Indoor air quality is often sacrificed in the interest of a tightly sealed house that keeps inside air in and outside air out. While this is a worthy strategy for saving energy and reducing utility costs, it’s also a recipe for stale indoor air that continuously recirculates airborne and pollutants. One solution? Buying a ventilating fan.
Tightly sealed homes definitely improve your energy efficiency. However, your comfort levels also take a hit because humidity concentrates in an air-tight home. Excessive interior humidity reduces the cooling effectiveness of air conditioning in summer and causes living spaces to feel clammy during winter. However, buying a ventilating fan can help you maintain the balance of air quality and energy efficiency in your home.
Furthermore, buying a ventilating fan enables you to control ventilation in specific areas without losing your costly conditioned air. Ventilation fans are sized according to air changes per hour (ACH), and for the following typical locations in which you’d install a fan in your home, the ACH recommendations are:
- Bathrooms: 8 ACH
- Kitchens: 15 ACH
- All other rooms: 6 ACH
For residential installations, ventilating fans generally are available in several mounting configurations:
- Ceiling mount: This is the most simple installation option, and sees the exhaust going through a duct to a roof vent.
- Inline mount: In this installation scenario, you mount the fan at a remote location, such as in your attic, and then connect it to an intake grille in the ceiling by a flexible duct. This type of installation is recommended for situations in which you want to reduce noise or where insufficient clearance exists in the ceiling for the fan unit.
- Wall mount: You mount the fan on an exterior wall and vent it directly through the wall to the outdoors. This installation option requires no ductwork.
- Exterior: You install the fan unit externally, on your roof or an outside wall, and it pulls air out of your home through ducts. Because the fan is located outside, this is your most quiet installation option.
- Kitchen range: This installation option sees the range hood installed above cooking surfaces. These fans exhaust cooking odors, as well as water vapor produced by cooking, a major source of household humidity.
For more information about buying a ventilating fan and the correct installation option for your needs, contact the experts at Roth Heating & Cooling. From Vancouver to Salem, and Hillsboro to Bend, we’ve been your full-service heating and air conditioning company since 1976.
