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How to get fresh air ventilation inside house?

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Jayt
Jayt Member Posts: 5
in A-C, Heat Pumps & Refrigeration
Fresh air ventilation is required inside house if house is surrounded by big buildings.

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  • pecmsg
    pecmsg Member Posts: 4,845
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    Also if sorrounded by forrests or Water!
    RobG
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,280
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    Fresh air is definitely required! I well recall what happened in the 1970s, when people started really tightening up old structures to save energy. Indoor air quality got to be a real problem. Older structures are not sufficiently tight to cause trouble, but older ones which have been "improved" can be, and new super-insulated ones can really be trouble.

    The obvious solution -- open a window -- is not particularly energy efficient, and so frowned on.

    The less obvious solution is controlled makeup and exhaust air for the building, giving an appropriate number of air changes per hour for the usage. The only really reliable and controllable way to do this that I've run into is through air to air heat exchangers on dedicated, controlled intake and exhaust ducting. They come in two flavours -- sensible and latent. The latter capture the higher indoor absolute moisture content and recycle it into the building, and are therefore a good bit more efficient. However, in the process they also capture a considerable fraction of the indoor air contamination, so I don't really care to use them. Sacrifice some efficiency for better air quality.
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • jonny88
    jonny88 Member Posts: 1,139
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    I have a real life story I will share.Contractor built his house.He spray foamed everywhere even between floors.Very tight house.In comes plumber.No heat loss.Series 2 Burnham I believe 140k btuh with indirect and 11 heating zones.He moved in and one night he heard his carbon monoxide alarms go off.He got irritated at sound and disabled alarms.He told plumber whom I know.Plumber asked me to go take a look.Boiler room 13x6 with a 4inch penetration to outside.I did the old smoke test and I have never seen a boiler blow back so much smoke but then someone opened basement door and smoke started going up chimney then the front door was opened and an even better draft.Plumber asked me to run a 7inch pipe from outside to boiler room.I spoke to someone I know and said it wont work but plumber knew better.After a screaming match 7 inch pipe was run.Fired boiler closed basement door and no draft.Fan in can was the answer.Dont guess on this stuff get someone with proper tools on combustion and know what they are doing.
    4Johnpipe

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