The energy department considers the existence of ventilation as the primary element of optimal indoor air quality. Few property owners nonetheless pay as close attention to the ventilation component in their HVAC units. They assume this does not play as crucial a role in their indoor air quality. Ventilation nonetheless improves your heating and cooling and uses minimal energy to control your indoor air temperature.
Natural ventilation and prompt air conditioning repair for your Draper property will both contribute to your indoor air quality to some extent. Natural ventilation is, however, not as sufficient as it was in the past with the sealing of homes for energy efficiency. This negates the small holes that air filters into and out of your property through and only leaves you with doors and windows for ventilation. Even so, you in most cases cannot leave your doors and windows open since this compromises your security. To this end, the following are the artificial ventilation methods that can suffice for your property.
Exhaust-Only Mechanical Ventilation
In this common ventilation method, small exhaust fans are positioned in specific rooms. Here, they will operate intermittently or continuously to get rid of the moisture and stale air. Exhaust-only mechanical ventilation generates negative indoor air pressure that will pull in air through your property’s cracks or strategically-placed make-up air inlets. This method is inexpensive and simple, but exhaust-only mechanical ventilation might also pull in pollutants from the exterior.
Supply-Only Mechanical Ventilation
With this, a fan will draw in outdoor air into your property while the stale air and moisture escape to the outdoors through air-leakage sites and cracks. The supplied air can be concentrated in a single location or distributed throughout your interiors using forced air delivery systems. Supply-only mechanical ventilation will generate a negative air pressure that keeps outdoor pollutants out of your home. It might however contribute to moisture and condensation issues in your ceiling and wall cavities.
Balanced Ventilation
Fans in this system will handle both exhaust and inlet airflow. Balanced ventilation will allow you to control where your fresh air comes from, its point of delivery and from where the exhaust air will be drawn. The system can be ducted or point-sourced. If you opt for ducted systems, the best choice is to supply air to the most-lived sections like living rooms and bedrooms. You can then exhaust air from places with the highest amounts of pollutants like bathrooms and kitchens.
Balanced Ventilation plus Heat Recovery
With separate fans for bringing in fresh air and removing stale air and moisture, it makes sense to group them. You should also include a heat-recovery exchanger more so in cold climates. This exchanger will transfer heat and moisture from one air stream. In so doing it keeps your interiors humidified and warm in winter.
Without a pressure differential, you cannot rely on natural ventilation to bring in fresh air and remove stale air. The above systems guarantee the highest levels of ventilation for your indoors. Balanced ventilation systems are relatively expensive, but with a low budget, you can have supply and exhaust-only systems.
