Breathe easy with better ventilation

We spend an average of 21 hours a day indoors. That’s a scary statistic! But what’s really frightening is what you could be breathing in if your home is poorly ventilated. For fresh, clean air 24/7, proper ventilation is essential!

 

So, what can you do about it?

You could ventilate your home the old-fashioned way by, say, opening doors and windows and letting in the breeze. But this method makes it hard to regulate air flow and can be very energy-intensive (just imagine how high your electricity bill would be in the winter!). Mechanical ventilation with a ventilation system solves these problems, making it your best option for improving the air quality of tightly sealed homes.
 
1. Central ventilation
That means air exchangers: devices that cycle and purify the air in your entire home. There are different types for different needs, including heat-recovery (HRV) and energy‑recovery (ERV). Want to learn more? Check out our article on air exchangers.
 
Advantages

• Improve air quality
• Regulate humidity
• Minimize odours
• Improve heater efficiency

2. Local ventilation
Local ventilation systems complement central ventilation by sucking up stale and humid air at the source and evacuating it through exterior outlets. Range hoods and bath fans are both examples of local ventilation systems. 

Range hoods
Getting to work and realizing you reek of last night’s garlicky spaghetti sauce can be embarrassing. To cut down on kitchen odours that can cling to clothes and permeate your home, you need a good range hood.
There are tons of range hoods on the market today. To find the one that’s right for you and your space, click here!

Advantages

• Prevent cooking grease from building up on walls, curtains and fabrics in the kitchen and adjoining rooms
• Cut down on residual cooking odours
• Minimize the risk of mould growth and keep paint and wallpaper looking fresh
• Evacuate excess heat and gases
• Prevent damage to countertops caused by the condensation of acidic contaminants
• Keep bacteria from spreading to countertops and cooking surfaces

Bath fans
Drawing a smiley face on your mirror after a shower is fun, but a fogged up mirror may be a sign that your bathroom is poorly ventilated. Trapped moisture can cause damage over time. Luckily, a good bath fan is the simple solution you need.
 
Advantages

• Evacuate excess moisture
• Minimize condensation
• Keep mould from growing and spreading
• Protect painted surfaces, furniture and the structure of your home

Choosing the right ventilation fan

A ventilation fan’s ability to move air is expressed in terms of cubic feet per minute (CFM), so you’ll need to do a little math before you go fan shopping. For eight-foot ceilings, calculate your room’s square footage and multiply by 1.1. That will give you the recommended number of cubic feet per minute for that space. For ceilings over eight feet tall, first take the ceiling height and multiply by 0.1375. Then, multiply the result by the square footage of your room. (To illustrate, for a 10 ft. x 12 ft. room with a 10-foot ceiling, you’d have: 10 ft. x 0.1375 = 1.37 x 120 sq. ft. = 164 CFM)