We’re lucky to experience relatively mild winters on average in Peachtree City. Every now and then, we even get to turn off the heating and open a window or two when the weather is mild. But during cold spells, the air in our homes can get mighty stuffy, as we keep the heating on and the windows closed. There are ways to freshen your home’s air in the winter, however, with the following ventilation options.

Fresh Air From a Window

If you have an older home, you may have cracks and crevices that allow a bit of fresh air to move inside. Although this isn’t an efficient way to ventilate, at least your indoor air quality is probably better than that in an airtight home. You can open windows a bit during the winter, just long enough to let stale air out, and let fresh air in.

Exhausting Stale Air

Bathroom and kitchen exhaust ventilation systems are often recommended to get rid of damp air in areas where moisture is likely to build up, causing mold and other problems. The air in these areas is also often stale, retaining cooking and bathroom odors. Exhaust ventilation should be ducted to the outdoors, rather than into the attic or between joists in the ceiling, where moisture can collect and rot drywall. This type of ventilation is also helpful in the summer, in that it lowers humidity in the home.

Whole Home Ventilation

Three basic types of whole-home ventilation are as follows:

• Balanced ventilation, if installed correctly, sends as much air in the home as it removes so that equal pressure is maintained.
• Supply ventilation pumps fresh air into the home, but creates a pressure imbalance since no stale air is being removed.
• Energy recovery ventilation is more efficient than other systems in that it removes heat from heated air before it is exhausted outside, and puts it in the cold fresh air supply that is being pumped inside the home.

The experts at Powers Heating and Air can help you explore ventilation options for your Peachtree City home.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Peachtree City, Georgia and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Guide or call us at 770-487-2040.