Tips to Ensure the Good Ventilation in Home!

Queryasked by Dipak Sharma

I am constructing a G+1 floor house on a plot of 150 sq. mt. There is a road in the front and back of the plot. I need some tips on how to ensure good air ventilation in the house? What are the general rules?

Solutionby Gharpedia

First of all you have not mentioned your location i.e. city / village, frontage direction and north direction of your plot. This information can actually make our reply more scientific. However we hereby give few tips of home ventilation through doors, windows, ventilators, which may be applied in general.

Inlet openings in the building should be well distributed and should be located on the windward side at a low level and outlet openings should be located on the lee-ward side near the top, so that in-coming air stream is passed over the occupants. Inlet and outlet openings at high levels may only clear the top air without producing air movement at the level of occupancy.When outlets serve also as inlets, they shall be located at the same level. For proper home ventilation the maximum air movement at a particular plane is achieved by keeping the sill height of the opening at 85 percent of the height of the plane. The following levels of occupancy are recommended: When outlets serve also as inlets, they shall be located at the same level. For proper home ventilation the maximum air movement at a particular plane is achieved by keeping the sill height of the opening at 85 percent of the height of the plane. The following levels of occupancy are recommended:

01. For sitting on chair = 0.75 m

02. For sitting on bed = 0.60 m

03. For sitting on floor = 0.40 m For the right home ventilation, the inlet opening should not be obstructed by adjoining buildings, trees, signboards, or other obstructions or by partitions inside the path of air flow. Greatest flow per unit area of openings is obtained by using inlet and outlet openings of nearly equal areas. For a total area of openings (inlet and outlet) of 20 to 30 percent of floor area, the average indoor wind velocity is around 30 percent of outdoor velocity. Further increase in windows sizes,  increases the available velocity but not in the same proportion. In fact, even under most favourable conditions the maximum average indoor wind velocity does not exceed 40 percent of the outdoor velocity.

Must Read: Functional Requirements of a Ventilation System in House

Where the stream of wind is quite constant and dependable, the openings must be readily arranged to take full advantage of the wind at windward side. Where the wind direction or windward side is quite variable, the openings shall be so arranged that as far as possible there is approximately equal areas on all sides and the openings shall be located at the same levels. No matter what the wind direction is, there are always some openings directly exposed to wind pressure and others to air suction and effective movement through building is assured. In India for suitable home ventilation,  the general wind direction observed is as follows :

The wind speed will vary from location to location & season to season. The size location of windows openings will also depend on type of room use i.e. Bed room, store room, kitchen etc. You also have to consider the temperature in your region before determining size of windows. For perfect the home ventilation, do not forget to take care of nuisance due to mosquitoes, dust and of course water during monsoon. And lastly if the room is air conditioned, entire philosophy will change.

Also Read:

Types of Ventilation for Your House

Louver Windows and its Advantages