How to Ventilate Your Home
Proper ventilation is key to a healthy and comfortable home. It helps to regulate indoor air quality by removing excess moisture, pollutants, and airborne contaminants from home. There are many different ways to ventilate a home, and the best method will depend on the individual needs of the home. Here are some of the most common methods of home ventilation.
Natural Ventilation
Natural ventilation is one of the most energy-efficient ways to ventilate a home. It makes use of natural forces like wind and convection to move air through the home. To take advantage of natural ventilation, homes need to be designed with strategic openings that allow for cross-ventilation. This can be achieved with open windows, skylights, or other openings that allow fresh air to enter the home while stale air is expelled.
Mechanical Ventilation
Mechanical ventilation uses powered fans to force air through the home. This type of ventilation can be used in conjunction with natural ventilation or as a standalone system. Common types of mechanical ventilation include exhaust fans, whole-house fans, and heat recovery ventilators (HRVs). Exhaust fans are typically used in bathrooms and kitchens to remove moisture-laden air, while whole-house fans are used to exchange all the air in a home several times per day. HRVs are similar to whole-house fans, but they also recover some of the heat from exhausted air, making them more energy efficient.
Hybrid Ventilation Systems
Hybrid systems combine natural and mechanical ventilation to provide an effective and energy-efficient way to ventilate a home. One example of a hybrid system is an HRV that is used in conjunction with open windows. The HRV provides continuous ventilation while the windows are opened as needed to provide fresh air and expel stale air. Another example is a whole-house fan that is used in conjunction with an exhaust fan in the kitchen and bathroom. The whole-house fan provides general ventilation, while the exhaust fans remove moisture-laden air from high-use areas of the home.
There are many different ways to ventilate a home, and the best method will depend on the individual needs of the home. Natural ventilation is one of the most energy-efficient ways to ventilate a home, but it may not be sufficient on its own in all cases. Mechanical ventilation can provide more control over indoor air quality, but it comes at the cost of increased energy usage. Hybrid systems offer a good compromise between energy efficiency and indoor air quality control.
Contact the Professionals at EZ Breathe Today! 866-822-7328
We are a 2nd generation family owned and operated business that has been working in homes with basements and crawl spaces for over 35 years. We have been waterproofing and sealing about 500 foundations a month during that time as the largest Waterproofing contractor in the Midwest with 15 locations servicing 8 states.
20 years ago we would seal a foundation and recommend a standard dehumidifier to address the additional water vapor (humidity in the air) inherently found in below grade environments, such as basements and crawlspaces. Back then, dehumidifiers were the industry standard to help with this problem. However, many of our customers were looking to us as the “foundation expert”, asking…
“What else do you have? I really am not getting results with this messy, expensive dehumidifier. My foundation is dry, walls are dry, floor is dry, so why does it still smell and feel like a basement?”
We needed to find something better. Our company’s core values include offering world class customer service to every customer, every time. So, we challenged our Research and Development department to find a real solution for our customers to combat not only the moisture, but also the odors, pollutants and unhealthy environment our customers were concerned about. We found, tested and installed a ventilation product for a period of three years. We private labeled that product as the EZ Breathe Ventilation System. The feedback in those first three years from our customers, as well as our installation crews, did not live up to the standard of quality to be included in our waterproofing process that offered a life time warranty. Once again, we needed something better.
We valued not only the results, but what we were learning from our customers. So, we went back to the drawing board, took matters into our own hands and made quality improvements to that first generation ventilation unit.
Our own EZ Breathe Ventilation System was born…reengineered, redesigned and much improved! We quickly learned that our crews were thrilled with the quality improvements, ease of operation and installation, but more importantly, our waterproofing customers loved the new, improved EZ Breathe unit as well.
Their feedback told us the air in their basements and crawlspaces felt better, but their entire home was benefiting from their EZ Breathe as well. We received countless letters thanking us because their whole house felt different, less odors, fresher air upstairs too, family members were feeling better, needing less allergy medicine, husbands were no longer snoring, children were no longer coughing as much, the home and it’s family were living healthier lives!
It was time for us to move beyond simply offering this innovative technology to just our waterproofing customers. Our passion and commitment to helping people improve their indoor air environments is what drove us to incorporate EZ Breathe Ventilation Systems as an independent company in 2003. We strongly believe that homeowners everywhere deserve a healthy indoor air quality.
We have spent the last 15 years dedicated to learning about the relationship between our home and our health; indoor air quality, the home as a system, building science and how it relates to indoor air quality as well as the challenges our modern day practices pose to the quality of air we breathe in our homes.