It’s important for your Flower Mound, TX, home to experience adequate ventilation, especially during the summer months. As temperatures start to creep up, poor ventilation can contribute to uneven cooling, poor indoor air quality, and even high levels of humidity. If you suffer from seasonal allergies in the summer months, inadequate ventilation can worsen your symptoms when you’re trying to find relief inside your home. Let’s discuss some of the ways that you can improve your home’s ventilation this summer.
Utilize Fresh Air Periodically
There are several factors that may warrant keeping your windows and doors closed, including high levels of pollen, pollution, and extremely high temperatures. However, it’s important that you bring in some fresh air for at least a small portion of the day. Even if you just open a few windows for 10 to 15 minutes each day and run your exhaust fan, this can help promote better ventilation throughout your home. This process can remove cooking odors, help regulate humidity, and freshen the smell of your indoor air. This process works better if you can achieve a cross breeze, so open up a few windows or doors and then do the same thing on the opposite side of your home.
The best time of the day to open up is first thing in the morning or late at night. Temperatures outside will be the coolest, but this is also a time of the day when pollen levels and pollution are low.
Utilize Filtration in Your Flower Mound Home
Filtration is an important part of home ventilation. If you’re running your air conditioning unit frequently, high-quality filters can remove particulates that can increase allergy symptoms and worsen your indoor air quality. Filters should be changed every 30 to 90 days for optimal results. If you feel that your home needs a boost in ventilation at a certain point during the day, you can switch the setting on your thermostat from “auto” to “on.” This will run air through your HVAC system without turning on any heating or cooling equipment. Air will still pass through filtration before coming out through your vents.
To further boost ventilation and filtration, you can utilize a whole-house air filtration device. This equipment is installed in your HVAC system to promote healthier indoor air quality. More particulates and contaminants will be filtered out. These units can often remove up to 99.97% of particulates from the air in your home, while also removing bacteria and viruses.
Using Exhaust Fans in Bathrooms and Kitchens
Bathrooms in Flower Mound are equipped with exhaust fans, as are many kitchens. These exhaust fans have a very simple design. They pull air from the home and exhaust it outdoors. This process is beneficial if you wish to remove air from one space and allow better airflow from other parts of the home. These exhaust fans are common in bathrooms because they’re designed to remove extremely humid air before mold can start to grow. Unfortunately, many homes don’t have very powerful exhaust fans. You can upgrade your current unit to something with a rating of about 110 CFM or more.
Kitchens can be set up with similar exhaust units. Typically located over a stove, you can turn your exhaust fan on when you’re cooking. This reduces the smell of food odors in your home while preventing the accumulation of smoke and moisture. You can run your exhaust fans when these areas of the home are not in use to improve ventilation.
The Benefits of Fans
Even though you may have an air conditioning system installed in your Flower Mound home, it’s helpful to have fans as well. This can include stand-alone units and ceiling fans. By helping circulate air in various rooms, this can help promote optimal ventilation. In the summer months, your ceiling fans should rotate counterclockwise to help produce a cooling effect. This airflow can help save you money on your utility bills by allowing you to raise the temperature of your home, so your air conditioning doesn’t run as frequently.
Creating a Tight Home Envelope
It’s ideal that you can control the ventilation of your home without having to worry about excessive amounts of heat coming inside from various cracks and gaps around your home’s structure. You can tighten your home’s envelope by sealing up these areas. Windows and doors can be secured with new weather stripping. Check for cracks in the foundation of your home and make repairs as needed. Older homes tend to experience more issues, so make sure that your home has adequate insulation throughout. This will keep cool air inside while allowing you to ventilate using exhaust fans and your HVAC system.
Check Your Vents and Registers
All the vents and registers in your home should be open to allow optimal airflow while your HVAC system is running. This will promote adequate ventilation throughout the day as your air conditioner works to keep your home at a comfortable temperature throughout the summer months. Many people choose to close off vents that are in rooms that aren’t frequently used in an attempt to save money. This can reduce ventilation but also put additional strain on your cooling equipment, which leads to expensive repairs. It can also reduce the lifespan of your system, resulting in the premature replacement of your equipment. This is a good time to wipe down vents and registers. A buildup of particles can hamper airflow.
Routine Maintenance
In order for your air conditioning system to provide ample ventilation, you should schedule routine maintenance on an annual basis. Planning ahead for summer in Flower Mound, we recommend your appointment take place in early spring. This process will include an inspection of your HVAC system, air conditioning unit, and all related components. We will clean interior components so that they are functioning efficiently and optimally. We can also inspect your ductwork, ensuring that optimal airflow is occurring. If there is damage to your ducts, this can allow air to escape when your system is running. This can reduce ventilation and worsen indoor air quality. Minor repairs can be taken care of during a maintenance appointment, which often eliminates the risk of your air conditioner breaking down in the middle of summer when you rely on it most. Being without this equipment when temperatures start to creep towards triple digits would result in very poor ventilation.
If you are interested in learning about other ways that you can improve ventilation in your Flower Mound home during the summer months, reach out to Honest Home Services LLC. We care about our customers, prioritizing trust, honesty, and quality service. In addition to ventilation improvements like the installation of exhaust fans and air conditioning systems, we can also take care of furnace installations, emergency repairs, routine maintenance, and much more. Give Honest Home Services LLC a call today to schedule an appointment in the Flower Mound area.
