Introduction on Ventilation home
Air movement quickly dries wet material. To demonstrate, soak three towels in water. Hang one in still air, hang one in front of an operating fan, and place the third in a closed container. Barring some extremely abnormal event, the towel in front of the fan will dry first. The one in still air will dry next. The third, inside the closed container, will probably begin to sour, and then deteriorate, but not dry, because the air within the container has become saturated, and can not absorb any more moisture from the towel. Therefore, moisture remains in the towel. Combining the wet towel, oxygen, and favorable temperature within the container, a decay promoting environment exists.
Inspecting buildings over the past ten to fifteen years, we have noticed more and more property damage resulting from moisture exposure. This is possibly because construction practices, over the same period, have developed tighter buildings, primarily in an effort to conserve energy. These observations have reinforced our belief that ventilation is one of the homeowner's best friends when it comes to limiting property damage due to moisture, mold, and even termites.
By definition, ventilation is changing or replacing air in a space. For our purposes, we will consider ventilation as air movement, because if air moves, it must be replaced, unless the air movement creates a vacuum. Ventilation can be used to remove odors or excessive moisture, to introduce outside air, to circulate interior building air, and to prevent stagnation of interior building air.