient and cost effective option!