A careful balance between air sealing and ventilation is necessary to create a healthy, energy efficient home. Over the past several decades there’s been a trend in the residential building industry to make houses more energy efficient during construction. Building codes, initiated in the early 90s, require a continuous air barrier to be installed around a building’s thermal envelope. This creates more airtight houses and, as a result, the necessity to balance air sealing and ventilation. How to Balance Air Sealing and Ventilation Continuous air barriers make buildings more airtight. So, a lack of natural ventilation often occurs. In turn, this causes poor indoor air quality; polluted, stale, moisture laden air. The solution is to install mechanical ventilation equipment in conjunction with the continuous air barrier. Therefore, simultaneously keeping indoor pollutant levels down while maintaining high energy efficiency. Different Types of Mechanical Ventilation Equipment A ventilation system consists of a mechanical system…