You open a window. Fresh air blows in and your heating and cooling dollars drift out. Be fan-wise Turn off kitchen, bath and other ventilating fans as soon as they have done the job. In just one hour, these fans can pull out a houseful of warmed or cooled air. Tightly built homes are great for sealing out energy-wasting leaks and drafts.
Problem is, tightly built homes seal out ventilation, too.
Without adequate ventilation , homes can retain excess moisture. And that may lead to health concerns and a range of building problems, such as wet windows, cracked walls, rotten wood, damp basements, popped nails or worse. The air inside a home should be completely exchanged about every three hours, according to the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Engineers. Yet some homes are so tightly built that the inside air is exchanged just once every 10 hours, say Honeywell experts. But there's good news.