Unfortunately, tight homes allow little fresh air to get in. Or stale air to get out. Which means that odors linger and mildew flourishes. Without fresh air, your home may not only feel stuffy and uncomfortable, but you and your family can feel tired and listless. What's more, excess moisture can become trapped inside, condensing on the windows, warping expensive woodwork and cabinetry.
Ventilation is one of the best solutions to indoor air quality problems.
Ventilation allows stale air to be flushed to the outdoors, and replaced with an incoming stream of fresh outdoor air. One simple example of ventilation is opening a window inside your home. The problem with this, of course, is that it is not always a practical solution in the middle of winter. Not only will bringing in the frigid outdoor air make you uncomfortable by causing temperature variations, it will also cause your heating system to work overtime by trying to compensate for the changes in temperature. So, in an ideal world, we would be able to dilute stale indoor air by bringing in fresh outdoor air, without sacrificing energy savings and comfortable temperatures.