Adequate ventilation and heating of the rooms in a house are important factors for the inhabitants of the house to feel comfortable. The aim is to create a pleasant living environment so that on the one hand the air is not too dry and on the other hand the formation of mold is prevented. When moving into a newly built home, there are some special things to consider at the beginning. Below we will show you what you should pay attention to when heating and ventilating your home correctly:
DRYING OF A NEW BUILDING
In a house built from solid wall materials, significant amounts of water are used in the concrete, mortar, plaster, screed and paint during the manufacturing process. Much of it evaporates again during the construction period. However, new construction always contains significant amounts of residual moisture. This is normal and not a problem if you know how to deal with it.
Humidity in buildings is no longer a problem today. In the past, construction was slower, the building envelope was left to dry over the winter, and a drying period was observed before moving. Furthermore, today the building envelope is almost 100% airtight, so that moisture does not escape on its own. This is why adequate heating and ventilation are important to prevent damage to the home and the health of residents.
Moisture from the building must be able to escape from the components, because damp building materials insulate less and cool more. This is why the first heating periods are not a benchmark for long-term energy consumption. The drying process depends on the weather conditions during the construction period (e.g. long rainy seasons) and can take up to two years.
During this time, you should avoid anything that prevents the walls from drying out. Do not place furniture and cabinets directly against the external wall, but leave a ventilation distance of 10 cm. This also applies to basement rooms, especially if heated. Line the pictures with 1cm thick cork discs and apply wall coverings, wall coverings, tapestries and the like only after they have completely dried. Heavy curtains, especially in corners, hinder ventilation and drying. Finally, laundry should not be dried in living rooms during this period.
HEATING AND VENTILATION FOR A PLEASANT LIVING CLIMATE
A living environment perceived as comfortable is a room temperature between 17 and 23 degrees Celsius. The sensation varies from person to person and also changes with age. But it is not only the temperature that influences the feeling of comfort, but also the humidity of the air in the room. A comfortable living environment is a relative humidity between 40 and 60%. If the humidity drops below 30 percent, mold certainly does not form, but the dry air can irritate the mucous membranes. At the latest when the air humidity in the room reaches 80%, people perceive the room climate as unpleasantly humid and mold can develop directly on a wall.
It is therefore important to create a pleasant living environment and prevent the formation of mold through adequate heating and ventilation. On the one hand, it is important to keep the cold surfaces of the house warm, so that the humid air cannot cool or condense. This works if the warm air from the heating can spread everywhere. On the other hand, you need to make sure that the air in the rooms does not become too humid.
It should be borne in mind that a family unit of four people releases six to twelve liters of water into the air every day. This humidity is created during cooking, bathing and showering. But houseplants and the inhabitants themselves also produce a considerable amount of humidity every day. This moisture must be ventilated out of the house.
Another reason to ventilate regularly is that people (and animals) convert oxygen into carbon dioxide (CO2) when they breathe and through ventilation oxygen-rich air is supplied from outside. Pollutants and odors from furniture and other furnishings also make regular ventilation necessary.
HEAT CORRECTLY
The warmer the air, the more water it can bind (relative humidity). Air at 0 degrees Celsius can only hold 5 grams of water per cubic meter, air at 20 degrees Celsius can hold up to 17.5 grams per cubic meter. The degree of saturation is then reached with a relative humidity of 100%. The degree of air saturation can be measured with a hygrometer and read as relative humidity.
During the heating season you should never turn off the heating completely, even in rooms that are rarely used, especially in the bedroom. Heating the cold bedroom only by opening the door to the warm part of the house is especially critical because the warm, humid air from other rooms settles on the relatively cool bedroom walls. In general, always keep the doors of rooms with low temperatures closed.
Use heating air effectively and do not place furniture directly in front of radiators. When ventilating in the cold season, do not forget to close the windows again after ventilation, so that the walls do not cool down and too much heat energy is lost.
VENTILATE CORRECTLY
Naturally, thermal energy is lost during ventilation. But air humidity can be maintained at a comfortable level only through regular air exchange. And if you don’t ventilate properly, you risk structural damage and even health damage. Daily inhabited environments should therefore be intensely ventilated several times a day (at least three times). To do this, open one or more windows well (shock ventilation) and create, if possible, a draft (cross ventilation). Even if it’s raining or cold. This ventilation should last five to a maximum of ten minutes. This is enough to replace the humid room air with fresh cold but dry air. Furthermore, the short time period ensures that the walls cool only minimally and that heating them does not become too energy-intensive.
Large quantities of water vapor should be eliminated as soon as they form, i.e. open windows and close doors during cooking and immediately after showering or bathing, so that water vapor cannot spread throughout the house.
It’s not a good idea to keep windows tilted all day to promote ventilation. Especially when the outside temperature is low, the wall areas adjacent to the slanted window cool down and mold can form near the window.
Keep in mind that basements are generally wetter in the summer months than in the winter. This is due to the hot outside air cooling the basement walls. Therefore, ventilate the cellar as little as possible during the summer and, in this case, ventilate well only in the cool hours of the morning. In winter, however, when the outside air contains very little moisture, ventilate the basement several times a day so that the moisture can escape.
SUPPORT FROM A VENTILATION SYSTEM
If your personal situation does not allow you to ventilate several times a day or if the layout of your house requires ventilation measures, for example due to internal bathrooms, the installation of a controlled ventilation system is necessary and recommended. This can be a decentralized ventilation system with several ventilation devices in the outer wall or a central system with ventilation ducts inside the house or apartment.
The ventilation system guarantees uniform and controlled air exchange. This allows warm, dry air to flow along all walls of the room, reliably keeping the room’s humidity at a comfortable level. Furthermore, harmful substances and pollen can be filtered out by the fresh air supplied from outside. And thanks to the integrated heat recovery, almost no heat energy is lost during ventilation.
Your regional construction partner will be happy to advise you on installing a controlled ventilation system with heat recovery in your dream home and how this will make it easier for you to obtain state funding.
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