Ventilation and Pollution in your home

Household pollutants

There are many different types and sources of pollution in the home, including:

Moisture generated by people, mainly with cooking and washing, and approximated as 5 litres / person / day.

Carbon monoxide and oxides of Nitrogen typically from combustion appliances.

Volatile Organic Compounds, or VOC’s coming from aerosols and formaldehyde from MDF in furniture.

Allergens, including dust mites, although more due to their waste. Inhalation of this waste can trigger asthmatic reactions for those with breathing difficulties.

Odours, including cooking, people, pets and not forgetting the artificial scents used to mask the natural odours.

CO₂ from people and pets breathing, as well as from combustion appliances.

Tobacco Smoke, though thankfully this is becoming less of an issue with less smoking in the home.

Ventilation

Ventilation is a most effective way of protecting people from household pollution. (except for smoking). It is water vapour considered to be the most significant household pollutant in the home. It is also very important we consider ventilation in combination with energy efficiency similar to the Building Reg’s Part F. This is why we need an efficient and effective ventilation system that does its job day in and day out.

Should anyone ever advise you to simply to “turn up the heating and open windows” to stop condensation and mould, stop listening. This kind of advice demonstrates they don’t know how to deal with the issue and they should be ignored. Opening a window in the winter months certainly offers some ventilation, but it is totally uncontrolled. Uncontrolled ventilation like this leads to transient condensation inside the property, leaving the moisture indoors.

With transient condensation, conditions appear improved after opening windows, but has achieved little. We need our homes to have a suitably controlled ventilation system fitted to deal with its required air movement. The most common style of ventilation in homes is extract ventilation from where the pollutant (usually considered water vapour) is created, i.e. in each of the “wet rooms”. The wet rooms are classified as bathrooms, kitchens, utility rooms and WC’s, usually having either intermittent or continuous extraction.

We will not be looking at any other domestic ventilation systems here, but even these basic systems need proper commissioning following installation. When looking at ventilation requirements, we refer to Building Regulations Part F for the relevant recommendations. If we have followed the Building Reg’s guidance, all should be well, if it is not then contact us as we have another issue in the home needing urgent attention by way of a full survey from Damp Checks.

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Ventilation and Pollution in your home