Whole-house ventilation systems are vital to ensure you home feels fresh and clean throughout the year. Without proper ventilation, airborne particles and pollutants may build up in your home and degrade your indoor air quality. A whole-house ventilation system circulates air with fans and ducts, and provides such benefits as:
- Improved air quality – The air in your home can contain five times more pollutants and contaminants than th
e outdoor air, according to the U.S. EPA. Poor air quality increases allergy and asthma symptoms, and can lead to headaches, fatigue, nausea and respiratory complications. By implementing a whole-house ventilation system, you will improve your indoor air quality, which greatly affects your overall well-being and health. - Increased comfort levels – Without good ventilation, your home will be plagued by stale unwholesome air. This will lead to a stuffy and unpleasant feeling in your home. Proper ventilation keeps your home filled with fresh air circulating continuously throughout the day.
Whole-house ventilation systems can be separated into four types – exhaust, supply, balanced and energy recovery:
- Exhaust ventilation system – These systems are typically inexpensive and simple to install, and work by depressurizing the building.
- Supply ventilation system – Easy to install and generally inexpensive, a supply ventilation system pressurizes the building.
- Balanced ventilation system – When installed properly, balanced ventilation systems don’t pressurize or depressurize the house. Instead, they pull in and push out equal quantities of fresh outside air and polluted home air.
- Energy recovery ventilation system – These systems are designed to minimize energy loss while still providing controlled ventilation. They transfer heat from the inside air to the fresh air during the winter to help reduce the cost of heating. In the summer, the ventilation system uses the inside air to cool the warmer outside air. This helps reduce the heating and cooling costs of the ventilation system and makes your home more energy efficient.
For more information about whole-house ventilation systems and which one is right for your home, please contact us at Marsh Heating & Air Conditioning. Since 1974, we have provided dependable HVAC services to the Twin Cities metro area.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about whole-house ventilation and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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