Proper Ventilation Can Keep Your Home Cooler

Summers in Ohio can be humid and hot, even though it is a Northern state. Air conditioning can help, but to enjoy savings and to keep your Northeast Ohio home cooler, keeping air moving in your home is an important part of the equation.

Ventilation doesn’t generally reduce air temperature, but it can help control humidity and encourage air movement, leaving your home cooler, healthier and more comfortable. If you would like to enjoy these benefits, you will want to consider exhaust fans in at least your attic, kitchen and bathroom.

Kitchen Ventilation

An oven hood can help remove some of the heat generated by cooking on your stove.  Exhaust fans also can help. The Home Ventilating Institute (HVI) recommends that exhaust fans in the kitchen have 15 Air Changes Per Hour (ACH), which means that the air in the kitchen is completely replaced 15 times per hour.

Bathroom Ventilation

On a hot day, bathrooms can trap a lot of moisture and warmth whenever someone showers or uses warm or hot water. When the door to the bathroom is opened, this moisture and warmth can enter other parts of your home. Exhaust fans in the bathroom can get rid of this problem

When looking for bathroom exhaust fans, keep in mind that the HVI recommends bathroom exhaust fans have a capacity of 8 ACH. In addition, you will want to look for an exhaust fan with a higher Cubic Feet per Minute (CFM) rating if you have a larger bathroom, or if your bathroom contains more moisture due to a Whirpool tub, bathtub or other additions.

Attic Ventilation

Attics can trap hot air and moisture, transferring heat to the rest of the house, affecting roof shingles, and making your air conditioner work harder. One solution is to use attic fans, which push hot air outside while using gable or soffit vents to pull in cooler outside air.

For more information about keeping your home cool this summer, please contact us at Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning. Our team has been serving Lorain, Erie and Cuyahoga counties for 35 years.

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

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