Why is good ventilation important?
Healthy indoor air is crucial in terms of well-being
People spend up to 90% of their time indoors and breathe thousands of litres of air each day. Ventilation aims at creating healthy and cosy indoor air in the building. Healthy indoor air is crucial in terms of well-being, even though it is not as concrete as food, water or motion.
It is important to pay attention to the exchange of air for the following reasons.
- Cooking, dishwashing, washing, taking a sauna bath, washing clothes and breathing produce humidity, smokes and odours that are eliminated efficiently by ventilation.
- Low oxygen content causes headaches and fatigue. Efficient ventilation keeps the carbon dioxide level sufficiently low and makes the residents feel better and more active.
- Ventilation removes the emissions caused by construction and furnishing materials from indoor air.
In the traditional way of building, indoor air quality was taken care of with the help of natural ventilation, based on pressure differences caused by the differences in height and temperature and by the wind. The pressure difference made stuffy air and humidity go out via the flues, whereas fresh replacement air came in as leaks through window chinks or openings built for replacement air.
In homes built or renovated in the modern way to be tight, natural ventilation is no longer a sufficient way of guaranteeing good indoor air. Today’s living habits lead to a high humidity load indoors as it is usual to take a shower several times a day and clothes are washed and dried indoors. As the vapour barrier and tight windows do not let fresh air in, humidity cannot escape. It is therefore necessary to deal with ventilation mechanically.
Modern mechanical ventilation does not waste heat
Today most mechanical ventilation systems are equipped with heat recovery. Heat is recovered from the air to be removed from indoors and is used to heat the fresh air coming in as well as the outdoor air that is filtered clean. Because of this, draught and the heating of the cold air coming in through leaks are avoided.
The annual efficiency of heat recovery reveals how much heat from extract air can be used for heating outdoor air. Vallox ventilation units have an excellent annual efficiency of heat recovery. Combined with the small consumption of electricity, the units guarantee healthy and comfortable indoor air at a small cost.
You can increase comfort by choosing automatic ventilation. Vallox SE and MV models can be equipped with sensors that measure humidity or carbon dioxide content indoors and adjust ventilation automatically as needed.
If air in the bedroom stays fresh till morning, the washing rooms get dry quickly and the windows do not fog up, your dwelling has proper ventilation.