How to rehabilitate the home while ensuring air quality

How to rehabilitate the home is a process that many of us go through at some point. However, it should not be seen as tedious but rather as an opportunity to improve our comfort and quality of life. In this sense, conditioning the house to ensure air quality should be one of our main objectives. Below, we will show a series of keys that will be very useful to achieve this.

How and why is indoor air polluted?

No matter if we are talking about a new home or an old house. The air present in the environment gets polluted due to a wide variety of factors:

• Carbon dioxide. People and animals living in the property release it when they breathe. This reduces the level of oxygen present in the environment.
• Organic compounds and formaldehydes. Usually released by the construction materials used. Paints, varnishes, and resins are the main culprits.
• Radon. It enters the home through the ground. In large concentrations, it is carcinogenic.
• Carbon monoxide. A gas derived from combustion generated by certain types of stoves and gas boilers. It causes difficulty breathing and is potentially fatal in large concentrations.

Additionally, we must consider dust mites, which are responsible for numerous allergies. Moreover, those living in large cities suffer the consequences of pollen and emissions from combustion vehicles. We must not forget about the particles of viruses and microorganisms that travel through the air. The best example is SARS-CoV-2, which caused a pandemic that continues to have global repercussions.

Keys to rehabilitating a home and improving air quality

In most cases, the priority is natural ventilation. Therefore, the house should be designed in a way that favors the generation of air currents. Although the outside air may be polluted, the percentage of harmful particles is generally much lower than that of the interior.

However, although natural ventilation is the most effective and economical system, it is not always the most efficient. A clear example is houses located in places where winters are very cold and summers are very hot. In these contexts, opening windows would result in the loss of heated or cooled air.

What’s the solution? It is important to plan for a mechanical dual-flow ventilation system during rehabilitation works. This way, we can extract stale air from the interior and replace it with renewed air from outside. Additionally, the use of heat exchangers allows the conservation of 80% of the temperature, resulting in minimal increases in climate control costs.

These systems are also designed to improve indoor air quality. They house HEPA filters, UV filters, and activated carbon filters capable of retaining contaminating particles responsible for allergies. Their effectiveness is nearly 100%.

Moreover, investing in quality building materials is always a good idea. In fact, it is advisable to opt for those that are more environmentally friendly. This will result in less release of harmful agents into the indoor air of the house.

In short, natural ventilation to improve air quality should be the priority when rehabilitating our home. However, if we want to enjoy a pure and healthy environment, natural ventilation alone is often not enough. Therefore, it is necessary for renovation works to include the installation of a forced ventilation system that ensures the elimination of impurities, without significantly increasing energy costs.