Making your indoor environment airtight saves on energy costs, but it can come with unintended consequences if your home or business lacks a good ventilation system. Some unhealthy agents might be sealed up inside along with you: radon gas, formaldehyde from fabrics and furnishings, humidity that could damage your home, odors and fumes from household chemicals, to name a few.

Good ventilation — circulation of indoor air as well as exchange of air from inside to outside — helps maintain healthy living and working spaces. The unhealthy agents are reduced, and oxygen is replenished. A balance of fresh air and safe humidity levels can help alleviate allergies and sinus or respiratory problems.

There are several ways to exchange air.

• “Natural” ventilation simply means opening doors or windows — easy, but sometimes impractical during extreme temperatures and difficult to control. Natural ventilation exchanges an unknown amount of cooled air for fresh air, and your cooling system has to recondition that fresh air.
• Using an exhaust fan or fans to expel bad air outside through an opening is called “spot” ventilation. Spot ventilation alone, like natural ventilation, can be impractical and difficult to control.
• “Whole-house” ventilation uses a system of fans and ductwork to most efficiently balance fresh air with conditioned indoor air. It also monitors humidity, keeping it in a healthy range. Controlling the air exchange can save money by lowering the costs of heating and cooling the fresh air. And a whole-house system works 24 hours a day.

Whole-house ventilation systems come in a range of shapes and sizes. If you’re exploring the idea, we at Conditioned Air would be happy to answer questions and discuss how a system could work for you. Contact us today or anytime. We serve clients in Naples, Marco Island, Bonita Springs, Fort Myers, Cape Coral and Southwest Florida.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about ventilation and other HVAC topics, click here to download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

You know when your A/C is working too hard to keep you cool—your energy bills during these sweltering Florida summers tell the story.  The fact is, there are ways to minimize the energy it takes to stay cool this summer.  One way to do this is to use circulating fans in conjunction with your air conditioning.

Circulating fans are essentially low-tech mechanical ventilation devices.  They include ceiling fans, table fans, floor fans, and fans mounted to poles or walls. These fans create a wind chill effect that will make you more comfortable in your home, even if it’s also cooled by natural ventilation or air conditioning. Ceiling fans are considered the most effective of these types of fans, since they circulate the air to create a draft throughout the room.

If you use air conditioning, a ceiling fan will allow you to raise the thermostat setting about 4°F with no reduction in comfort.  Install a fan in each room that needs to be cooled during hot weather.  Turn off ceiling fans when you leave a room.  Why?  Because the wind chill effect created by these fans cool people, not rooms.  Wind chill, by definition, is a cooling effect on the surface of the skin.

Ceiling fans are only appropriate in rooms with ceilings at least eight feet high.  Fans work best when the blades are 7–9 feet above the floor and 10–12 inches below the ceiling.  For best cooling effect, fans should be installed so their blades are no closer than 8 inches from the ceiling and 18 inches from the walls.

As common sense dictates, larger ceiling fans can move more air than smaller fans.  A 36- or 44-inch diameter fan will cool rooms up to 225 square feet, while fans that are 52 inches or more should be used in larger rooms.  Multiple fans work best in rooms longer than 18 feet.  Small- and medium-sized fans will provide efficient cooling in a 4- to 6-foot diameter area, while larger fans are effective up to 10 feet.

A more expensive fan that operates quietly and smoothly will probably offer more trouble-free service than cheaper units.  Check the noise ratings, and, if possible, listen to your fan in operation before you buy it.

When used in conjunction with your A/C, circulating fans can actually make the room feel cooler by making you feel cooler.  Another benefit of fans is the fact that they allow you to set your thermostat higher while running your A/C and still feel comfortable.  This saves you money on your energy bill and keeps your A/C components from working too hard and wearing out early.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about circulating fans, air conditioning and other HVAC topics, click here to download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Conditioned Air services Southwest Florida including cities Marco Island, Ft. Myers or anywhere in between.  To get started, check out our website or see our special offers.