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Recent findings have demonstrated that indoor air is often more polluted than outdoor air (albeit with different pollutants). In fact, indoor air is often a greater health hazard than the corresponding outdoor environment. Beyond its function to deliver thermal comfort the Heating and Cooling system is becoming the primary factor to improving indoor air quality through ventilation to dilute contaminants, filtration to remove dust and pollutants, monitoring for humidity control and design to minimize noise.
With builders constructing tighter homes to reduce energy costs the people, animals, plants and the materials in the building have an increasing contribution to the indoor air quality.
One way of quantitatively ensuring the health of indoor air is by the effective turnover of interior air, by replacement with outside air using Heat or Energy Recovery Ventilators. These mechanical ventilators exchange air and humidity between the outgoing and incoming air streams, reducing total energy consumption compared to opening a window.
Where moisture problems exist, they can range from simply being a nuisance to actually threatening the life of the building. Moisture in vapor form is usually not a problem, but it becomes a problem when it condenses as free water on cold surfaces on windows or inside walls.
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