Ventilation
- Pic: Craig Robertson Photography for Beacon Pathway Ltd
With good ventilation, your home will be drier, healthier and more comfortable.
Ventilation is about helping air to circulate in your home. It allows moisture and airborne pollutants to escape, and fresh, clean air to be drawn into your home. Well-designed ventilation will provide cooling in summer. In winter, it will let stale air out but keep warmth in.
Effective ventilation depends to a significant extent on the size, placement and type of windows, doors and other openings in your home. With good design, you can control the circulation of air, rather than having draughts.
With good design, you can use windows, vents and other openings for most ventilation – this will save on your energy costs. However, you may need some mechanical (active) ventilation, for example, extractor fans to expel moist air from the kitchen, bathroom and laundry outside.
Does ventilation matter?
Yes. A 2005 BRANZ survey of the condition of New Zealand homes found that many were damp and poorly ventilated.
Most bathrooms relied only on windows for ventilation. Only half of kitchens vented moist air to the outside. And 40% of timber-framed homes had poor or seriously inadequate subfloor ventilation.
Poor ventilation allows moisture and airborne pollutants to build up inside your home. This can cause health problems such as asthma for you and other members of your household. Moisture can also make your home uncomfortable to live in and damage its structure.
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