What is a continuously operating exhaust fan?

A continuously operating exhaust fan is designed to run nonstop at a low speed, constantly removing stale, humid, or polluted air from your home. Unlike traditional exhaust fans that are switched on only when needed (like during a shower), these systems provide ongoing ventilation. Many models include a boost speed that provides additional ventilation when needed. These are referred to as dual speed models with a low speed that runs continuously, then a high speed that provides extra ventilation when the room is occupied.

Why Continuous Operating Exhaust Fans Matter

Today’s homes are built tighter than ever for energy efficiency. While that’s great for reducing heating and cooling costs, it also means that fresh air isn’t entering the home as easily—and indoor contaminants can get trapped. Continuously operating exhaust fans help solve this problem by:

• Removing excess moisture that can lead to mold and mildew
• Reducing odors from bathrooms, kitchens, and pets
• Improving overall indoor air quality
• Helping control allergens and airborne particles

Key Benefits

1. Moisture Control
Bathrooms and laundry areas produce a significant amount of humidity. Without proper ventilation, that moisture can seep into walls, ceilings, and insulation—leading to costly damage over time. A continuous operating exhaust fan ensures that moisture is consistently removed, even after you leave the room.

2. Healthier Air
Indoor air can contain dust, VOCs (volatile organic compounds), and other pollutants. Continuous ventilation helps dilute and remove these contaminants, creating a healthier living environment.

3. Odor Reduction
Because air is constantly being exchanged, odors don’t linger as long. This is especially beneficial in homes with pets, small children, or high occupancy.

4. Energy Efficiency
Continuously operating exhaust fans are required by code to be energy efficient and quiet. Almost all fans used in these applications will be ENERGY STAR® certified and most will use less energy on low speed than a light bulb. The benefits of significantly increased indoor air quality far outweigh the small amount of energy used.

5. Code Compliance
Building codes and standards—such as those influenced by organizations like ASHRAE—increasingly emphasize the importance of continuous ventilation in residential construction. Installing a continuously operating exhaust fan can help ensure your home meets these evolving requirements.

Where Should You Use Them?

Continuously operating exhaust fans are most commonly installed in:

• Bathrooms
• Laundry rooms
• Hallways (for whole-house exhaust strategies)

In some homes, a single centrally located fan can serve multiple areas.

Is a Continuously Operating Exhaust Fan Right for Your Home?

If your home feels stuffy, has persistent humidity issues, or lacks proper ventilation, a continuously operating exhaust fan could be a smart investment. They are especially beneficial in:

• Newer, tightly sealed homes
• Homes in humid climates
• Households concerned with air quality and health

Final Thoughts

Continuously operating exhaust fans offer a simple yet powerful way to improve indoor air quality, protect your home from moisture damage, and create a more comfortable living environment. As homes continue to evolve, ventilation is no longer optional—it’s essential. And continuous exhaust is quickly becoming one of the most effective ways to achieve it. For more information about Air King continuously operating exhaust fans, visit the ENERGY STAR certified exhaust fan section on the main Air King website.

What indoor air quality strategies do you have in place to make your home a healthier place to live? This might not be a question you have asked but one that your home would benefit from. Creating a healthy living environment involves looking at all aspects of the home and how you live in it. Here are 5 strategies to consider that will help to improve your indoor air quality.

Have a Moisture Strategy

Controlling the moisture in your home is a critical aspect of a healthy home. Too much moisture can lead to mold and mildew growth and if not controlled can cause a wide range of health issues. For most of us, when we think of moisture in the home we immediately jump to the bathroom and using the shower. While the shower is a major contributor to moisture in the home, there are other areas that need addressing as well:

Kitchens – Most homeowners don’t think of the kitchen as a source of moisture but it can quickly become one both from usage and maintenance. Things like boiling water, making coffee and most everyday cooking will produce moisture. If not properly mitigated, this moisture will build up over time and can cause some serious issues in your home. Using a range hood is one of the easiest solutions. A second source of moisture is a maintenance issue. That leaky pipe under the sink, the little puddle of water around the fridge, or the water that always seems to be around the faucet all can turn into something much bigger if not taken care of right away.

Laundry Rooms – With bathrooms and kitchens, many homes across the country have some type of strategy to remove moisture. Whether it is an exhaust fan, range hood or something else. When it comes to the laundry room, it can be a forgotten area. Laundry rooms produce moisture from items such as wet clothes, washers that might leak a little or from utility sinks. Making sure to clean up any spills, drips or puddles is important, but having an exhaust fan in the laundry room can have a real positive effect on your indoor air quality.

Basements – In many homes, the basement has become a living space or at least an area that is occupied as a laundry room, home gym and so on. Many basements also have a moisture issue. If your basement has a bit of a smell, feels humid or you can actually see water, you will need a strategy to mitigate the moisture. Some strategies might be easy, something like utilizing a dehumidifier. Others might be more advanced like installing a sump pump or needing to waterproof the walls.

Have an Exit Strategy

No, we are not talking about a way to exit your home. We are talking about a way to exhaust the air out of it. Home ventilation is a very commonly overlooked item. Making sure to have exhaust fans in all of the bathrooms, power rooms, kitchen and even the laundry room is a first step. Exhaust fans will remove the moisture we just talked about above as well as other contaminates that build up in the home. Just breathing in your home will cause stale “bad” air to build up. This is the reason why building codes across the United States now require a continuously running exhaust fan in a central location of the home. This is sometimes referred to as a wholehouse exhaust fan. The purpose is to ensure the home has a constant source of ventilation to remove all the contaminated air that occurs from normal everyday living.

Have a Replacement Strategy

We just talked about a strategy to remove air, now we need one to replace it. When using an exhaust fan, it will create a negative pressure in your home as it draws the air out. To balance the pressure, the home will replace that exhausted air however it can. In older homes it will be from air leaks in the home. The common name for this is drafts. Things like open doors or windows are another place that air can come in. These are all fine, but you as the homeowner do not have control over them. In newer homes, there aren’t as many air leaks and if all the doors and windows are closed, the home is still going to find a way to balance. This can lead to air coming back through things like chimneys, heater flues and other locations you really don’t want air coming back in the house from. In both old and new homes, having a strategy for replacement air (otherwise known as fresh air or make-up air) is a must. A mechanical solution is your best option as it puts the control into your hands. A fresh air machine like the Air King QFAMD provides a controlled flow of fresh air into your home that you are able to place where you want and has settings to make sure the air coming in is not too humid, too cold or too hot. To make the air even better, you can also add an air filter to ensure only the best air is coming into the home.

Have a Usage Strategy

We have talked about indoor air quality strategies that include exhausting air out of the home and bringing air into the home, but none of these work if they are not being used. A very common issue is the exhaust fans are not turned on or even the ones that are supposed to run continuously are turned off. There are a few ways to combat that.

Automate. Installing an exhaust fan with a humidity sensor built into the fan or that utilizes a humidity sensing wall switch provides an automated – set it and forget it way of ensure proper ventilation is happening. This can be very effective in bathroom settings but not as much in other rooms.

Combine room lighting with the Exhaust Fan. If you are installing an exhaust fan with a light, the two functions can be wired independently or together. To ensure the exhaust is utilized, you can wire the fan and light to operate together. You can also use this strategy and wire the room lighting with the exhaust fan. This can be especially effective when the fan is used in locations like laundry rooms, powder rooms and other locations that do not have a shower. In rooms with showers you will generally want/need to operate the exhaust fan longer than you are in the room and you probably do not want the light on if you are not in the room. These areas are better suited for a humidity sensor that we talked about above.

Education. Having everyone in the house educated on the benefits of good indoor air quality strategies can help get the household onboard. While we will suggest reading through all our blog posts over the years about proper ventilation to hopefully scare them into compliance, we do understand that might not be the most attainable path. Just basic education found in this post will hopefully help answer the “Why” questions.

Have a Storage Strategy

Everything we have discussed up to this point are what we’ll refer to as reactive strategies. Exhausting items already in the home, removing moisture already in the home, bringing fresh air in once the stale air is exhausted. What we have not discussed is a proactive strategy of not having the contaminates in the home from the beginning. Most of us store items such as cleaners, detergents, paint and other chemicals in the home. These items can give off harmful gases that will negatively affect your indoor air quality. The best strategy is to store them outside the home as much as you can. That is not always obtainable. Storing your laundry detergent in the garage and having to go out to get it every time you do laundry is not exactly convenient, but doing an audit of all the chemical-based items in your home and removing as many of them as you can is a great starting place. From there, as we talked about above, having an exit (exhaust) strategy is the next best thing.

Having an indoor air quality strategy in place for your home is critical to the health of your home and those living in it. Taking a few steps – some more involved than others can greatly increase the quality of air you are breathing. For more information about exhaust fans, fresh air intake and range hoods, visit the Air King website at airkinglimited.com.

Don’t Fall into Bad Indoor Air Quality

As the trees start to change colors and the leaves fall in many parts of the US, it is important that you don’t allow your home to fall into bad indoor air quality. Many homes across the US have been enjoying having windows open and fresh air coming into the home as well as spending time outside. As cooler weather starts to arrive, those windows close and more time is spent inside rather than outside. While many celebrate the arrival of sweater weather, the indoor air quality of the home might not be considered. The good news is with a few simple considerations, you can turn that bad indoor air quality to good.

Ensure your exhaust fans are in proper working order and are clean.

The changing of seasons can serve as a great reminder to clean your fans. Some simple maintenance can ensure that your exhaust fans operate as expected and extend their life. Make sure to read your specific owner’s manual for proper safety and cleaning procedures. In general, a good washing of the grill and vacuuming out the interior of the fan will do the trick. Having a constant exchange of fresh air into your home is vital for good indoor air quality. As we close and seal up our homes for the winter months, we lose that natural air exchange and the air in our homes becomes stagnant, allowing contaminants such as mold, mildew, germs and more to linger in the air we are breathing. When exhaust fans are working and utilized properly, those contaminates are pushed out of the home.

Check your HVAC air filters.

If you have a central air heating or cooling system, it has an air filter. This should be replaced every 3 to six months depending on usage. If you can’t remember the last time you replaced the filter, or if you are only now realizing that your system has a filter – it’s probably time to change it. Dirty filters will not only contribute to bad indoor air quality, they will diminish the effectiveness of the unit, costing you more money.

Have your HVAC system professionally serviced.

Many homeowners will bypass this to save a few dollars. A good HVAC technician will be able to identify and repair any deficiencies in your unit’s operation. They will check your filter and replace it if needed, they will also ensure the system is working at optimum efficiency. Another benefit of servicing your unit is they will check for any leaks or anything that could be contributing to bad indoor air quality coming from your system.

Add an air filtration system.

For homes that do not have a central HVAC system or for additional air quality to ones that do, adding a portable air filtration unit can be a great option. There are many options on the market today with a wide range of features and costs from something simple like the Lasko FF305 Air Flex to something more advanced like the GermGuardian AC3200 Airsafe+. Our recommendation it to make sure it includes at least a MERV 10 filter. This will filter out most common household contaminates. To learn more about MERV and air filters, click here to read our post Making Sense of What Air Filter to Use.

Monitor and adjust.

While there are products out on the market that will monitor your indoor air quality, we feel the best monitor is you. Does your home feel musty? Does your home have some unpleasant odors? Is everyone in your home getting sick more often? These can all be signs of bad indoor air quality that if you identify them quickly and utilize the points listed above, could have a very simple solution. The longer you let it go, the longer it will take to solve.

The changing of seasons to fall and the beautify landscapes, that brisk air and the return of pumpkin spice (okay, we’ll let you determine if pumpkin spice is a good or bad thing) should be a time of joy and not worrying about indoor air quality. By taking the few steps we outlined above we hope you and your home enjoy a healthy fall and winter. To learn more about indoor air quality, please read through our extensive library of blog posts on the Air King website.

Garage Ventilation

Garage ventilation is something that is very easy to overlook but can have a big impact on your home’s overall indoor air quality. Let’s first look at what is happening in a typical garage and what contaminates are being produce. 

Automobiles

The biggest source of contamination in a garage is almost always going to be a car. While a gas-powered car will certainly produce larger amounts of contaminates in the form of carbon monoxide, electric cars also produce contaminates. Automobile contaminates include off gassing from tires, dirt and debris, fluid or oil leaks and so forth.

Storage

For many, the garage is a storage area for everything from a lawn mower to holiday decorations to paint to spare gasoline and the list goes on. Many of these items produce some unwanted contamination into the air.

Trash

A lot of homes store their trash cans in the garage. While the contaminates mostly are smells (that chicken container that has been sitting for three days in a hot garage), some can be a little more aggressive like oily rags, old cleaners, painting supplies and so forth.

Heat

In the summer months garages can get really hot. That heat can stay trapped in the garage and warm the entire home.

Now that we have identified what is happening in the garage, we need to talk about the types of garages. There are basically three different type of garages and all of them have varying ventilation needs.

Attached Garage with a Room Overtop (FROG)

This is a garage that is integrated in the design of the home. Some refer to them as FROG or Front Room Over Garage. Builder’s use this style to maximize space and add square footage. This building type requires the highest amount of garage ventilation. The reason being that contaminates from the garage can penetrate into the living spaces in multiple ways. Depending on the construction and the amount of contaminates building up in the garage, they can seep into the room above the garage through the floor. Hopefully the home was built with barriers in place to prevent this but unfortunately some are not or those barriers fail over time. A second way contaminates can enter the home is through the attached walls. As with the room above the garage, if not properly constructed, contaminates can seep through the walls. The third and most common way that contaminates can enter the home is through the connecting door. This happens each time the door is opened and a person walks into the home. The process is going to allow contaminates to come in with the air or brought in when people enter. Depending on how tight the door is sealed, this could also be a source where the contaminates are seeping into the home.

Standard Attached Garage

A standard attached garage is going to have all of the same possible points of contamination as the FROG just without the room overtop. While this has the potential to produce less infiltration into the home, there is still a need for garage ventilation.

Detached Garage

A detached garage is one that does not have any connection to the home’s main living areas and therefore will not be a direct source of contamination into the home. The contaminates that you need to be concerned with are only when occupying the space – especially if it is used as a workshop or a place that is occupied for extended times.

Now that we have identified the contaminates and the type of garages, why and how do we to ventilate them? Many argue that a garage is typically not as well sealed as the main living areas so there is significantly more natural ventilation than the rest of the home. An additional argument is that opening the garage door provides all the ventilation that you need. Both points are valid however the amount of contaminates that can build up in a garage may not be able to be properly ventilated through these means. Think about when you walk into the garage after it has been closed for a while. Is there a strong scent of gas, rubber, paint, chemicals and so on? Those are all the contaminates that are building up and are possibly seeping into your home (for attached garages) or you are breathing in when you are in the garage.

Having some type of exhaust fan system in place is the best solution for mitigating these contaminates as well as any heat buildup. A solution like the Air King EWF-180 is designed to vent contaminated air directly out of spaces like garages. If you don’t want a fan running continuously, adding a timer is an option. With a timer you can have the fan operating during the times of day where the most contamination buildup is occurring. While opening widows (if present) is helpful, it will not provide the airflow you need for proper garage ventilation. Having windows open in your garage could also be a security risk. To learn more about Air King’s ventilation solutions, visit airkinglimited.com.

Do I need a Continuously Operating Exhaust Fan?

You might be getting ready to buy your first home, your dream home or even renovating your current home and the builder starts talking about a continuously operating exhaust fan. Your first reaction might be – what’s that? You’re not alone. For many homeowners exhaust fans are something that just comes with the house and not much thought is given to them. As home building has advanced, so has the need for ventilation within the home. Lets take a look at a few reasons you do need a continuously operating exhaust fan, starting with what is it.

What is a continuously operating exhaust fan?

The name is fairly descriptive. It is an exhaust fan that is continuously operating to remove moisture and contaminates from the home and providing multiple air exchanges per day (about one air exchange every 3 hours). To maximize their effectiveness they are typically installed in a central location of the home such as a family or living room. Because they are located in a main living space, they are required to have a very low sound level – less than the sound of your refrigerator.

Why do I need one?

The importance of a continuously operating exhaust fan will depend on the age and construction type of your home. In the paragraph above we talked about air exchanges. This is actually part of the national building code known as ASHRAE 62.2. The purpose of the code is to make sure the air inside the home does not become “stale” and in some cases dangerous. Newer homes are now being built to higher insulation standards, which make the home less susceptible to drafts. This is a good thing. What happens however is that because the house is so tight, it doesn’t allow for fresh air to come in or stale air to get out. This is where the exhaust fans come into play and in some cases a fresh air intake fan. In older homes, they generally have more air leaks and a continuously operating exhaust fan might not be as crucial. A benefit of using an exhaust fan is it puts the control in your hand instead of depending on drafts or other factors to determine the quality of your indoor air.

What should I look for?

As we mentioned, for these fans to be most effective they need to be installed in a centralized room such as a living room or family room. Choosing a fan with a low sound level is important. Exhaust fan sound levels are measured in sones with one sone being about the sound your refrigerator makes. The building code calls for a fan with a sound rating of one sone or below. The lower the sones, the quieter the fan is. A second consideration that is just as important is to make sure the fan has enough airflow. Airflow is measure in CFM or cubic feet per minute. Air King provides an easy calculator along with ASHRAE 62.2 information here. It is important that you have enough ventilation without over powering it and causing a negative pressure in the home (exhausting more air than is coming into the home). A final consideration is that you want an energy efficient fan. Since it will be running continuously, you don’t want it to be a burden on your electric bill. Air King offers a wide range of ENERGY STAR® certified models to fit almost any residential home need.

For more information about Air King exhaust fan solutions as well as continuously operating exhaust fans and ASHRAE 62.2 building codes, visit airkinglimited.com.

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.

Anatomy of Exhaust Fans

Exhaust fans play a pivotal roll in maintaining the indoor air quality of our homes. Utilizing them decreases contaminates, reduces moisture and makes our homes healthier to live in. So how do exhaust fans work?

Having an understanding of how exhaust fans or as they are sometimes called – bath fans work is an important component to making sure they are utilized correctly. The basic principle of an exhaust fan is to take the “bad” air inside your living space and move it (exhaust it) out. That air is then replaced with fresh air. It is a fairly simple concept.

The exhaust fan’s main component is a blower of some type. Lower end units will utilize a fan blade that looks similar to a typical portable fan. Higher end units will utilize a blower wheel or as some people refer to it, a squirrel cage. Blower wheels generally are able to produce more ventilation at a quieter sound level. In either case the wheel or blades turn and generate airflow that is directed through the fan’s duct collar.

The next part of the exhaust fan is the duct collar. Exhaust fans must be ducted to the outdoors and run through ducting in the home to either a wall cap or a roof cap. While these components are not necessarily part of the fan, they are integral components that are required. The duct collar of the fan is connected to the ducting from the home. Ducting can range from 3 inches to 6 inches in typical residential homes. More and more new construction is moving to 6 inch ducting as it provides better airflow with less resistance. It is important to match the ducting size to the size of the exhaust fan. For instance if you have 4 inch ducting but have a 6 inch ducted exhaust fan you will need to reduce the ducting down to fit. This will make the fan work harder, reduce the airflow and increase the sound level.

A second part of the duct collar is the backdraft damper. This is a flap that closes to prevent drafts from coming back into the home. Backdraft dampers are usually either gravity closing or spring loaded. The way they work is when the fan is operating and blowing air out of the collar the force of the air opens the damper. Once the unit is shut off the damper will either “fall” down on gravity type dampers or close with spring-loaded dampers, sealing off the ducting.

The next component of an exhaust fan is the housing. The housing holds everything together and is what is installed into the ceiling. Housings come in many different sizes and are installed in different ways. Common installations include hanger bars that slide into a channel on the housing and then extend out to connect to the ceiling joists. A second mounting type is mounting tabs. These are tabs on the housing that install directly to the ceiling joist. Other mounting types are ones such as with the Air King BFQ series that have a snap-in bracket.

So far all the components we discussed are ones you won’t see once the fan is installed. The one that you will see is the grill. Like housings, grills come in all different sizes and shapes. The grill has a few functions. First is to cover up and protect all the inter workings of the fan. Second is to be aesthetically pleasing - no one wants an ugly hole in their ceiling. Lastly the grill provides a balance of décor and function as it needs to be able to allow enough air to come into the fan without restricting that air.

These are the main components of an exhaust fan. In addition some fans will have extra features like a light, heater function, humidity sensor, motion sensor and more. For more information about the exhaust fans available through Air King visit airkinglimited.com.

A Tight Home Versus Proper Ventilation

When you think of age-old rivalries or battles your mind might go to sports teams or one state versus another but it probably doesn’t go to tight home versus proper ventilation one. That’s understandable, but in the building world it is one that is gaining traction. Let's first look at each side of the battle and get a working knowledge of them.

A Tight Home

A tight home refers to how well the exterior envelope of the home is resistant to air penetration. The tighter the home, the less air it lets in or out. Most people refer to air penetration as “drafts”. In some homes you can feel the cold air in the wintertime seeping into the home. That would not be a tight house. Building technology has come a long way and with the advent of spray foam, house wraps and so forth homes are a lot tighter than they used to be. The reason a tight house is beneficial is that it will hold the warm air inside during the winter and the cool air inside during the summer. This has a direct impact by reducing the heating and cooling costs. Seems like a simple solution and we can end the article here. Well there are some downsides to a tight home. We’ll get to them a little later.

Proper Ventilation

Proper ventilation contributes to the overall indoor air quality of your home. In simple terms it is taking the bad air and contaminates out of the home and replacing it with fresh and/or filtered air. This is accomplished using items like exhaust fans, kitchen range hoods and a fresh air supply unit. So what’s the problem and how is this a battle with a tight home?

The Battle

The battle comes in that homes are being built to do everything they can to not allow air to enter or leave the home. Exhaust fans and fresh air intake are meant to do exactly that. On the tight home side of things, the argument is that you are taking conditioned air and exhausting it out. The same with bringing air into the home, causing extra stress on the HVAC system. This is a valid point, however we need to examine it a bit closer. 

Studies have found that the air inside a home can be up to 5 times more polluted than outside air. How does it get so polluted? Our normal living produces a lot of contaminants. Just think of your typical day. You wake up and take a shower. The shower produces moisture that if left unresolved can turn into mildew or mold. Then you go to the kitchen for breakfast and your morning coffee. Guess what cooking and making coffee does – yep, produces contaminates. Oh and by the way, unless you are holding your breath during all this, breathing produces CO2 that can build up in your home. We are barely alive and haven’t even gotten out of our pajamas (might be a slight exaggeration). Add in pets, cleaners, candles and a hundred more things and you can see how the air can become so polluted.

The solution

So we don’t want to exhaust conditioned air out or bring unconditioned air in, but we also need to get all the bad things out of the house. So what do we do? Here is where we try to make sense of everything. The energy efficiency side is always going to argue for less and the indoor air quality side is always going to argue for more. What we need to strive for is a balance. For most homes, as little as 30 to 50 CFM of exhaust during normal activity is all that is needed. When a shower or the cooktop is in use – a bit more is needed. The key to all of this is that when you utilize mechanical solutions (exhaust fans and air intake units) you are in control. You determine how much, when and where the air comes in or leaves. So instead of annoying drafts, you can direct the air how you want it.

Another way to counteract the energy usage is to utilize energy efficient exhaust fans and air intake units. There are a plenty of models currently on the market that will meet the air movement needed and fit within the budget.

Hopefully this gives you a better understanding of the balance between good indoor air quality and energy efficiency. So the next time you are tempted to not utilize your exhaust fans because you’re worried about “wasting” energy, remember that your indoor air quality is also very important.

For more information about indoor air quality please read through the many blog post Air King has created over the years. For more information about exhaust fans, range hoods or fresh air intake, visit airkiinglimiited.com

Fighting VOCs

If you are reading this post, you probably either have a little bit of an understanding of what VOCs are or at least are interested in finding out why we need to be fighting VOCs. VOC stands for Volatile Organic Compounds. Volatile is not a word generally used in the everyday language and it sounds a little scary. Let's first understand what a VOC is.

Volatile Organic Compounds are all around us in many of the products we use. The most common use is in paint products as well as cleaners. VOCs dilute or dissolve other ingredients in those products to make them more effective. Paint is probably one of the most recognized ones but VOC are also used in items like mattresses and building materials as flame-retardants. A common alternative name for VOCs is off-gas. This happens because VOCs have a high vapor pressure that allows them to evaporate easily. For instance when paint is put on a surface it immediately start to off-gas as part of the drying and curing process, that is what you are smelling. With paint, this off-gas is a byproduct but with items like perfumes and fragrances, the off-gas is part of the design. It is what allows them to “smell” nice for longer periods of time.

Why do we need to be fighting VOCs as the title of this article suggest? Part of the off-gas process means that the “bad” stuff is entering into the air that we are breathing. This can cause minor symptoms like coughing or eye irritation but can also escalate to things like headaches, decreased lung function or a metal fog and in extreme case even more serious health issues.

Now that we have most of the bad news out of the way we can turn our attention to fighting VOCs. The first step is to try and reduce your exposure to VOCs by looking a little closer at the products you are using. Here are a few tips on what you can do:

1. Look for paint that is VOC free or at least low VOC. While these are still going to have some VOCs (even the VOC free ones – sorry), they will be greatly reduced from the standard paints.
2. Look for fragrant-free cleaners and especially laundry detergent. Have you ever gone into your laundry room and been “hit” with the smell of flowers or fragrance – that is your cleaners and/or detergents off-gassing their VOCs into the air. This is usually intensified in a laundry room due to the fact that it is a smaller and typically enclosed room.
3. Avoid items that come in the form of an aerosol. VOCs are detrimental due to them being able to easily enter the airflow. Aerosols by nature put product into the airflow. Aerosols also typically have some type of product like formaldehyde or some of the other nasty chemicals in them.

A second step in fighting VOCs it to look to the ventilation of your home. Having a well ventilated home is essential to having a better living environment. VOCs as well as other contaminates are going to build up in you home. That is part of living. Having a plan in place like a ventilation system and a way to bring fresh air into the home will great reduce your risks and exposure. Even opening a window while cleaning if you can is a great way to help your indoor air quality. Many home are already equipped with exhaust fans in their bathrooms and kitchen. This is great and they should be utilized. More and more homes are now also utilizing a continuous running exhaust fan in a central location of the home. It is actually part of the building code. The goal is to exhaust as much as possible out and then bring fresh air in to dilute anything that remains. Most would agree that these methods make sense and many practice them, here is where a lot of homeowners lose a little sight. For many homes the largest source of VOC’s is typically located in the laundry room. As we mentioned above these rooms are usually small and enclosed so the amount of VOCs that build-up is significant. Adding a small exhaust fan that vents to the outdoors in these rooms can have a tremendous effect on lowering the amount of VOCs in the room.

While we would like to suggest avoiding VOCs all together, that is almost impossible to do in our currently living environment. VOCs in some form or fashion are all around us. Doing what you can to limit your exposure to them is step one, improving your indoor air quality with ventilation and fresh air is step two.

For more information about the indoor air quality of your home and how you can improve it, please read through the many articles we have written over the years. Visit airkinglimited.com for information regarding Air King exhaust fan and fresh air intake solutions.

What is Air Exchanges Per Hour?

When talking about ventilation the term Air Exchanges Per Hour is probably going to come up, but what is it? The simple answer if how many times the air inside your home is replaced by either outside or filtered air per hour. Think of it this way – if you have a glass full of water and you pour it all out, then fill it back up with water you have exchanged the water in the glass one time. The same holds true with air but it is a little more difficult to see.

How is the air exchanged?

Air exchanges take place in one of three main ways.

Exhaust Fans: Exhaust fans are one of the most effective ways to exchange the air in your home. They take the stale indoor air and exhaust it to the outdoors allowing fresh air to replace it. National building codes now require a continuously running fan to be installed in all homes for this very reason.

HVAC system: Your HVAC system also helps provide air exchanges but there are some challenges with using this as the only method. The biggest one is that the system has to be running in order to provide air exchanges. You can set your system to just run the fan, but this is a very inefficient way to exchange air in your home. Another challenge is for this to be effective, the system needs to be drawing fresh air into the home or have filters installed that will take out the “bad” stuff. A good amount of HVAC systems do not draw fresh air in – you can check with your technician. As for the filters, most systems utilize a MERV 6 or MERV 8 filter. These are good for capturing dust and larger particles but when it comes to the stuff we are really trying to remove, they are not as effective. It is recommended that a MERV 13 or above be used, but not all HVAC systems can handle that (see our blog on Filters).

Natural exchange: It sounds so nice – Natural, but there are also some issues with this method. Most of the time this means opening a window or door and letting the air come in. If you have a nice breeze blowing on a moderate temperature day with good outdoor air quality (low pollen, smog, etc.) this is a good way to exchange the air. The big issue is you can’t control how much air is coming in or what is in the air. A second and significant issue it temperature, think Texas in the summer or Minnesota in the winter. Opening doors and windows probably is not an option.

Why are air exchanges important?

A key component to Indoor Air Quality is air exchanges. When we are not properly exchanging the air we allow all kings of contaminates to linger in the air. Think of a smoky bar room. Without any ventilation or air exchanges the smoke just lingers in the air. While hopefully our homes are not full of smoke, they are full of contaminates in the air caused by breathing, cooking, pets, and just general everyday living. Having a plan to continually remove these contaminates is key to better living. 

How many air exchanges per hour should take place?

This is where we come to the great debate. Home many air exchanges are needed, what is too little, what is too much. There is always a balance and as we learn more about our indoor air quality the numbers can change. As of this posting ASHRAE, who sets most of the building standards when it comes to indoor air quality recommends that a minimum of 0.35 air exchanges per hour occur in your home. Other organizations recommend up to 5 per hour. Our thought is that 5 per hour might be a bit extreme and will definitely have a negative effect on the efficiency of the home in that you have to condition all that air coming in to replace the air going out. With that being said, lets examine what 0.35 exchanges per hour looks like. For a 1,000 square foot home with 8-foot ceilings you have 8,000 cubic feet of space. Divide 8,000 by 60 (minutes) to get 133. Now times 133 by 0.35 to get 46.67. This is the amount of CFM you would need to provide the recommended air exchanges per hour. ASHRAE also provides a calculator that is a bit more involved to determine how much continuous ventilation your home needs. You can access the calculator on the Air King site by clicking here.

For more information about the indoor air quality of your home and how you can improve it, please read through the many articles we have written over the years. For information regarding Air King exhaust fan and fresh air intake solutions visit airkinglimited.com.

 

When you walk into a room, office, business or a home do you ever stop and think – is the indoor air safe here. Four years ago our guess is that maybe one in a thousand people would ask that question. Now it might be one out of ten or more. The fact that more people are asking that question is a good thing to our overall health and well-being, the challenge is how do we tell if it is safe or not?

To answer that question we have to look at it a few different ways. There is a scientific method that tests the air for contaminates. Some of these can be fairly low tech/low cost, while others cost a significant amount. One that has gained a lot of popularity is a CO2 monitor. As it’s name suggests, it tells you the level of CO2 in the space at any given time. The lower cost ones just tell you the amount of CO2 at the time of the reading, more expensive ones can actually take multiple reading over the course of time so you can track it and get an average. Why is CO2 important? Since CO2 is what we exhale a monitor can tell us if proper ventilation or a stream of fresh air is coming into the space to dilute the air. This in theory would also give us an indication if other contaminates or viruses are hanging around in the air. For instance: if you are in a room with 20 other people and you get a CO2 reading of say 1000, you know that the room is not ventilated very well and all kinds of “bad” things could be lingering in the air. Now open a window or turn on a ventilation fan and you should see that number drop significantly. The theory being if the CO2 is leaving the room or being diluted so will all those “bad” things as well.

Now we know that most people are not going to walk around taking CO2 readings, especially if you were invited as dinner guests. Talk about awkward. So what are other indicators of poor indoor air quality? Here are a few things to look for or be aware of:

1. What is the size of the room and how many people are in the room – does it feel like you are packed in like sardines?
2. Are there lingering odors (good or bad)? If so, this indicates that the room may not have a good flow of air.
3. Do you see any type of air filtration system or an air purifier in the room? Some of these are easy to see, others are a little more difficult as they might be working behind the scenes like a ventilation fan or fresh air intake system.
4. Are there windows in the room and are they open? Better yet, is there a window fan in them?

Our hope is this gives you a few simple points to help answer the question – is the indoor air safe in the place I am entering. There are a host of other things like asking about the HVAC air filters, what the air exchange rate for the builder is, what is the fresh air mixture for the HVAC and so on. These require a bit more involvement and can not be answered by simply walking into a location and looking around.

While we might not be able to identify a 100% safe location, we can utilize these tips to help reduce risk. The common theme in all of this is that the more ventilation, filtration and fresh air coming into a location, the better. Stagnant, poorly ventilated areas are going to be the highest risk.

For more information about indoor air quality read our other blog posts. For information regarding Air King exhaust fan and fresh air intake solutions visit airkinglimited.com.

Making Sense of What Air Filter to Use

You hear terms like MERV, HEPA and more when it comes to air filters but what do they all mean? It can get a bit confusing. In this post we hope to clear up some of the confusion out there and guide you to what air filter is best in some of the more common locations.

First let's look at the types of filters. The two most common are HEPA, which stands for High-Efficiency Particle Air filter. Sounds fancy. Basically a HEPA filter is the top of the line. It is going to capture the most particles and the “bad” things in the air. Next is MERV, which stands for Minimum Efficiency Reporting Values. MERV filters will also have a number after them like 8, 11, 13, 16 and so on. The number is the key component, as this will tell you how effective the air filter is in capturing particles. The higher the number the more it will capture.

At first glance most people would say it is an easy decision to just use the best, highest rated filter for everything. Unfortunately it isn’t that easy. Air filters are a balance of working efficiently and capturing contaminates. What happens is that the higher the efficiency of the air filter, the more restrictive the airflow through the filter.

That brings us to the main point of this post – what air filter to use. This is a little bit of a trick question. The answer is it depends on the situation. Let's take a look at the more common areas of the home that benefit from air filters.

HVAC System: This is a key component of the home and one you definitely want to get the air filters correct in. The HVAC system is going to provide air to the entire home so it makes sense that we want it to be the best it can be. As we stated earlier the temptation is to utilize HEPA filters then sit back and enjoy all that high quality air floating through the home. Sounds great but most current HVAC systems cannot handle HEPA filters. The filters constrict the airflow and can actually cause damage to the system or reduce the life of the system. We are hopeful that as technology advances so will the filtration systems. So what do we do? Enter in MERV. Most systems can handle up to a MERV 11 filter. While not a HEPA filter it still provides high quality filtration and will remove items like Pollen, Mold, Dust, Pet Dander, and Debris. What are missing from this list are items such as viruses, bacteria and allergens. To filter these out you need to move up to a MERV 13 or higher. You should always consult your HVAC professional to see what the highest rated filter your systems can handle is.

Portable Air Filtering Devises: If the HVAC system is unable to remove some of the more hazardous items or you don’t have a central system, we need to turn to other methods. Room level units are a good alternative. Here is where we go for the gold and you should look for a unit that is using a HEPA filter. There are a lot of these units on the market and they have varied effectiveness. You will also see units with added items like UV, IONs and so forth. The jury is still out a bit on the added technology so our recommendation is to focus on the HEPA air filter aspect of the unit. The downside to these units is they typically can only filter small areas (might need one for each room you use) and the filters can get a bit expensive to replace.

Air Intake Units: Many home, especially newer homes are required to have what is referred to as a fresh air intake system. This is typically a fan that brings outdoor air into the home to replace the air being exhausted out the home. While in most cases an air filter is not mandatory, it can make a very positive impact if it is used. This is also a case where your specific situation will dictate what filter should be used. We have already talked about a HEPA filter but here again we are faced with a HEPA filter restricting the airflow to a point where it may render the unit ineffective. That leads to using a MERV filter, but which one? In general outdoor air can be up to 5 times less polluted than indoor air. This is important because it means the air coming in doesn’t necessarily need to be filtered as much as the air inside the home. One big thing is generally you will not be bringing in viruses from the outdoor air. Most times you only need to be concerned with items like pollen, dust, particles and so forth. A MERV 11 or higher will be fine for that. Now if you live in an area that has high levels of pollution like in or close to a large city or in areas of the country that have wildfires, you might want to consider a MERV 16. MERV 16 filters are able to remove items like smoke, smog and even viruses.

So how do we bring this all together? At the root of this is improving indoor air quality. To do this takes a group effort. Just having good filters in your HVAC system won’t be enough just like having only a portable air filter won’t do it either. Developing a strategy is key. Having a proper ventilation system (bad air out) while bringing in filtered outdoor air will greatly improve the indoor air quality. Now add the highest rated filters you can to your HVAC system as well as a portable air filter and you’re onto something. Air King has developed what we refer to as the Total Home Ventilation system that utilizes air intake and exhaust to create a better living environment. To learn more about the system click here. Also make sure to view portable solutions from our Germ Guardian division.

For more information about the indoor air quality of your home and how you can improve it, please read through the many articles we have written over the years. For information regarding Air King exhaust fan and fresh air intake solutions visit airkinglimited.com.

A lot has been made recently about gas stoves and indoor air quality. Claims are being made that gas stoves can cause health issues and should be banned. Not surprisingly this has create a divide with one side saying absolutely and the other with a no way no how.

One of the key issues at the heart of this debate is that gas stoves produce contaminates during the cooking process including nitrogen dioxide as well as PM2.5 (particulate matter). This is true – contaminates are produced. Now we are not doctors so we are not going to get into the debate of exactly what that means from a health standpoint. We will say this, allowing contaminates to permeate your home is never a good thing no matter what that contaminate is.

Here is where we try and take the middle ground of the two sides of this debate. We agree that gas stoves reduce the indoor air quality of the home, but cooking on electric stoves also produces contaminates (maybe not as many but contaminates are still produced). We also understand that gas stoves are the preferred method of cooking for many people. Our solution – ventilation. We realize your first reaction might be “of course, you’re a ventilation company”. Yes it is true we are a ventilation company but let's look at what is happening during the cooking process.

Our first question is would you set a fire pit in the middle of your living room? Crazy – right, the room would be filled with smoke within a matter of seconds causing you to have to evacuate the house immediately. When a gas stove is used, we are in essence doing the same thing. Now the big difference is that a gas stove is a cleaner burning energy compared to wood so there isn’t the immediate build-up of smoke but the contaminates are still being generated. What needs to happen is for those contaminates to be exhausted out of the house. This is where a properly sized and functioning range hood comes in. Simple – bad air with bad things out, good air in.

The next question we pose is if there is a properly sized and functioning range hood that exhausts to the outside over a gas stove, won’t that greatly reduce contaminate build-up in the home? Even in some of the “shocking” studies that are floating around currently, they agree that ventilation is a key way to improve the indoor air quality.

As we stated earlier, we are a ventilation company so we hope you didn’t expect to get through this entire post without us stating we have the perfect solution? Well we do. Air King produces a wide selection of range hood solutions but here is where we get into the “perfect” solution. Of utmost importance is that the range hood vents to the outside, otherwise it is just recirculating most of those contaminates right back into the home. Second is that the range hood is turned on every time the stove is used – even when baking. A big complaint is always the sound level of range hoods. Don’t worry we have that covered and are almost at that perfect solution we talked about. Third is that the range hood stays on long enough to clear any residual contaminates out that might be hanging around after the cooking is done. Now take any range hood (Air King or others) and you can solve for most of these as many range hoods have the ability to vent to the outdoors, some are on the quieter side and if you keep them on, they will clear the residuals. But we are not satisfied with “good”, we want perfect. Enter in the ECQ and LE series from Air King. Here is what makes them perfect. They vent to the outdoors and they operate at very low sound levels. On low speed they are about the sound your refrigerator makes. Even when you need the full power on high speed they are considerably quieter than other hoods. The “perfect” part is these series have a continuous speed that as named runs constantly. Why is that important? This allows the hood to take care of any residual contaminates that are hanging around as well as if there are any slight leaks from a gas stove. The best part is the sound is barely audible at <0.3 sones (what is a sone – click here). These series are ENERGY STAR® certified and also solve for ASHRAE 62.2 which is an indoor air quality code regarding ventilation of homes.

To bring this all to a close, we fully understand that the debate of gas stoves and indoor air quality will probably rage on for a while. Our request/hope is that we look at all the factors involved before we make wide spread decisions based on some knowledge but perhaps not all the knowledge. Main point, vent your range hood and turn it ON!

For more information about the indoor air quality of your home and how you can improve it, please read through the many articles we have written over the years. For information regarding Air King Range Hood solutions click visit airkinglimited.com.

Ventilation Past Present and Future

If you have ever been in Barcelona and have had the opportunity to visit La Pedrera (Case Milà) built by Antoni Gaudi in the early 1900’s, one of the interesting facts is how Gaudi integrated natural ventilation into his design. Gaudi was a man ahead of his time but he understood that ventilation, even in the early 1900’s was an integral part of the health of the home and it’s residents.

Internal courtyards were integrated into the design of La Pedrera. Each courtyard allowed the residents to open windows inside their apartment for a source of fresh air and cross ventilation as each apartment had access to a courtyard as well as an outside (façade side) window.

If we go back even further we see ventilation coming into play in the 17th century when King Charles I of England decreed that all ceilings must be 10 feet high and windows must be higher than wide to increase ventilation. I guess we can attribute the first building code to Charles the 1st. As we skip though time we see ventilation become more prominent with windows, open courtyards, additional chimneys and so forth.

Then came the big innovation – the advent of what is known as mechanical ventilation. This includes bathroom exhaust fans, kitchen range hoods as well as air intake to assist with the ventilation and balancing of the home. These items became code and are now commonplace in almost all homes across the United States and beyond. They are also required as part of the national building code, which is a great thing.

Unfortunately there has been a recent trend where the importance of ventilation was put to the side a bit as the importance of energy efficient homes was brought to the forefront. It wasn’t that ventilation was forgotten, it was just not as important. The issue was that to build a “tight” home, you didn’t want any air leakage in or out. If you were removing air, you had to replace it and replacing the air caused you to have to condition that air – using more energy. Thankfully it was recognized that while having a tight home with minimum air leakages is great for your energy bill it is not great for your health. Now we are understanding that we need a balanced approach to make sure we have proper ventilation while still maintaining the energy efficiency of the home. This means taking control of the air coming in and out of the home using exhaust fans and air intake products.

As we look to what is next for ventilation, it is great to see that the importance is permeating into our workspaces as well as our residences. More and more offices and public building are realizing there is a responsibility to provide a healthy and safe space. Part of that is making sure the air that is being breathed in those spaces is the best it can be. There have been many studies done showing that a properly ventilated office can actually increase productivity and decrease the number of sick days taken by employees. The interesting thread through the history of ventilation is the simplicity of it – remove the stale indoor air and replace it with fresh air. The methods have changed over the years but the principles have stayed the same.

For more information about Air King’s line of ventilation solutions including exhaust fans, range hoods and fresh air intake, utilize the menu links at the top of this page. Also check out our other posts about ventilation and indoor air quality.

You have probably heard it said one way or another that the first step in fixing a problem is identifying the problem. The same holds true with our home’s indoor air quality (IAQ). Home contaminate identification is the first step on the path to improving it. Here is a list of our top 5 contaminates:

1. It sounds a little silly but one of the largest sources of contaminates in our homes is us. We breath, we bring in contaminates from the outside on our clothing (pollen, dirt, dust, etc.), viruses and so forth. Other than never leaving the house and stopping breathing (not really an option), there isn’t much we can reduce. Maybe leave the dirty shoes outside before coming in the home but not much more. What we need to look at is how to mitigate. A regular cleaning schedule is a good start. Using natural cleaning agents that do not give off harmful gasses is a must, otherwise you might be doing more harm than good. Also a good vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter will prevent you from putting all the “bad” stuff right back into the room. Lastly, having a good system in place to ventilate the home as well as bring in fresh air is a must. The ventilation fans will help remove contaminates replacing them with fresh air coming in.
2. The kitchen and cooking. While there might be some out there that never use their kitchen, our guess is the vast majority do. Cooking is one of the top contributors to bad indoor air quality. You have steam, grease, smoke (some of us more than others) and all kinds of other contaminates generated during the cooking process. If these are not mitigated it cannot only be bad for the indoor air quality, it could also be dangerous. The good news is there is a simple answer – your range hood. Ideally, your range hood should vent to the outdoors rather than return the air to the kitchen after going through a filter. In previous blog posts we listed a lot of reasons why people do not use their range hoods. Moral of the story – USE YOUR RANGE HOOD!
3. You might say – wait, you just told us to clean our homes in the first point. You are correct, but we need to focus on the way to properly clean. Cleaning agents are some powerful things. If you have ever used toilet bowl cleaner, the smell can knock you back a bit. It does its job but it is also giving off more bad gases than you probably want to know about. The same holds true with a lot of the other items we use to clean – furniture polish, bleach, laundry detergent and the list goes on. So we know we need to clean but how do we do it without negatively affecting the IAQ of the home. There are a lot of “natural” cleaners on the market today. We are not necessarily endorsing these as so many make claims but after a little investigating are not as advertised. What we do advocate is utilizing the exhaust fans of the home when cleaning. Do you turn the bathroom exhaust fan on when you clean? If not you should. Even turning the kitchen range hood when you are cleaning in or around the kitchen will help. Slightly opening a window when you can is another easy and effective way to bring fresh air in, diluting the concentration of cleaners.
4. The bathroom. This is another area of the home that is a necessity but can also have a negative effect on your indoor air quality. When we shower it produces moisture. Moisture leads to mildew which leads to mold, which is bad. For the sake of those around you, please continue to shower but lets look at ways to reduce the moisture generated. The number one thing you can do is to properly utilize the exhaust fan. A properly sized and functioning exhaust fan will greatly reduce the amount of moisture in the room. Without moisture it is very hard for mold and mildew to grow. The key is making sure your fan is powerful enough and runs long enough. Exhaust fans have progressed a lot in the past few decades and now you can get them with integrated humidity sensors that automatically turn the fan on when the humidity rises and then turns off when the humidity drops. A mistake many people make is not running the exhaust fan long enough after a shower or bath. In some cases it might take more than an hour to clear out all the humidity that has built up. Air King has a full line of effective and affordable humidity sensing exhaust fans. Opening windows is another solution but you need to be careful. Not sure if you live in a northern state you want to open windows in the middle of winter, same holds true for southern states in the middle of summer.
5. Candles, incense, diffusers. This is probably the one that gets the most push back. We are writing this blog at the beginning of November right in the heart of pumpkin spice season. We enjoy a nice smelling candle as much as the next person but we need to stop and think about what is happening. When we light a candle, or more accurately, burn a candle it is releasing all types of contaminates as well as scents. At its root, we are burning something that releases carcinogens into the air. You might see “Clean burning candles” but generally all that means is the wax gets burned up with the candle instead of dripping all over everything. Another one is “naturally made”. This is great, but it still needs to be burnt. Wood is “naturally” made but if you light a bonfire in your living room, you’re going to have some problems (okay, maybe a little extreme but you get our point). Now if you still want to light candles, a way to lessen the impact on your indoor air quality is to utilize them in well-ventilated areas. Taking a bath? Make sure the exhaust fan is on. If using in the main living area, is there a way to have a flow of fresh air coming in to dilute it?

BONUS: Pets. Yes we love them as they are part of the family but they can be a menace to the indoor air quality of the home. There is the dander, the hair, what they bring in on their fur (pollen, dirt, etc.). Don’t get us wrong, we love pets but it is important to have a strategy to keep their impact on the indoor air quality of the home as little as possible. Oh and guess what, pets benefit from good IAQ as well. The good news is the strategy with pets is mostly the same as the other items we have been talking about, cleaning, proper ventilation and good airflow.

Now, if you have been paying attention, you probably noticed a common theme through all of these points on home contaminate identification – ventilation and fresh air. If you can properly ventilate your home while replacing the stale “bad” air with fresh, your indoor air quality will be the best it can. Now also add in regularly changing your air filters if you have central heating/cooling, you’re really going to see a noticeable difference.

For more information about Air King’s line of indoor air quality solution including exhaust fans, range hoods and fresh air intake, visit airkinglimited.com. Also check out our other posts about indoor air quality.

When is the Cooking Done?

You just finished making your favorite meal for the family and you are about to sit down to enjoy it, but is the cooking done? The first thing you might ask is, do you mean is the meat done or are the vegetables fully cooked? Those are good questions to ask but we are asking if the cooking process is done from a ventilation standpoint.

A mistake a lot of us make is that we immediately turn off the ventilation system as soon as the food comes off the cooktop. The problem with that is the pots and pans we have been using are still emitting contaminates into the air. Think about it, let's say you are sautéing vegetables in a pan. During the cooking process they are emitting items like grease, steam, carcinogens and so forth. All of those items are also gathering in the pan itself. Now you transfer the food to a plate and are done – right? Not really, the pan is still hot and still emitting those items. Sometimes it is really easy to see this playing out as steam or smoke is still coming off the pan even after we have taken everything out. Even the cooking surface it still going to be sending off contaminates as it is still at a high temperature.

Some will depend on what type of cooking you are doing but in general you want to keep your range hood running for 10 to 15 minutes after the cooktop has been turned off. This will give ample time for all of the contaminated generated during the cooking process to be ventilated out. It will also provide enough time for the pots/pans and cooking surface to cool to a point they are no longer producing contaminates.

So why do so many of us turn the range hood off immediately after the active cooking is completed? Our guess is it comes down to one main reason – sound. We get it. Most of the range hoods out there are just plain loud. Here is where we have some suggestions. First, if you are in the market to replace your range hood or are thinking about a kitchen remodel, there are a lot of quiet options when it comes to range hoods. Air King has models that are almost as quiet as your refrigerator.

If a replacement is not in the immediate future, look to use the speed control of your range hood. Almost all range hoods have at least two speeds. During the active cooking process you’ll probably want to use a high setting to effectively clear out as much of the contaminates as possible. Once the active cooking is done, there are less contaminates being released so you can go down to a lower/quieter speed while still effectively ventilating. For the ultimate in kitchen ventilation, Air King offers continuously operating range hoods that operate at an almost silent sound level then have higher settings to effectively clear the air. You can learn more about them here.

A second reason some might be quick to turn the range hood off is energy usage. If the range hood is running, it is using electricity. This is true but once again, we have some answers for that. In general range hoods are fairly efficient as far as appliances go. The good news is that there are many models on the market today that are ENERGY STAR® certified and use a significantly less amount of energy than a traditional range hood, in some case up to 30% less. The lighting can also make a measurable difference. An ENERGY STAR certified range hood is going to use LED lighting, which is usually not more than 11 watts. A traditional hood might use up to 100 watts or more. Now here’s more good news. Even in a traditional hood, changing the lighting to LED is a simple process that can reap immediate benefits without a full kitchen remodel. While the ventilation should run for additional time, the lighting does not need to. You can turn the lighting off at anytime you want, it will not affect the exhaust function of the range hood.

So we come back to the question of when is the cooking done? Our goal of this post it to get you thinking about all the factors that go into ensuring good indoor air quality within your living space as well as getting you to look a little deeper into how you utilize the tools you have.

For more information about Air King’s line of quiet and efficient range hoods, visit airkinglimited.com. Also check out our other posts about continuous operating range hoods and the benefits of range hoods.

What Makes Particulate Matter So Harmful?

A term that has gained popularity lately is particulate matter or as it is sometimes known – PM2.5. So what is PM2.5? They are tiny particles or droplets in the air that are 2.5 microns or less in width. To give that perspective there are about 25,000 microns in an inch. Okay, so we know they are small but how does that affect my health?

Particles that small are able to travel deep into the respiratory tract and end up in the lungs. Our noses are able to trap particles in the 10 micron range. Since PM2.5 are a quarter that size or smaller, they are able to bypass our first line of defense and travel to the lungs. You don’t need to be a doctor to realize that particles getting trapped in our lungs does not sound like a good thing. It’s not. There are short-term health effects such as eye, nose and throat irritation, coughing, sneezing and runny nose. A more serious effect can be shortness of breath. Long-term effects can be even more serious and include lung and heart issues.

So now that we have you completely paranoid about particulate matter let’s take a closer look at where it comes from and how we can lessen exposure. PM2.5 is all around us so completely eliminating it is basically impossible. Main outdoor producers are items that use combustion (burning of fuel) like cars, trucks, construction equipment as well as fires. Unfortunately there are also indoor items that also produce PM2.5. Main culprits are cooking, fireplaces, smoking (as well as second hand smoke) and burning candles. This is why lung cancer is directly linked to smoking as all the particulate matter generated during smoking goes directly into the lungs. While a single particle is way too small to see, we are able to identify concentrations as well as situations that are producing them. Outdoors when the air is hazy and visibility is decreased it could be because of an increase in PM2.5. Urban settings are going to see this more in times of heavy traffic and especially if there isn’t any wind to dilute the build-up of particles. In rural settings heavy pollen counts can cause a similar situation. Increases in wildfires are also a heavy contributor. Fires are especially concerning as wind can blow the smoke hundreds of miles away from the source, affecting a much larger area. Inside it is a little harder to identify. If your kitchen is filled with smoke from burning dinner – yes that is all particulate matter and is fairly easy to identify. The challenge is that during normal cooking you might not be able to identify how much PM2.5 you are producing.

Okay, enough with all the bad stuff. How do we combat particulate matter? As we mentioned PM2.5 is all around us so we need to look for ways to reduce it as best we can. We have been talking about two categories throughout this post – outdoor and indoor. Outdoor is a little harder to control and we need to take a more knowledge-based approach. Most states have a resource that informs the residents of the fine particle levels on a given day. Checking that before going outside can help. If you are in a high level area, avoid things like exercise or anything that will increase your air intake. Maybe postpone that hike until the levels drop. In urban setting, look to schedule outdoor activities on lesser traffic days or times. For instance if you like to run in the city, do it during lower traffic times where you won’t be breathing in as much of the contaminates coming from car exhaust. Same would hold true if you are in an areas that has stagnant air in the morning but then gets afternoon breezes that will carry away or at least dilute a lot of the contaminates.

Indoors is where you have a lot more control. The simple thing to do is stop PM2.5 from being produced. Unfortunately that is a lot easier said than done. We still need to cook and use things like clothes dryers. Eliminating smoking inside (doesn’t help the smoker but will benefit everyone else), stop burning candles, cook less fried foods are all good things. For the rest of the particles the key is to remove or dilute them. The easiest way is to exhaust them out of the house. The biggest contributor to PM2.5 in the home is the cooktop. Having a properly functioning and sized range hood that exhausts to the outside is your best defense. Some range hoods just recirculate the air back into the kitchen and are not effective at removing the particles. Over the counter microwaves, while convenient, do not do a great job of removing particles. Exhaust fans are generally installed in a bathroom, which is great, but they can and should be used in other areas of the home like laundry rooms. With all the exhaust going out, you also need a solution for the air coming in the home. As we discussed earlier, the outdoor air might not be any better than the air going out. Having a fresh are solution that can also filter the air – removing the PM2.5 is critical.

Air King offers solution for all your exhaust and air intake needs. Air King range hoods are perfect for almost all residential kitchens while a full array of exhaust fans offer solutions for any room of the home. Air King fresh air intake solutions offer controlled and filtered air to replace the exhausted air and filter out almost all of the PM2.5 that would come in from the outside (when using a MERV11 or MERV16 filter).

For information about fresh air or ventilation solutions visit airkinglimited.com.