House ventilation

[Viking]

Hello!

I have a question for you, do you have any kind of ventilation in your house? I don't mean open windows but more traditional types of ventilation.

We don't have any in our house and I have always thought it has had a bit of bad smell in it, like an old moisty basement. It wasn't such a big problem before, but last time we arrived, nobody had lived in the house for 10 months and the smell was really bad. 

We need to fix this and I am looking on different solutions, preferably something that use solar or wind power instead of electricity from Meralco.

In Sweden it's common with natural ventilation that use the fact that warm air rise, however, that works best during the winter time so I guess that method isn't very effective in the Philippines?

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

 

[Gator]

4 hours ago, Viking said:

Hello!

I have a question for you, do you have any kind of ventilation in your house? I don't mean open windows but more traditional types of ventilation.

We don't have any in our house and I have always thought it has had a bit of bad smell in it, like an old moisty basement. It wasn't such a big problem before, but last time we arrived, nobody had lived in the house for 10 months and the smell was really bad. 

We need to fix this and I am looking on different solutions, preferably something that use solar or wind power instead of electricity from Meralco.

In Sweden it's common with natural ventilation that use the fact that warm air rise, however, that works best during the winter time so I guess that method isn't very effective in the Philippines?

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

 

Sucks getting old, lol. Maybe you’ve forgotten the about the similar topic you started:

 

[BrettGC]

We just had the spinny spinny things (technical term, promise) installed on the roof with ventilation vents in the ceiling on the top floor.  We did if for cooling and the change is very noticeable.  The constant airflow may also fix your odour issues as well?  Accidental great timing given the current heat wave we're experiencing. 

With the flashing and installation for the spinny spinny things and ceiling vents they ran to about 4.5K each. Bought at Citi Hardware, installed by a builder we trust.  

Edited April 4 by BrettGC

[Mike J]

We put a solar fan on each end of our house in the attic.  One fan pulls air in, the other pushes the air out.  Also our windows are fairly good sized, 4x4 feet with screens.  The windows are left open 24x7, only closed if we leave for an overnight stay.  This allows a good flow of breeze through the house.  If there is no wind we will use fans to move the air.

[Tommy T.]

I suggest that any type of solar powered fans might do the trick since there is usually so much sunlight. You would need to shop around to find something that would withstand the incredible heat from the sun itself and that would last you a while. I would also suggest that the inlet be nearer to the ground or bottom of your dwelling and the exhaust near the top. I know, it seems self-explanatory, but that sort of arrangement which would use natural air currents would simply be augmented by your fans. something like what Brett suggests might also be at least a good adjunct, but if there is no wind, there won't be so much air flow...

[Viking]

6 hours ago, Gator said:

Sucks getting old, lol. Maybe you’ve forgotten the about the similar topic you started:

 

To my defense, that was about venting out the heat from the attic and my new problem is about "bad" air inside the house. I know this is just a bad excuse to explain I forgot about the post I made before, hahaha. But you remembered, are you 25 years old? 

6 hours ago, BrettGC said:

We just had the spinny spinny things (technical term, promise) installed on the roof with ventilation vents in the ceiling on the top floor.  We did if for cooling and the change is very noticeable.  The constant airflow may also fix your odour issues as well?  Accidental great timing given the current heat wave we're experiencing. 

With the flashing and installation for the spinny spinny things and ceiling vents they ran to about 4.5K each. Bought at Citi Hardware, installed by a builder we trust.  

I been thinking of this kind of solution but I thought it was primarily for venting out heat from the attic. If it works good with only putting vents in the ceilings and then let the attic fan do the job, that would be perfect. You haven't experienced that the hot air is being "pushed" down in the rooms through the vents?

Is it windy in your place? Our place is not so windy and I am not sure how well these spinners work in less wind, but there's also models that use solar power.

5 hours ago, Mike J said:

We put a solar fan on each end of our house in the attic.  One fan pulls air in, the other pushes the air out.  Also our windows are fairly good sized, 4x4 feet with screens.  The windows are left open 24x7, only closed if we leave for an overnight stay.  This allows a good flow of breeze through the house.  If there is no wind we will use fans to move the air.

Solar power fans would be perfect for us. The window ventilation isn't possible because it needs to work also when we are not living in house.

1 hour ago, Tommy T. said:

I suggest that any type of solar powered fans might do the trick since there is usually so much sunlight. You would need to shop around to find something that would withstand the incredible heat from the sun itself and that would last you a while. I would also suggest that the inlet be nearer to the ground or bottom of your dwelling and the exhaust near the top. I know, it seems self-explanatory, but that sort of arrangement which would use natural air currents would simply be augmented by your fans. something like what Brett suggests might also be at least a good adjunct, but if there is no wind, there won't be so much air flow...

Are you saying that regular solar panels won't withstand the heat of the sun?

[Possum]

I have a solar powered roof vent fan. It makes a lot of difference and I am very glad I had it installed when the house was built as the "architect" vented the sewer to the attic.

[Gator]

47 minutes ago, Viking said:

I forgot about the post I made before, hahaha. But you remembered, are you 25 years old? 

Nope, I’m getting up there in my years and my memory is certainly not as good as it was, but as my grandma used to say: Sometimes even a blind chicken finds a piece of corn! Either that or I had a moment of clarity and used the forum's search function, 🤣 

[BrettGC]

1 hour ago, Viking said:

I been thinking of this kind of solution but I thought it was primarily for venting out heat from the attic. If it works good with only putting vents in the ceilings and then let the attic fan do the job, that would be perfect. You haven't experienced that the hot air is being "pushed" down in the rooms through the vents?

Is it windy in your place? Our place is not so windy and I am not sure how well these spinners work in less wind, but there's also models that use solar power.

Unless a mechanism is in place stop it, hot air will always rise above cooler air - it's the reason ceiling fans aren't the greatest idea unless you have very high ceilings and the fans are set relatively low, otherwise you're just circulating the hot air back down onto yourself.   If I put my hands under the vents, I can feel the air being sucked into the roof cavity same for the gaps under the doors if they're closed.  It's not vacuum cleaner strong but it's there.  As I said, there's a noticeable difference in temperature upstairs compared to prior to having the setup installed.  

It's not particularly windy at our place but the positive pressure from the hot air rising from the ceiling cavity and out the roof mechanisms (spinny spinny things) keeps them spinning fast without any help from an external power source or the wind.  The wind is just a bonus when we have it.   

[Viking]

1 hour ago, BrettGC said:

Unless a mechanism is in place stop it, hot air will always rise above cooler air - it's the reason ceiling fans aren't the greatest idea unless you have very high ceilings and the fans are set relatively low, otherwise you're just circulating the hot air back down onto yourself.   If I put my hands under the vents, I can feel the air being sucked into the roof cavity same for the gaps under the doors if they're closed.  It's not vacuum cleaner strong but it's there.  As I said, there's a noticeable difference in temperature upstairs compared to prior to having the setup installed.  

It's not particularly windy at our place but the positive pressure from the hot air rising from the ceiling cavity and out the roof mechanisms (spinny spinny things) keeps them spinning fast without any help from an external power source or the wind.  The wind is just a bonus when we have it.   

Sounds great, I will probably give this solution a try.

How big is your roof area? Do you have only one "spinner" or several? What size is your spinner? Do you have venting grills in the ceilings in all rooms?

I need something that will work even when we are not in the house. Our plans are to stay in the house only part time of the year.

It's this or solar. Downsides with solar could be that since they are more expensive someone might think they need it more than we do and we might find a big hole in our roof when getting back, hahaha.