Advantages Of Proper Ventilation: Why Is It Important For Your Home?

Advantages Of Proper Ventilation: Why Is It Important For Your Home?

Ventilation should be considered a crucial part of homes whether you are buying a new home or are renovating your current one. Given the prevalence of air pollution in almost every major city in the world, it’s imperative you ensure your home has proper ventilation so that you and your family are always breathing fresh, healthy air. In this article, you’ll learn a few details about air pollution and the evidence supporting its negative health effects.

You’ll also discover how homebuilders can design their homes to protect residents from harmful pollutants and to create a comfortable, safe environment. By the end, you’ll feel better prepared about the steps you should take to find a home with proper ventilation and how to use exhaust fans, air purifiers, and natural ventilation to create a clean, temperate, and cozy home.

Focusing On Air Quality

Air quality levels depend on a variety of factors, including human population density, automobile usage, factory production, wind speeds, temperature, humidity, and vegetation. It’s commonly known that bustling cities full of fossil fuel-consuming manufacturing plants and millions of cars tend to have the poorest air quality. In heavily polluted cities, it’s recommended that people stay indoors with proper ventilation as often as possible, especially when exercising, and wear air filtering face masks when they must go outside.

Air quality index scores range from healthy levels below 50 to hazardous breathing conditions of 400 and above.

Where does the city of Bangalore stand on the air quality index scale? The air quality in Bangalore varies depending on which part of the garden city you live in and what time of day it is. If you measure the gaseous or particulate pollutant levels in the early hours of the morning, you’ll find a much safer breathing environment. But in the afternoon, when the people of Bangalore are stuck in rush hour traffic and manufacturers’ machines run at their peak levels, the air quality worsens. Use AQI’s database for a plethora of information including air quality in different parts of Bangalore, average changes during the day, and historic trends.

Why Ventilate?

The evidence continues to mount for air pollution’s connection with adverse health effects in humans. At the same time, studies have shown that the application of proper ventilation can mitigate the effects of poor air quality.

Hence, it’s crucial in these times that you and your family secure a home with properly installed heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems to protect against the outside environment and the unventilated air building up inside your home.

By finding a properly ventilated home you can maintain a more temperate living environment at a lower cost. Homebuilders should purposefully design airflow channels in the residence so as to keep better control of the temperature. If air can find a way in or out of your home, whether it be the cracks of your doors or space at your windows, then some of your ventilation efforts will be wasted.

Deliberately designed openings in your home ensure that you have proper ventilation and a pleasantly temperate, energy-efficient space in every season of the year.

Steps To Take To Ensure Proper Ventilation In Your Home

Considering the health benefits, cleanliness, and cost savings that come with living in the fresh air, it’s vital you thoroughly research proper ventilation available on the market.

Start by looking around your own living quarters. Where can you find air vents? On the ceiling, high up the walls, or down by the floor? Do you have bathroom and kitchen exhaust fans? How often would you have to turn them on?

Which direction is your home-oriented and, therefore, where do the morning and afternoon sunshine on your living space? Which direction do your windows face and how can you utilize natural ventilation to cost-effectively freshen the air in your home? Finally, we suggest you close your doors and windows and make time to listen for any air passing through. This would suggest that they’re improperly sealed, leading to uncontrolled air leakage and possible future moisture problems.

As a homeowner in a city with daily exposure to some amount of air pollution, you may feel safer with an air purification system in your residence. Investing in air purifying systems ensures you and your family always breathe in fresh, purified air. 

If you’re looking for a more in-depth focus on air purifiers, explore AtHomeDiva’s informative article on the value of air purifiers and their filter materials in a city like Bangalore.

Taking the time to learn about the exact ventilation design of your future home will help you make an informed decision about your investment. After all, investing in a home is also an investment in the health and prosperity of your family.

Different Types Of Ventilation

Generally, the goal with home ventilation is to circulate the air in your home so that old air exits while fresh air enters. A homeowner can achieve this through various processes.

1. Mechanical ventilation: If you live in humid regions or live in a space where the ventilation is poor you could consider an HVAC unit, which is an exhaust or ventilation fan that is always working to circulate air. You could also use fans to boost your air quality as they can help with air circulation with closed windows. Depending on the amount of air circulation, there are various fans on the market. This choice allows you to choose designer air circulation fans that will add to the aesthetics of your home design. For a more detailed discussion of different types of mechanical ventilation systems, be sure to explore Chillaire’s post answering “Why is Ventilation so Important for Buildings?”
2. Spot or Exhaust ventilation: Spot ventilation is basically controlled air movement to quickly remove moisture and impure air at the source. Household examples include kitchen exhaust fans pulling hot air produced from a gas range and cooking foods and sending it outside. Another example is bathroom exhaust fans sucking hot air and steam out, reducing the growth of mold and bacteria.
3. Natural ventilation: Natural ventilation is the passive movement of air throughout a building, such as opening a window or carefully designing a building to achieve a form of ventilation that requires zero energy. The downside of natural ventilation is that it’s not always reliable since it depends on the outside temperature and direction of the wind. It also doesn’t ventilate the home evenly. 

To help with this you could use stack ventilation. Since hot air rises, installing outlets at a higher level allows this stagnant air to escape. Carefully installed ceiling exhaust fans or high open windows accomplish the task of letting warmer air out.

Additionally, cooler air will enter the living space at lower openings in your home. Examples of this type of natural ventilation could be fans located at the ground level or even the small spaces underneath your door.

Homeowners that open windows on both sides of their living space create an energy-free channel through which to cycle fresh air into the home.

Which direction does the wind tend to blow in Bangalore? And does that wind direction remain constant throughout the day? Does it vary with the change of seasons? According to AccuWeather’s wind flow chart, winds in Bangalore tend to blow northerly in the mornings and switch to westward winds in the evenings. Take some time to examine AccuWeather’s time-lapse animation to see the change in the wind for yourself.

At Bren’s Zahara homes, we have living quarters facing north, west, and east, so you won’t have to worry too much about the Bangalore winds blowing from the south. For homes with north-facing windows, residents can pull air out of their homes when they crack open a window as winds blow from the south.

Learn more about how building design and orientation affect natural ventilation through Ohio State’s informative article.

Here at Bren, we have home projects that are ongoing, nearing completion, and already completed. Each one is effectively designed with modern construction techniques and with the safety of its families in mind. Bren understands the overall building process and ventilation design of our homes, so don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions you have. Be sure to follow us on social media to watch the build progress of our Zahara and Northern Lights properties.