NEVADA OUTDOOR SCHOOL
Walking through the streets of the city, it is easy to observe a series of hermetically closed windows. It closes well. Shutters closed. It’s understandable that keeping your home tightly closed in the heat of summer or bitter winter days can help with energy cost savings, but could this decision affect your health? Does it have any benefit to open your home or business outdoors?
Wind, or the perceptible motion of air, has been used in various ways as a raw energy source because of its implicit motion. The wind spins power-generating turbines, moves boats through water, kites up on a beach, and is a requirement of sports like kite sailing.
Wind is also used to ventilate buildings and improve indoor air quality. As human shelters evolved and became increasingly resistant to natural conditions due to improved materials and building designs, problems with indoor air quality were discovered. Interestingly, much of what we have learned about ventilation of living spaces originated with insects. Colony builders, such as bees and termites, use a series of ducts and arteries to support the flow of air driven by the wind.
People are reading too …
Humans now spend a great deal of time indoors, between the office or school and home. Unless the average American intends to be outside, the vast majority of the day is spent indoors. With the increase in stricter construction techniques, a result of the energy crisis of the 1970s, natural ventilation suffered. Although those cracks and crevices let creepy crawlers and unwanted visitors in, they also allow air to flow through a structure. It is that air flow that removed the pollutants.
Indoor pollutants accumulate in an unventilated or poorly ventilated space. Where do the pollutants come from? Combustion from cooking food and heating water and space. If installed correctly, most combustion sources for major combustion needs are vented as part of the unit that provides the heat. However, tobacco smoke, car exhaust from an attached garage, non-vented space heaters or decorative stoves, and a non-vented kitchen can all be sources of pollutants.
Biological sources also contribute to indoor air quality: microbiological effluents and human origin. Ventilation is associated with a reduction in the transmission of diseases caused by infectious bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Carbon dioxide buildup and man-made odors are two human effluents that natural ventilation with an open window can easily accommodate. Radon and VOCs are emitted naturally or from man-made products and, if they accumulate, can cause headaches, dry eyes, and other health effects.
Opening a window is a cheap, easy and effective way to ventilate your office or home. The open window does not have to be open for long to allow air exchange to occur and contaminants to be removed. Along with that, the bonuses to an open window are a fresh smell in your space and an improvement in thinking and mood.
Getting outdoors is sometimes difficult with busy schedules, but that doesn’t mean you can’t experience the purifying effects of nature indoors. Invite the wind in through an open window and experience refreshment from inside your structure.
.