Screening and Ventilation: Keeping Insects Out While Maintaining Airflow
A building, like your home or office, works together as a system. This system that works together to keep you and your family sheltered, warm, cool, and healthy. To maintain this system, it is important to get good ventilation.
Good ventilation helps keeps your home safe from many pollutants, ensures that there is adequate fresh air, and it even help influence your home's energy efficiency.
Ventilation and Air Flow
A fresh air flow throughout your home ensures that any stale, damp air does not become a threat to your health or your home. Fresh air flow sweeps away old air and replaces it with fresh, clean air free of dust or the unwelcome contaminants or bacteria that can be generated in your home.
Good indoor air quality in your home ensures that indoor pollutants are removed, especially harmful ones like the contaminants released by cooking with a gas or electric stove.
Air flow also helps remove any built-up odors or humidity that accumulates throughout a lived-in home. Replacing dull, stagnant air with fresh air is especially helpful for pet owners who struggle to keep pet odors and dander from their home.
How to Ventilate Your Home in Winter
Not many people hesitate to throw open their doors and windows during a warm spring day. A cool breeze is always welcome on a hot summer day, even if it can be enjoyed for just a moment. But in the winter, it is not a welcome thought to invite fresh air into our homes when it arrives with a strong, cold bite. In some areas, it can get so cold outside that the air immediately hurts any exposed skin.
It may be uncomfortable, but it is important to ventilate properly all year long. If it is especially cold in your area, grab your thickest sweater and your favorite hat because it is still important for your health and your home to ventilate at least once a day, even in the winter. Follow the tips below to ensure you are ventilating your home in the winter.
Ventilate every day.
To ventilate your home, open a window or door on each level of the home. It is only necessary to leave the window door open for a few moments, especially if your area is experiencing extreme heat or cold. If a level is especially large or has many separate, secluded areas, consider opening more than one window or door.
By opening a window or a door to ventilate, you are creating a cross-draught. This cross-draught means that old, stale air will be pushed out of the home and replaced by fresh, clean air.
Consider an open window at night.
Think about leaving a window in your bedroom cracked each night, a tiny bit, so that the air in your home circulates while you sleep. Some people experience an added benefit of a more comfortable night of sleep when they leave a window cracked.
When considering leaving a window open, it is always a good idea to assess the effects it will have on your energy efficiency, outdoor air quality, and other factors before deciding what is best for you and your family.
Use fans to help with air flow.
Opening windows and doors to the outside may not completely alleviate air flow issues for some people, especially for some of those areas that are prone to dampness.
Bathrooms are often a hot spot for gathering moisture and damp, stagnant air. In areas like bathrooms and other spaces prone to mold, it is important to be preventative and offer effective and daily ventilation. Because bathrooms are often more secluded and often to not have windows, using a fan to encourage air flow is a great way to prevent mold and other issues.
Install a ventilation system.
If your current ventilation system is outdated or is no longer working to ventilate your home properly, you may decide to install a ventilation system. When preparing to choose your system, choose to work with a company that generates trust and experience in proper ventilation.
Pests and Air Vents and HVAC Systems
Chances are, your ventilation and HVAC systems have vents that are open to the fresh air outdoors. Unfortunately, this is a welcoming offer to pests to enter your home, especially if you do not have insect screens for air vents.
Inserting insect screens for vents in your home is relatively easy and there is a wide selection of insect screens that will fit virtually any air vent in or around your home.
Other ways you can prevent insects from entering via your air vents and HVAC system include:
- Sealing any ductwork around your home
- Maintaining cleanliness of your HVAC system and any insect screens you install
- Sealing holes or gaps that may be around your system or air vents
- Scheduling regular maintenance of your system
- Removing any standing water or debris around your HVAC system
- Changing any filters regularly
I Have a Pest Problem. What Now?
If you discover pests in your home, it is important to act quickly. Some pests, like cockroaches, bed bugs, and termites, multiply quickly. If you spot one, it is best to assume there are more lurking about and to contact a professional today.
At MosquitoNix®, we have expert technicians ready to help you control and prevent any insect issues you may have. Our PestNix™ option is a full-service pest solution that uses both conventional and eco-friendly pest control techniques. For over 30 years, we have been trusted across the region to assist families and business owners control pests and protect properties. Call us today to get a free estimate.
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