Ventilation is a subtle but crucial consideration when building a residential or commercial property. It encourages air circulation within the premises, helping stabilise indoor temperature, removing stale air, and replacing it with fresh air.
When utilised strategically, homes and buildings will lessen their dependency on mechanical cooling and ventilation systems. This can foster a healthier atmosphere indoors and also cut down the energy bills quite drastically.
That said, if you want your household to enjoy the effects of natural ventilation, then you’ll have to leverage a few key techniques to maximise airflow. Cross ventilation is one such technique that can encourage a healthy flow of air within the premises.
This technique entails creating two openings on opposite sides (such as windows or ventilation systems) to encourage a healthy accumulation and dispersal of air.
Let’s look into the cross-ventilation technique and how it benefits a property’s indoor environment in more detail.
- Position Windows and Doors to Encourage Flow
Cross ventilation requires one vital prerequisite: two openings in a single room, ideally on opposing sides of one another.
These openings will serve separate but critical functions. One will serve as an opening for wind and fresh air to enter, whereas the other opening serves as the exit point.
The combination of openings depends on your home’s layout. Two windows, one door and one window, or two doors—any of them work as long as there’s an opening to outdoor air.
Ideally, the windward side should be larger than the leeward side to increase airflow pressure. A ventilation system can be used as the exit point, enabling air to exit efficiently.
In a lot of cases, natural ventilation is considered with the law of physics in mind. Hot air naturally rises as cool air is denser and settles at the bottom. If your interior is warm even with temperature control systems turned off, a roof vent near the skylight can help remove hot air and maintain cool interior temperature levels.
This continuous cycle of cool air passing through a windward opening and exiting through a roof vent or opposite opening helps maintain a pleasant temperature within the indoor environment. This is especially useful in places experiencing hot, humid sun, like tropical regions or temperate summer days.
- Incorporate Ventilation Grilles
Another useful technique to help ventilate your property is using ventilation grilles between rooms. Grilles and vent systems allow air to pass through a series of pipes and into other regions of the building.
By putting up grilles, you don’t have to open every window or door in every room that you want air to circulate in. Fresh air can pass through these spaces by way of the grilles, which is especially useful for rooms that may not have direct access to outdoor air.
The best position to place these grilles is near the doors. This can help you maintain ample ventilation around the space due to less distance needed to travel for the wind to work its magic. It also helps you maintain a balanced temperature depending on whether your vent is an exhaust vent or supply vent and whether it’s situated at the top or bottom of the door.
- Optimise The Room Layout
A well-planned room layout can play a big role in affecting the ventilation of your home’s interior. Heavy-set furniture and walls can hinder airflow mobility within close quarters, reducing the effectiveness of the cross-ventilation technique.
To fix this, consider switching your indoor layout to account for a smooth passage of air within the desired ventilation route. Move furniture like sofas and tables away from the direct path of the wind to facilitate smooth airflow. You can also consider switching to lower furniture pieces to improve airflow access.
If you’re trying to ventilate a large room like a factory or warehouse, then you should position ventilation grilles and vents optimally to ensure that air gets circulated properly. Assess where hot air tends to accumulate, and consider installing grilles or louvres to serve as an exhaust vent for these spaces.
By optimising your room layout, you can enjoy a nice and breezy room without having to spend a fortune on mechanical cooling vent systems.
- Use Roof Ventilators
Always find that the top levels of your house are warm, humid, and unpleasant—even with the AC on? It may be a sign to install roof ventilators.
A roof ventilator helps promote cross-ventilation airflow by expelling warm air. These ventilators are positioned at the home’s highest points, drawing out stale air that may have overstayed their welcome in the building.
A roof vent can be the perfect partner for a lower-level opening that brings in cool, pleasant air from below. In tandem, they both support the improvement of temperature and air quality within the property without having to overly rely on mechanical systems. This makes for a convenient and very energy-efficient setup.
The great thing about roof vents is that you can install multiple ones throughout the building’s rooftop without much difficulty. For instance, you can find many options for natural ventilation from Airocle such as louvres, smoke vents, and roof vents.
With enough of these vents, as well as frequent airflow coming in from the windward opening, you can balance your property’s indoor temperature and humidity levels with ease.
- Encourage Stack Ventilation
For large buildings with unobstructed indoor spaces, stack ventilation may be a viable technique to help your building remain cool and comfortable.
This technique entails professionals installing and positioning windward openings at different height levels—stacking them, in other words. This means that multiple windward openings can be placed at different vertical levels—one at the bottom floor, one at the middle floor, one higher up, and so on.
Following that, stack ventilation also entails having an appropriate amount of exhaust ventilation to compensate for the inward airflow. As a rule of thumb, construction staff should install at least 1 square foot of roof ventilation for every 300 square feet of attic space.
By putting up an efficient stack ventilation system, you can encourage a higher air exchange rate within the building premises. Whether you decide to put up one, two or multiple roof vents depends entirely on your setup. It’s best to consult with a roofing specialist to get a good idea of how to optimise your ventilation system.
- Install Clerestory Windows
A nice way to add a natural and ambient touch to your house is installing clerestory windows. These windows are high, narrow windows placed parallel to the roofline. They not only bring in natural light, but they also help support natural ventilation.
They do this by allowing warm air to escape through a high-level exit point, particularly if they’re open. When used in tandem with a windward opening, these windows can serve as excellent natural ventilators to keep the indoor temperature low during hotter weather.
- Integrate Outdoor Shading and Landscaping
Another way to improve ventilation in an indoor environment is by putting up barriers from the hottest heat source around—the sun.
There are many ways you can do this. For instance, you can put up shade structures like pergolas, awnings, and tall plants around your property’s openings to reduce heat from entering your home.
You can also position your plants and outdoor garden furniture to encourage a strong wind pressure directed towards a potential windward opening in your house.
The best way to keep your indoor environment cool, however, is by incorporating dense foliage and garden plants around your property. These plants can cool the immediate environment, which can decrease the load expected from the natural ventilation system.
It also makes your house look more aesthetic and feel cooler. So don’t skip out on your outdoor setup when trying to keep cool inside.
