Regulating indoor air quality is essential to maintaining a healthy house environment. Breathing is something we all do regularly and without much thought; a ventilation system is important for this very reason because it helps to keep the air inside a home clean by pushing the pollutants out.
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To understand how ventilation within a home works, there a two terms we need to define: cubic feet per minute (CFM) and air changes per hour (ACH).
Cubic feet per minute refers to the amount of air a fan moves each minute. A 150 CFM fan will move 150 cubic feet of air every minute it is operating—or 9,000 cubic feet of air per hour (150 x 60). A fan’s capacity will either be marked on the housing or listed in the manufacturer’s product literature.
Air changes per hour (ACH) refers to how many times per hour a fan moves enough air to change all the air in a house. A ventilation system capable of 2 ACH will change the air in the entire house twice every hour.
So how much ventilation do humans need?
Ventilation products have differing capacities for moving air, making it important to ensure the product being selected has ample capacity for the application. HVI's Certified airflow rating appears on the product or on the HVI label displayed on each unit, in the manufacturer's literature describing the fan and in the HVI-Certified Products Directory.
For guidelines in determining the fan capacity required for your application, consult the Home Ventilating Institute’s ventilation guidelines.
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