There’s increasing awareness that as we design our homes to be more airtight and energy and heat efficient, we are risking the quality of air indoors and the health of people who live inside them. Ventilation is taking on a new level of importance as we look to improve the quality of life for people and look to reduce the problems that go with sealing our homes to the outside world, as Andy Murie, marketing director at Nuaire explains.
Sadly, many people take indoor air quality for granted. It’s obvious that people would never drink brown water from a tap in the kitchen as it is visibly dirty, yet what is the condition of the air that they are breathing right now?
Energy efficiency, reduced energy usage and as a result, reduced emissions are all well and good of course, but making buildings ever more air tight without adequate ventilation, can create problems for the future. And the not too distant future at that.
There is a common misconception that insulating and heating a home will prevent condensation. It’s part of a wide ranging lack of understanding of the principles of ventilation that’s at the heart of the problem of poor indoor air quality.
On average, 12-13 air changes per day are required to keep moisture levels low. Without adequate ventilation, humid conditions encourage mould spores to germinate and dust mites to breed, aggravating asthma and allergic symptoms. For residential properties individual extract fans are aimed at lowering humidity, but if they don’t meet the current building regulations or only run intermittently, then condensation can still occur.
So what is the solution to poor indoor air quality in our homes and the miseries that go with it – condensation, mould growth and pollutants?
We have recently seen the campaign called ‘My Health, My Home’ which highlights the issues around indoor air quality at home. Take a look at www.myhealthmyhome.com and then sign the healthy air petition. It’s a serious issue that needs planning and awareness raising. Especially as it’s such an obvious one when you think about it in the clear light of day
What is clear, and makes huge sense, is that we need to make sure there is sufficient ventilation to ensure we all remain healthy. In built up or industrial areas, this may even mean we treat the air coming into our homes before it circulates, to remove pollutants.
Rather than address these issues head on, due to a lack of understanding about adequate ventilation, there is a tendency to do so retrospectively and address the problems when they arise.
People may wait for mould to grow and condensation to affect newly insulated homes and then seek a solution, rather than planning for the likely outcome of the work we’ve had done to our houses.
At this time of year we are heading into the ‘condensation season’ which tends to run from September to February each year. At the first cold snap across the UK, condensation issues begin to raise their ugly heads.
It’s really essential to get ventilation right in all types of buildings. Not just our homes but buildings like schools and healthcare developments, as well as offices and other commercial buildings. The problems with indoor air quality are pretty simple to see when you look for them.
So what should we be looking for? For new homes, it could be about providing carbon filtration on its MVHR ventilation systems at the entry level to a property – which would filter the incoming air from the outside of the building. Particularly in urban areas, the levels of toxins – in particular nitrogen dioxide and particulates from heavy traffic – can cause havoc, so need to be addressed.
For existing properties, it’s often about having a retrofit solution that does not require massive renovation to the walls and ceilings. In our homes the option of positive input ventilation (PIV) works well here.
PIV sees air pushed into the building at a constant rate, forcing air circulation around the interior. A properly installed unit will ensure that old, contaminated and moisture-laden air in the property is continuously diluted, displaced and replaced with good quality, fresh air. The result is an environment in which condensation dampness cannot exist, and where allergens and pollutants are kept to a minimum. More importantly this solution is easy and quick to fit, so minimal disruption is required to get good indoor air quality.