Summer Ventilation Tips for a Cooler Home
When the summer heat arrives, you’ll lean on your HVAC to keep your home comfortable. However, plenty of Seattle, WA homeowners use their AC far more than is necessary each year. The reason is that they’re compensating for poor ventilation in their homes. Adequate ventilation helps keep your home cooler and lowers indoor humidity. That translates into reduced HVAC demand and lower energy bills. Here are some great tips on how to improve ventilation to stay cool this summer.
Install and Use Ceiling Fans
Ceiling fans are an easy and cheap way to make your house feel cooler and get better airflow. They don’t use much electricity compared to your AC. These fans do more than circulate air. They can actually make you feel cooler when it’s warm so that your rooms are nicer to be in. If the weather is decent, using ceiling fans with open windows can make your house comfortable. Even when you can’t open windows because the air quality outside is bad or it’s hot, ceiling fans still help. Getting ceiling fans set up is just the start of saving money when you use them every day.
In addition to their low up-front cost, ceiling fans cost far less to operate on a day-to-day basis, typically just a few pennies an hour, compared to the cost of running an air conditioner. Using ceiling fans to provide a cooling breeze can enable homeowners to delay turning on their home AC or increase the temperature on the thermostat a few degrees without compromising comfort. That lowered dependency on the AC naturally leads to less expensive monthly energy bills throughout the summer months.
Furthermore, the breeze created by your ceiling fans doesn’t just make you feel cooler directly. It also enhances the effectiveness of your air conditioning system. Your ceiling fans will also aid your AC in moving conditioned air around your home, which will eliminate hot spots and improve air filtration. This enhanced circulation accelerates the evaporation of sweat from your skin, a natural cooling process for the human body. This effect allows you to feel comfortable at a slightly higher thermostat setting, which can reduce how often your system turns on to maintain your desired temperature.
Have Your Ductwork Air Balanced
When your AC was originally installed, the technician should have adjusted your ductwork to match its output. That would ensure that each room received enough air volume to keep it at the set temperature on your thermostat. However, as your AC and ductwork age, various factors could lead to your airflow falling out of balance. For example, the deterioration of these air channels can let air leak into places it shouldn’t. To account for that, you should have your ductwork professionally air balanced.
Generally, experts recommend having your ductwork checked roughly every three to five years for balance issues. An HVAC technician will measure the airflow from your vents, comparing it to the air volume each space requires. They’ll adjust your dampers to correct the problem if there’s a discrepancy.
Have Your Ductwork Air Sealed
Sometimes, your air ducts can deteriorate enough that air balancing alone won’t suffice. If your ducts leak too much air, delivering sufficient air volume where needed becomes impossible. It happens more frequently than many homeowners realize. According to the Department of Energy, ductwork losses can impose up to a 30% efficiency penalty on your AC.
The solution to the problem is having your ducts air sealed. To complete this process, experts will close off your vents and pump high-pressure air into your ductwork. Then, they will slowly introduce a product called Aeroseal into the airstream. Aeroseal contains specialized polymers that adhere to each other. So, as the pressurized air reaches openings in your ducts, the polymers clump together to close the gap. The result is almost perfectly leak-free ductwork.
It’s important to note that Aeroseal can only fill gaps of up to 5/8 of an inch. So, if your ducts have bigger openings or severely damaged joints, they may require manual repair. That may include replacing duct sections and applying new duct tape on leaky joints.
Install an Attic Fan
It should go without saying, but your attic will be its hottest in the summer. It absorbs the heat radiating in from your roof. That’s one of the main reasons your attic insulation is so important. It helps prevent that stored heat from entering your home. Unfortunately, no amount of insulation will prevent all heat transfer. That’s why it may help to install an attic fan.
The job of an attic fan is to push hot air out of your attic to keep it as close to the outdoor temperature as possible. That reduces how much excess heat makes it through your insulation and into your home. As a result, your home stays cooler with less AC demand.
Install a Whole-House Fan
While an attic fan only reduces the heat in your attic, a whole-house fan installation goes a step further. It pulls hot air from inside your home and vents it through your attic. You can use a whole-house fan to keep cool and improve ventilation whenever the temperature outside remains below 75 degrees. You can also use it overnight in place of your AC since temperatures are lower.
The rapid air exchange created by whole-house fans allows for surprisingly quick cooling, with some models capable of making you feel up to 10 degrees cooler in minutes. Furthermore, using this solution overnight offers the distinct advantage of purging heat absorbed by your home throughout the day. This removal of stored thermal energy can significantly delay the need to switch on your AC as the day warms up.
Consider an Energy Recovery Ventilator
Finally, you can achieve ultimate efficient home ventilation with an energy recovery ventilator (ERV). ERVs exchange indoor air for fresh outdoor air with minimal energy loss at efficiency rates as high as 93%. Heat exchangers inside of these systems pre-condition incoming fresh air using the temperature of outgoing conditioned air. Additionally, integrated air filters keep outdoor pollutants from entering your home.
An ERV is typically integrated with your existing HVAC ductwork. When activated, it simultaneously draws stale indoor air through the return ducts (similar to your HVAC intake) and pulls in an equal volume of fresh outdoor air via a separate fan. Inside the ERV, both air streams pass through a heat exchanger. The outgoing stale air transfers its heat to the incoming fresh air, and it will be pre-cooled close to your indoor temperature target. This now-cooled fresh air is then circulated throughout your home via the supply ductwork.
Your Local Home Ventilation Experts
If you’re looking for ways to improve the ventilation in your home for a cooler and more energy-efficient summer, Brennan Heating & Air Conditioning in Seattle is here to help. Our NATE-certified HVAC technicians offer a range of services, including Aeroseal duct sealing, whole-house fan installation, and high-efficiency HVAC sales and installation. As an Angi Super Service Award winner with an A+ BBB rating and numerous positive customer reviews, our commitment to quality is clear.
Call Brennan Heating & Air Conditioning today for expert home ventilation solutions to beat the summer heat!
