Proper ventilation keeps the air fresh and healthy indoors. Like the lungs, homes need to be able to breathe to make sure that fresh air comes in and dirty air goes out. Air indoors can build up high levels of moisture, odors, gases, dust, and other air pollutants.
Properly airing your house is absolutely essential. In particular, it: eliminates domestic pollutants (solvents, maintenance products, glue, ammonia, fungus spores and mould, etc.) reduces tobacco pollution.
Prevailing wisdom is that at least 5 minutes—and ideally 15 to 20 minutes—a day of ventilation significantly improves indoor air quality. For a strong ventilation, open the front and back door, along with windows on the path in between, to get the baddies out.
How Long Should You Air Out Your House For? Fifteen minutes to half an hour is what you should aim for. The air in your home has pollutants at any given time, so that should be enough time to get rid of them. It's important to give your home a chance to let good, clean air in.
Poor ventilation will result in an eventual build up of carbon dioxide and little oxygen, which means you could suffer from shortness of breath, headaches and fatigue.
Health conditions. Worse again, high levels of relative humidity affects the concentration of volatile organic compounds in the home and prolonged exposure to these compound leads to terrible health conditions such as eczema, nervous system damage and cancer. So we do need ventilation, and good ventilation.
Carbon dioxide will cause us to feel tired and dizzy if we have too much of it in the bloodstream. If you must sleep in a windowless room, then make sure it is properly ventilated. Keep its door open and improve your house's air circulation with smart fans' placement.
When windows are kept closed and there is insufficient air circulation inside, condensation can form on the panes. If ignored, this moisture can create serious problems. Mold, bacteria, and other toxins can start to build up and possibly cause illness in those living in the home.
It's recommended that you do so once a day, for at least five minutes. Fifteen to 20 minutes is preferable. However, when you open them is also important. Keep them open at night or in the early morning, when the weather is cooler.
Regularly opening your windows for short periods of time each day can greatly improve the scent of your home. You may not even need air fresheners anymore! They can add more chemical particles to the air.
Keeping a window open reduced concentration of carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds, and some particulate matter in participant bedrooms. People slept better. Keeping a door open also reduced carbon dioxide concentration, without a direct correlation to improving sleep.
Sleeping with the window open could inadvertently trigger allergies, asthma or potentially cause illness in someone with an already-weakened immune system. But for most people, it's relatively risk free. Aim to keep your bedroom around 65 degrees with 65 percent humidity.
Keeping the air circulating in your home while away will help the system do an important part of its job — that is, keeping the humidity down inside. Moisture holds heat, which will make your system work harder to cool down the home upon your return.
WHAT HEALTH EFFECTS CAN BE CAUSED BY POOR INDOOR AIR QUALITY? Occupants of homes with poor indoor air quality may complain of symptoms such as headache, eye irritation, fatigue, dry throat, sinus congestion, dizziness, and nausea.
Unfortunately, keeping your windows open will not reduce the amount of dust in your home; in fact, doing this could increase it. There is a lot of dust in the air outside, which is comprised of dirt, sand, pollen, spores,'bits' of insects and a great deal more.
Usually, during the warmer weather, windows are open and fresh air circulates through the house and dilutes the mite allergens. With cooler weather, windows are closed, and the heat comes on, re-circulating air in the house. This is when mite sufferers usually notice worsening of their symptoms.
If it's safe to do so, open doors and windows as much as you can to bring in fresh, outdoor air. While it's better to open them widely, even having a window cracked open slightly can help. If you can, open multiple doors and windows to allow more fresh air to move inside.
The single most effective way to avoid Carbon Dioxide build-up is to keep windows open while you sleep. This allows fresh oxygen in, as well as allowing Carbon Dioxide to escape naturally. Another important factor in choosing to keep windows open at night is for temperature control or thermoregulation.
Benefits of Sleeping with the Window Open in Winter
Outdoor air is generally much cleaner than the air in your home, and opening the window allows clean, fresh air to circulate, flushing out the stale, contaminated air. Letting the cool, winter air in can also help you sleep better.
“If air quality is low, and breathing is poor, you may wake up several times per night,” Rohrscheib says. “This can keep you from entering the deepest, most refreshing stages of sleep, leaving you feeling tired the next day.” Our brains perform better when there's more oxygen.
When coal burns in a closed room carbon monoxide is produced. This poisonous gas has the affinity to mix with the haemoglobin present in our blood and forms carboxyhaemoglobin. This carboxyhaemoglobin decreases the oxygen carrying capacity of blood in our body. Thus the brain gets deprived of oxygen.
Stuffy air typically occurs in rooms that lack ventilation. Open windows and doors, or run your ventilation system if you have one. Some areas of the home may also need spot ventilation. Adding a bathroom or kitchen fan near the moisture or pollution source helps to solve common problems.
A person may survive for a maximum period of about two months (60 days) only in a room having a floor area of around 25 sq. m. without ventilation. A normal person weighing about 70 kg needs nearly 22 moles of oxygen (O2) per day for his usual body functions.