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Better Indoor Air Quality, Less Wasted Energy
by Fred Horch, Principal Advisor, Sustainable Practice.
Use recovery ventilation to replace stale air with fresh air, and keep 80% of the energy in the exchange.
When we think about air pollution, most of us imagine a smokestack or a tailpipe. But according to a growing body of scientific evidence, we’re exposed to more pollution indoors than outdoors, even if we live in big, industrialized cities. So how can we protect indoor air quality and let in enough fresh outdoor air for our health and well being without driving up our air conditioning and heating bills?
Along the energy pathway, this week we’re exploring steps to improve the air we breathe and our energy parsimony. The most important step is to ventilate our buildings efficiently, so we get more value from every kilowatt hour. (If you’d like a refresher on what a kilowatt hour is, check out “First Steps to Endless Energy.”)
Heat or enthalpy recovery ventilation is a particularly clever step that allows us to bring in lots of filtered fresh air without wasting energy — protecting our health, our planet, and our wallets. We can also take other steps to ensure that we’re breathing clean, healthy air for the 21 hours a day, on average, we spend indoors:
