Does a house need to breathe or do the occupants need to breathe?
Social habits and deep-rooted myths conflate to the point where many homeowners penalise their comfort, pay significantly more in utility bills and penalise their indoor air quality by keeping a window open year-round. The greater the difference between inside and outside conditions, the more expensive to the homeowner with no health benefits.
Sisyphean task: An AC does two things for our comfort in priority sequence; 1st – dry the air in the room and 2nd – lower the temperature. Note the AC in the left window takes humidity out of the air and the open window on the right brings in more hot, humid ‘fresh air.’
Myth 1: Keeping a window open all the time is good for health.
There are two points to consider; depending on outside air quality, the occupant may be bringing in more ‘bad air’ than ‘fresh air.’ The second point is that thousands of Canadians have this habit and ironically, its usually is a sign of discomfort often due to poor HVAC design (misplaced or absent controls, leaky or small distribution system) where home owners will be spurred on to open window “a crack” year-round.
Myth 2: Houses need to breathe.
People need to breathe fresh air, houses don’t. Full stop.
To ensure fresh air in a home, the best strategy is to build an air tight house, with a great distribution system, easy to control and have a fully ducted Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV). An HRV if installed correctly does a couple of things, it brings in a measured dose of outside fresh air and strives to keep the inside air at the same temperature.