Asking a question like if you need fresh air can sound a bit foolish as life would be a little hard to live without it. It is also an open-ended question. When we ask if you need fresh air, we are referring to your home. Does your home feel “stuffy”, have odors, mildew or other things growing other than the house plants? If so, it might be because you don’t have a good influx of fresh air.
Fresh air is a vital part of the indoor air quality of homes and can have a direct impact on the heath of the inhabitants. Let’s start by looking at what fresh air is and why you need it. When it comes to indoor air quality of a home, we are going to define fresh air as outside air (filtered or not) that is brought into the home to dilute and replace the stagnant and contaminated air inside. The home is full of contaminates that are produced from daily living. Just breathing inside of a home is going to produce contaminates. Add to that cooking, laundry, cleaning and we can see how the need grows quickly and we haven’t even mentioned if there is someone who is sick inside the home.
Most people would agree that the list of contaminates above are not good to have lingering in the air inside the home for everyone to be breathing in. The next question is what do we do about it? How fresh air is brought into the home will be dependent on many factors. Here are a few:
The age of the home.
Newer homes are being built to more stringent codes that make them more energy efficient. This is a good thing but is also diminishes the amount of natural air coming into the home. That means that you will probably need to have some type of mechanical solution like a fan that brings air in that also works with exhaust fans to take the stale air out. Older homes will have more natural fresh air coming into the home (that is a fancy way of saying drafts).
The climate.
Living in a mild climate means you can have window and doors open more often, allowing air to come in. For homes located in more extreme climates, either cold or hot, natural fresh air might not be as much of an option. Think Arizona in the summer or Minnesota in the winter. In these locations a mechanical solution is almost a must.
Location of the home.
If the home is located where the outdoor air quality is high, then bringing air into the home can be done without any filtration. If the home is located in areas such as cities, high car traffic areas or areas prone to wildfires producing smoke and so forth, having a fresh air solution that also includes some type of air filtration is going to provide the best option. It is possible that in extreme conditions you could actually be bringing in worst air than what is already inside the home. Statistic show that the air inside many homes can be up to 5 times more polluted than outside air, so even in more urban setting and with all the outside contaminates, it will still be beneficial to bring fresh air in.
Air King offers multiple fresh air intake fans that can be sized for most residential applications with models that include the ability to add air filtration, settings for humidity as well as temperature and more. To learn more about these visit the Fresh Air section on the Air King website at airkinglimited.com. To learn more about indoor air quality, make sure to read through our resource of blogs on the topic.
