Areas in Your Home That Might Need More Ventilation

Home ventilation is crucial to the well-being of both you and your home. Houses without enough ventilation usually have air quality problems that can affect the health of the occupants and cause numerous moisture-related problems for many of the essential components inside your house. Building codes specify that kitchens have exhaust fans, while bathrooms must have either an exhaust fan or an operable window. To prevent moisture from building inside and keeping the interior space from reaching an excessively hot temperature, an attic must also be vented to the roof.

Room-by-Room Considerations

Although the kitchen must have a fan, it’s not always vented to the outdoors. If yours just circulates the air through a filter and blows it back into the room, consider adding a vented hood. It’s possible to install such a fan to remove the heat and humidity from cooking. This is especially important if your stove and oven use natural gas or propane. Devices such as these can emit harmful gases like carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and formaldehyde.

In our climate, the bathroom needs an exhaust fan to keep humidity in check. An open window won’t be enough to remove all the humidity from bathing. A fan similar to the type employed in the kitchen can be installed by an HVAC professional from Integrity Heating & Cooling in Charlotte. It will have the right capacity to pull humid air from the bathing area.

The Attic

The attic is another place inside your home that benefits from adequate ventilation. Not only does good ventilation keep condensation to a minimum, but it also helps your home stay cooler in the summertime. The sun beating on the roof can warm an attic to more than 140 degrees Fahrenheit. If the attic isn’t adequately ventilated, then some of that heat will seep through your ceilings and warm up your home.

In this hot climate, an attic fan will pay for itself in cooler attic temperatures, lower utility bills, and a more durable roof. Fans are also available as solar models. Many types have thermostats that turn the fan on when the attic gets too hot.

If you feel your home doesn’t have enough ventilation, then contact Integrity Heating & Cooling today for more information. We provide heating, cooling, and air quality services for homeowners throughout the Charlotte area, and we also handle standby generators.