Majority of UK homeowners spend a lot of time blocking draughts in their homes. However, blocking all air from entering and leaving your home can have a negative effect on its atmosphere. It can stop air from circulating properly, causing bad smells. Smoke and cooking odours to linger and leading to damp and mould if the problem isn’t dealt with promptly.
When looking at your home's ventilation, it’s important to find the right balance. Make sure air can travel freely in and out of your property without wasting money by letting heat escape.
- The benefits of good ventilation
- Quick ways to ventilate your home
- How can I improve my home’s ventilation in the long term?
The benefits of good ventilation
The average person breathes in 12,000 litres of air a day (that’s the equivalent of 150 bathtubs full). Good ventilation ensures that the air you breathe doesn't contain indoor air pollutants. These include cooking odours, smoke, and carbon dioxide. This is particularly important if members of your family have breathing problems, or have allergies. A well-ventilated home can also have a positive effect on your mentality. Poor air quality has a negative effect on concentration levels.
Ventilation is especially important in the kitchen and bathroom. Too much moisture in the air hitting cold surfaces causes condensation, which can lead to damp and mould. The average family produces 10 litres of moisture a day, so to avoid this building up, and to save you money on repair costs, it’s important to ventilate your property.
It's also crucial to ensure that there is proper ventilation in any room containing a gas appliance. All gas appliances need good ventilation, as without enough oxygen around to burn they can produce carbon monoxide. Old boilers need particular attention. They suck air from the room and expel it outside, reducing the air quality of the room. To avoid this, either make sure that your boiler is regularly serviced, or to upgrade to a newer model.
Quick ways to ventilate your home
The first and most obvious ventilation solution is to open the windows:
- In the kitchen when you’re cooking dinner
- In the bathroom when you’re having a bath or shower
- In any rooms when you’re hanging clothes out to dry.
It's also important to ensure that you keep the door to the room closed. This will keep the cool air restricted to the room you’re ventilating, saving on heating costs. It'll also stop steamy air from causing condensation problems in the rest of your home.
To keep air flow freely through your house, you should keep the internal doors in your property open. This will stop bad smells from lingering in your home. Closing the doors that lead nowhere, like wardrobe or pantry doors, will keep air moving through the space rather than becoming trapped. You can also help the air to flow by turning on a ceiling or desk fan. Using a ceiling fan can actually save you money, especially if you have high ceilings. It will blow the warm air that has collected at the top of the room back down to ground level, allowing you to turn down the central heating.
You should air out your home as often as you can. During the winter, try to open your windows three times a day. Ensure that your central heating is off at the time. If you work full time, you may only get the opportunity to do this at the weekend, but it will make a real difference to the air quality of your home. If your windows have vents, always leave them open. They will make little difference to the heating levels in your home, but will allow fresh air to get in.
How can I improve my home’s ventilation in the long term?
If you don’t already have one, install an extractor fan above your kitchen hob. You should use it whenever you’re cooking. Make sure it links up to an exterior vent, instead of recycling the air that it sucks in. If your kitchen is humid you may also want to turn on the extractor fan when you boil the kettle. You’ll need to maintain your extractor fan to keep it in top condition, as it can easily become clogged up with grease. Try to clean it once every few months with a degreasing solution and some warm water. If you own an extractor with charcoal pellets, change them at least once a year as they can only absorb so many pollutants from the air before they stop being effective.
An extractor fan should also be installed in the bathroom. Run it whenever you’re in the room to reduce condensation and get rid of bad odours. If you’ve had a particularly steamy shower, let the fan run for another half an hour after you leave the room. Like kitchen fans, extractor fans in the bathroom can become dirty and clogged. Clean the filter twice a year to keep your bathroom ventilated and smelling fresh.
If you can, it may be worth adding structural ventilation to your property. Vents from the main part of your house into the loft and vents in the roof can help air flow. It can also prevent problems like dry rot, which can be caused by warm air from other parts of the house settling in the loft. If you have a basement in your property, make sure it’s well ventilated too. These areas are often dark and moist - a haven for mould. However, should you find your basement or roof isn’t well ventilated, avoid hammering at the structural parts of your home yourself. You could cause some serious damage; it's best to call in a professional to save you money in the long-run.
