Ventilation
It is incredibly important to ensure your home is well ventilated. A lack of adequate ventilation can make your home vulnerable to damp, mould, condensation, trapped pollutants and a lack of fresh air. When installing energy efficiency measures, such as insulation, there must be adequate ventilation to prevent these issues. Ventilation also helps to prevent issues with overheating in the summer, which can be very common in large cities, top floor flats and well insulated but poorly ventilated home.
What ventilation options are available?
Natural ventilation
Natural ventilation is the simplest way to ventilate your home. All you need to do is open the windows! It sounds almost too easy, but it is very easy to forget and is not the most efficient way to ventilate your property. This is because it can lead to high levels of heat loss from the property which could increase your heating costs. It can also lead to problems with wind blowing through the property potentially blowing things over or causing doors to slam. It can increase security risks, but window restrictors can resolve this. It also doesn’t guarantee fresh air to all parts of the home.
Trickle ventilation
Trickle vents are small vents installed in the frame of windows and doors which allow a small amount of air to pass through. They can be permanent, or they may have a slider or flip to open and close them. They are great for providing a consistent level of ventilation through the property. They improve the air quality in the room and reduce condensation.
Mechanical extract ventilation
Mechanical extract ventilation (MEV). These involve a mechanical fan unit to extract air from the room or rooms. They can sometimes be controlled by a humidity detector that can activate the extractor fan(s) when increased humidity is detected. They can also be controlled by a simple switch. These can be combined with passive ventilation to ensure best ventilation in the property. They are extremely effective at ventilating the room/property and reducing condensation.
Which rooms require ventilation?
Ventilation should be considered for all rooms, when possible, but it is most important in rooms with high moisture such as wet rooms. This would include rooms like kitchens, bathrooms, and utility rooms. Moisture tends to originate in these rooms so removing at the source is important.
Having extractor fans or opening windows in these rooms can eliminate a lot of the moisture in the air before it can spread to other rooms in the house. Keeping doors to these rooms closed while you are using them and afterwards helps to prevent this as well. Rooms that tend to be drier such as bedrooms and living rooms can be ventilated with passive systems such as trickle vents. Other ways to help in these rooms include placing furniture a couple of inches away from the wall or drilling ventilation holes into unseen areas of cupboards and wardrobes.
Certain types of heaters such as solid fuel and gas heaters require ventilation to ensure harmful gasses such as carbon monoxide do not build up in the property. Also, it is ideal to have a carbon monoxide alarm in properties with these systems.
