Ross and Witmer 
Home ventilation is no longer a separate issue from heating and cooling. In today’s energy efficient house, adequate ventilation takes equal priority in the process of keeping your house comfortable and maintaining healthy indoor air quality.
When houses were built to lower efficiency standards, air exchange with the outdoors occurred haphazardly through cracks and gaps in the structure. In a tightly-sealed energy-conserving home, however, ventilation doesn’t happen unless it’s mechanically assisted with fans or other methods.
Keeping your house well ventilated reduces the accumulation of toxic contaminants that can actually make indoor air more polluted than the outdoors. Here are three home ventilation tactics that help replace stale air with fresh.
Exhaust Fans
Installed in bathroom ceilings and kitchens, these fans provide spot ventilation. While exhaust fans are inexpensive and standard equipment in most homes, they only address ventilation issues limited to certain areas only. In addition, exhaust fans only take tainted air out of enclosed areas without any mechanism to add equal amounts of fresh air.
Supply Ventilation
A standalone option called a central fan integrated supply (CFIS) system brings fresh air into the home and utilizes the existing HVAC blower and duct system to distribute it throughout living spaces. Connected to the return duct, the system draws in a ratio of fresh air and mixes it with circulating house air to reduce temperature variations. The CFIS controller can activate the house blower independent of the furnace or A/C to provide ventilation only when desired.
Heat Recovery Ventilation
A heat recovery ventilation (HRV) system utilizes dedicated ductwork to remove stale air from rooms like utility rooms and kitchens while adding an equal volume of fresh outdoor air to bedrooms and family rooms. In addition to maintaining neutral indoor air pressure, the HRV incorporates a heat exchanger installed in the central control unit that transfers heat energy from warm outgoing air to incoming fresh air to minimize heat loss in winter. In summer, heat is removed from incoming air and added to the exhaust stream.
For more details on available home ventilation options to clear the air, contact Ross & Witmer. We proudly keep Charlotte area homeowners comfortable year-round.