How to Improve Your Home’s Ventilation

With the recent trend in energy efficiency, many homeowners are focused on making their homes airtight in order to prevent heat loss. While this could lower your energy bills, it eliminates all natural ventilation from the home.

This may sound like no big deal, but ventilation is extremely important, especially if your home suffers from indoor air pollution (hint: it probably does). Read below to learn why adequate ventilation is necessary, and what you can do to improve yours.

Why ventilation is important…

The average person breathes nearly 3,000 gallons of air every day. Good ventilation removes harmful pollutants and ensures this air is clean. Other benefits of ventilation include:

• Remove unwanted smells. Unpleasant odors will disperse quicker with sufficient ventilation.
• Control humidity levels. Maintaining ideal humidity levels is important for comfort.
• Reduce the risk of mold growth. Mold can have detrimental effects on our health and homes.
• Improve indoor air quality. Indoor air can be up to ten times more polluted than outdoor air.

How to improve your ventilation…

Luckily, there are many ways that homeowners can improve ventilation. Here are a few ways to let your home breathe:

• Open your windows when weather permits. This is the easiest and most effective way to instantly improve ventilation in your home.
• Run your exhaust fan after every shower. This is especially important for controlling humidity levels.
• Leave your interior doors open. Leave doors open in between rooms to promote airflow, but keep closet and pantry doors shut.
• Make use of pedestal and ceiling fans. Ideally, ceiling fan blades should rotate clockwise during the colder months, and counterclockwise during the summertime.
• Install a ventilation system in your home. These can be exhaust-only, supply-only, or balanced systems.

It’s important to note that if you have a home ventilation system, you want to ensure that your air ducts are clean. Otherwise, pollutants such as dust, dirt, pet dander, and mold could easily circulate throughout your home.

GreenPro Cleaning & Restoration offers professional air duct cleaning services to homes and businesses across Long Island. If you live in Nassau County or Suffolk County, contact us online to get started with a free estimate, or call (631) 940-8100.