In colder climates, now is the time we feel it: the room that stays cold like a pinky in a worn-out glove. It is also the time we start to feel the press of stale air, wondering if we are ventilating our houses well enough. While we think a home energy audit continues to be the best way to discern how air is moving in/out/and through your house, we recently came across a simple air circulation test you can do at home, for free. You need two things: a garbage bag and a wire coat hanger or piece of cardboard to control the opening of the bag.
Consult the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation site for complete directions. This test will give you a good sense of whether your ventilation system is working, or whether your heating system is up to par.
We have written about the power of a (good, quiet) bathroom fan to help keep your home properly ventilated. This test will help you determine whether that fan works, and whether the air flow generated is sufficient for your family.
It's also a useful activity for determining whether your heating system is performing at its rated efficiency: often, leaky ducts can waste heat by sending it off into the basement or the attic when it should be going straight to the living area. You're paying for it, you should certainly get to enjoy it.
The test takes just a few minutes (and, speaking from experience, your kid home with the flu can tape the bag to a hanger while watching cartoons). Don't get floored by the metric - there's no need to convert. Let us know what you find out.
Comments
It is hard to find much about air circulation in homes. It is refreshing to see what you have done with it.
I guess I would be tempted to take it a couple of steps beyond and suggest ways to control breathing to eliminate the unfiltered air from entering the home. I imagine that unfiltered air would be the main source of dirt and dust that enters the home.
Present breathing strategies tend to be very wasteful in energy conservation. Heated air is generally directed at doors and windows. Since heating air causes expansion, some of the hot air is forced out cracks around windows and doors. When the air cools off, the air contracts and creates a vacuum within the home which pulls cold air in from outside.
I think we need to rethink the whole breathing strategy for homes. Perhaps the best way is to continually heat outside air to room temperature so that there is always higher pressure inside than out. This would make it possible to push the cooler air around windows and doors back outside with very little heat loss.
Posted by Dale Robinson on Feb 26, 2010 5:48pm