In order to make your heating and cooling equipment run efficiently, you have to seal your home as tightly as possible. Why? When your home loses hot or cool air through cracks and holes in the walls and ceilings, your furnace or air conditioning has to work that much harder to keep your home at the temperature you desire. This usually means insulating and sealing up any cracks or holes within them to prevent air leakage. Especially the air leaks that are coming from the attic.
But sealing your home for maximum heating and cooling efficiency sacrifices a lot of its natural ventilation. Every home needs some ventilation. So even though natural airflow makes your home comfort system less efficient, some venting is necessary so that indoor pollutants and moisture aren’t sealed in your house. But don’t just throw open your doors and windows to increase airflow.
Most homes in the Corpus Christi area have more leakage than needed to keep them ventilated and sealing any cracks or air passages, especially to the attic will help tremendously. Infiltration from the attic around ceiling fan fixtures, recessed can lights, and other fixtures allow hot, humid, dusty attic air into the home which can lead to comfort and allergy problems. Cracks and leaks around doors and windows are the “better” leaks but should be sealed as much as possible also. Exhaust fans should be used in shower areas to remove the excess moisture when showering. The kitchen hood exhaust should be run when boiling or steaming anything on the stove. It this extra moisture is not removed it will linger in the home and increase the relative humidity and discomfort in the home.
Homes that are sealed very tightly, such as homes sealed with foam insulation, need some type of mechanical ventilation to bring in enough fresh air. They also need additional dehumidification because they are so tight. The best solution for this type of home is to install a whole-house dehumidifier with fresh air make-up. This will control the humidity level in the home and provide the fresh air that is needed for proper ventilation.
If you have indoor air quality or heating and cooling questions, contact Mathews CCAC Air Conditioning for advice, or to request service for your home comfort equipment. We’re Constantly Concerned About Customers.
Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information, click here to download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
Mathews CCAC Air Conditioning and Heating services Corpus Christi, TX. To get started, check out our website.
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