Every contemporary home has varying needs for heating, cooling, ventilation and insulation to different degrees throughout the changing seasons during the year. Your unique needs will differ based on your suburb’s micro-climate, how your home (or office) is built, what usage takes place in the interior and your personal preferences.
Very few building owners are confident with their knowledge on how to combine heat pumps, ventilation & insulation to achieve a healthy interior on the North Shore. Let’s look at how you can achieve this.
There is some misinformation moving around the market that implies that the heat pump installation will enhance the ventilation in your interior. On the other side of the coin, the converse misinformation out there is that you should consider installing a ventilation system to supply or enhance the heating within the interior.
As we have implied above, those statements are not facts, they are misinformation. So, in short, no, ventilation will not provide a heating service and, again, no, a heat pump will not provide ventilation for your home.
There are some global standards that are published by international organisations as a guideline to help you with a starting point.
For example, the World Health Organisation (WHO) advises that every home or office needs fresh air that circulates and removes excess moisture with stale and contaminated air. Environmental protection agencies published that one in fifteen homes contain radon gas which is leaking up from the earth through the pores of the home. Circulating air and mechanical ventilation is essential for the ongoing removal of radon gas.
The removal of excess moisture is essential for the prevention of mould growth which is a big risk to health even in small infestations.
The WHO also recommends that the optimal temperature for a healthy home is at a minimum of eighteen degrees celcius and stable. Note: that is the minimum temperature. A popular temperature that seems to meet most people’s needs is 21.5 degrees Celcius though woman often prefer a twenty-two degree Celcius temperature. Temperature levels are important for your physical comfort and that has a direct impact on your mental and physical health.
Stabilised temperatures also help stabilise internal moisture levels which reduces the risk of organic infestations.
Insulating your house will enhance your heating and cooling as well as the effect of ventilation. It will minimise your energy bill, reduce your carbon footprint, prolong your comfort levels, extend the life of your heat pump, assist with health improvement and help avoid the risk of organic infestations.
For a healthy, comfortable home, it goes without saying that heat pumps work optimally with mechanical ventilation, supported by insulation. This gives you healthy doses of fresh air moving through your home, stale, contaminated air moving out your home and healthy temperatures are stabilised and extended. Neither system will achieve all of these results on their own but together they are greater than the sum of their parts.
Got more questions about heat pumps on the North Shore? Call us!