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High-End Ventilation Considerations for your Next Home Build
Reading time: 4 minutes
Comfort
A fabulous home offers more details than just eye-popping waterfall pools and commercial-grade kitchens. Prospective high-end homeowners seek architects or builders that consider every detail, including fixtures, finishes, and indoor air quality (IAQ).
In this article, you will explore how ventilation solutions by Fantech might have improved comfort and safety in this home if these products were selected and installed by the builder in the first place. Unfortunately, we do not know whether or not the solutions mentioned in this article were installed.
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Take, for example, this home in Charleston, South Carolina. According to Zillow, this home is valued at $3.5 million. The home features three bedrooms, four bathrooms, a large closet in the primary bedroom, cathedral/vaulted ceilings, an elevator from the 3rd floor to the ground floor, a heated inground pool, and riverfront views of Wando River. It is eye-popping in every image.
Not every detail is evident to the untrained eye. For example, a person seeing this home for the first time may overlook the customization and detail this home offers. Such as the orientation of the house.
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Making the Smallest Details Unnoticeable
As a result of the home facing southwest and the vaulted ceiling, the large windows naturally bring in an abundance of natural light throughout the day, reducing the need for general or ambient lighting. In addition, the covered porticos offer heat protection, which may save homeowners energy costs over the home's lifetime.
While this is only one small detail, this home features multiple areas that showcase attention to detail and customization that exceed the average build.
Throughout this article, we showcase some of the cool features seen in these images and imagine the opportunities regarding how indoor air quality could have been addressed or improved upon by using Fantech products to make this fabulous home even more fabulous.
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The Kitchen
The kitchen and dining room utilize an open layout, offering plenty of space to prepare meals and entertain guests. The kitchen features seamlessly built-in stainless steel appliances, a Thermador range with a vent hood and wall ovens, quartzite countertops, and white cabinets with walnut detailing. Details and repetition in materials tie the kitchen together—such as the walnut range hood and island.
Inside decorative range hoods like this one, we offer stainless steel hood liners that block unwanted Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), such as smells and cooking vapors. They work with the exhaust system to remove them from the home.
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What powers the exhaust system in the kitchen and why is an exhaust system needed?
This exhaust system, typically powered by inline fans, would pull smells and cooking vapors through the hood liners and out through the roof. According to the 2018 International Residential Code (IRC), with a gas fuel-burning appliance, if this range hood exhausts 400 cfm or more of air, a makeup air system (MUAS) is required at a rate approximately equal to the exhaust air rate.
When pressure levels are closer to a more neutral level, it is easier for the forced air system to distribute air evenly throughout the home.
Because of the extensive Thermador range and decorative range hood, a custom home such as this one will likely utilize a MUAS.
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The Laundry Room
Like the kitchen, the laundry room has its own unique style. The soft teal cabinets and marine life accents are a nod to the breathtaking views of the Wando River. Seamlessly built-in washer and dryer units make the room feel more spacious, and plenty of cabinet space brings functionality and aesthetics together. However, the placement and layout of the laundry room might have caused some issues that needed to be addressed.
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What issues can arise with poor placement of the laundry room?
The ductwork from the dryer to the outdoors could have been longer than standard length and had more bends/elbows, resulting in lint building up. As a result, this setup can lead to longer drying times and loss of pressure in the duct and could even cause a dryer fire.
Therefore, this custom home could benefit from a Dryer Exhaust Duct Power Ventilator (DEDPV) to increase dryer efficiency and avoid the risk of a dryer fire.
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The Bedrooms
On the 2nd level of this 3-story home are two bedrooms, including the second owner's suite. This suite features a private balcony, an en-suite bath, a walk-in shower, heated marble floors, and a custom walk-in closet.
Across the hall, the other spacious bedroom has its own gorgeous private bathroom. Since these bedrooms are on the same level and meet the square footage requirements, they can use the same bathroom exhaust fan.
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Connecting two bathrooms to one exhaust fan
The contractor for this project did choose Fantech's PB-270-2 bath fan. This fan allows for the connection of two bathrooms to one exhaust fan and removes moisture from the air with virtually no noise. Additionally, the small footprint of the grille offers little obstruction to the lines of the ceiling.
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The Finishing Touch: Fresh Air
Every detail was addressed in planning this extraordinary property, and some ventilation upgrades were considered. The garage of this home has a heating and cooling system for climate-controlled storage.
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HEPA filtration, balanced ventilation, and exhaust solutions are our speciality
Code requirements would ensure that a proper make-up air system was included to offset the pressure loss from the exhaust. Did they put the bow on the box with a fresh air solution with HEPA filtration? We aren't sure, but we are confident of the value of fresh air. The best house on the block, with the best fresh air solution, maintains a continuous supply of fresh, filtered, and tempered outdoor air throughout the home.
Homes like this can recover heat from the exhaust air in winter and boost the ventilation rate whenever extra airflow is required. Care is given to provide an energy-efficient means to exhaust indoor pollutants to improve indoor air quality.
The ideal finishing touch would be a system that combines balanced ventilation controlled by a TVOC sensing device with HEPA filtration and a fresh air appliance.
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