Ventilation Requirements For Allergens

When looking at ventilation for your own home, any action you take should be guided by modern building regulations, which are designed to make sure there is sufficient ventilation to reduce potential damage due to condensation and to promote better interior air quality.

Following the advice in Step 1 should be satisfactory for most homes, but see Step 2 if you have an allergy sufferer in your home. Step 3 provides an excellent level of ventilation, but the cost involved needs to be considered critically against any extra health benefits.

Step 1

• Install extractor (exhaust) fans in the kitchen and bathroom and fit air grilles (tickle ventilators) into window frames of bedrooms and living rooms, or fit security locks that allow windows to be left safely ajar.
• Leave bedroom trickle ventilators open in all but the coldest, windiest weather to ensure a supply of outside air to help keep humidity low.
• Fit an overrun timer to the bathroom extractor (exhaust) fan and use it every time you have a bath or shower. Turn the fan on before the tap (faucet).

Step 2

• Add a single-room ventilation unit to critical rooms, for example the bedroom of an asthmatic.

Step 3

• Consider mechanical ventilation with heat recovery.
• If this is not possible, install a partial-house system serving upstairs only.
  

Following the guidelines given in the box (see above), the action in step 1 should be enough for most homes. You may want to add a single-room ventilation unit to the bedroom of someone with an allergy (step 2), while step 3 is usually only carried out when remodelling your house.

Each room of your home should have some form of "rapid" and "background" natural ventilation. Rapid ventilation can be provided in the form of an opening window. This is not difficult in most rooms, but some toilets and bathrooms may have fixed windows or none at all. In this case, you will need to fit an extractor (exhaust) fan.

Background ventilation is provided by a small opening that can be left open - one that does not let in rain or burglars. In homes with modern windows, this will usually be a trickle ventilator - a small air grille set into the window frame. In other homes, you may need to install trickle ventilators or put in security locks that allow windows to be left safely ajar.



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