Do Your Hampton Roads Home’s Ventilating Fans Work to Your Advantage?
Friday, August 17, 2012
The secret to saving money on cooling costs without sacrificing comfort lies in a careful balance between your home’s insulation and ventilation, combined with regular air conditioning maintenance. Ensuring that the building envelope of your Hampton Roads home is insulated against the heat outside enhances an air conditioning system’s energy efficiency. Because the HVAC system won’t have to work as hard to keep you comfortably cool, you’ll save money on monthly energy bills.
If your Hampton Roads home is not well-ventilated, however, the air conditioning system will struggle to dehumidify the rooms properly. The result can be a stuffy or clammy environment that can promote the growth of allergens like mold, mildew and bacteria. You may find yourself running the HVAC system longer in hopes of relief, erasing the savings gained by proper insulation.
Ventilating fans are essential in rooms that are particularly subject to humidity, such as bathrooms and kitchens, and they can aid in home ventilation when installed in other areas of the home as well. Whole-home ventilation solutions include in-line HVAC systems that replace individual exhaust and ventilation fans with one or more fans installed in a remote location of the home, such as an attic. Insulated, flexible ductwork drafts air up to the fan that exhausts the air outside. Because the fan is located away from living areas, in-line systems boast near-silent operation.
In an attic, fans and vents help create a draft that pulls outdoor air inside through the vents and then exhausts it back outside through the fans. By keeping the attic well ventilated, attic temperatures can be reduced by as much as 30 percent. With regular air conditioning maintenance and proper attic insulation and ventilation, you’ll substantially increase your AC system’s energy efficiency, saving you money on monthly cooling bills. You’ll save during the winter too. Attic ventilation prevents snow from melting and then re-freezing into ice dams in your home’s gutters.
Another product to consider for home ventilation is an Energy Recovery Ventilation (ERV) fan. ERV fans simultaneously bring outside air into your home while exhausting air outside. They use the energy that’s generated during that air exchange to partially cool or warm the air in your home, enhancing heating and cooling systems. You can choose to have an ERV unit installed as a stand-alone product to service a single room or can opt to have a whole-home ERV system installed.
When it comes to ventilation fans, it’s important not to neglect the air conditioning system’s fans and blowers as well. Regular air conditioning maintenance is the most affordable way to ensure that fans are operating at peak efficiency. With record-breaking temperature expected to continue, taking steps to optimize your home’s ventilating fans offers insurance against rising energy costs.
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