I recently purchased a new townhome in Ottawa, Canada, and I have been reading a few books on construction so that I can follow along on the progress of my house.

In one of the books (which is about 30 years old) they talk about using attic vents to draw fresh air in from open windows during the summer. They say that some people prefer this to air conditioning. Is this still true? What are the pros/cons? We are not installing air conditioning but I would be interested in any alternative ways to circulate fresh air.

Thank you.

Greg

 

The book you have is out of date and likely has a lot of misinformation in relation to todays building science. First, air conditioning has nothing to do with air exchange. AC simply cools the air by drawing heat from the interior air much like the way your refrigerator works. No air enters or leaves the house. Ontario building code will require your builder to install a ventillation system, of which there are various methods to draw fresh air into the home. INTAKE ONLY, EXHAUST ONLY. and a BALANCED, system, called HEAT RECOVERY VENTILATION (HRV) which is the most prefered. This system will fully exchange the air in your home three times a day, using the latent heat of the exhausted air to warm the fresh incomming air, and conversely cooling incoming air if your home is air conditioned.