Passive ventilation

Passive ventilation

How does it work?

Passive ventilation uses doors, windows, vents, louvres and other openings to bring fresh air into your home and let stale air out. The size and placement of these openings can be used to guide air into and through your home.

Where cooling is required, windows or other openings on upper levels can be opened to let warm air escape. In winter, well-designed passive ventilation refreshes the air in your home without creating draughts or letting out too much heat.

Passive ventilation can only work if air has clear, uninterrupted pathways through your home. You can maximise air flow by designing open plan areas or having high vents or other openings between rooms. In general, windows should be larger on one side of the home than the other in order to encourage air flow.

If your home is designed for passive ventilation, all you'll need to do is open and close windows, doors or other vents as needed to reduce the temperature and improve the quality of the air you're breathing.