Insulation

Ventilation is essential for keeping the air quality of a home to an acceptable level, as it helps remove moisture, smoke, odours and indoor pollutants from the air travelling around the home.

Airflow may seem counterintuitive when it comes to being more energy efficient as it means bringing in air from the outside of the home which may be colder while trying to heat the house up, but it’s essential as it will create other problems down the line if the indoor air quality is left unchecked.

One of the main problems most homeowners face today is condensation in the home. The tell-tale signs of condensation is moisture on windows, walls, ceilings, other cold surfaces and behind furniture where airflow may be lower than other areas of the house.

Condensation is more noticeable in the winter as there is a large temperature difference between the inside temperature and the outside temperature meaning that there is more cold surface area for the cold air to ‘condense’ on, leaving water particles.

Having good ventilation in a home and keeping moisture out of the air massively reduces the risks of black mould forming on cold spots on walls and ceilings which can be incredibly dangerous to a person's health if exposed to it for a long time. It can also reduce asthma and hay fever symptoms.

Ventilating your home

Striking the right balance between warmth and ventilation is important and can be very effective.

Make sure vents and airbricks are not covered or obstructed.

Move furniture away from external walls by at least 50mm.

By opening windows or ventilating your home it may appear that you are losing some heat, but what you are actually doing is allowing warm moisture-laden air to escape and permitting cool dry air to enter your home. Dry air is actually cheaper to heat than warm moist air!

The advice is to ventilate for an appropriate period of time, usually between 30 minutes to 1 hour a day, not to leave the windows open all day.

Excess moisture

Take steps to reduce the amount of moisture in the air:

• In cold weather try to keep temperatures between 18-21°C in main living areas whilst indoors.
• Dry washing outside whenever possible. If you use a tumble dryer, one that has a vent through an outside wall is better for reducing moisture.
• Don’t dry clothes on radiators. This will make your boiler work harder to heat your house and cost almost as much as using a tumble dryer, whilst creating a lot of condensation.
• If you have an extractor fan in your kitchen and/or bathroom, use it while you are cooking or bathing/showering and clean it regularly.
• Always ventilate or open a window when using the kitchen or the bathroom and close the doors to prevent moisture in the air from spreading to other parts of the house.
• When running a bath put the cold water in first; this results in significantly less condensation.
• When cooking, put lids on pans to reduce the amount of steam (moisture) being added to the air.
• If you have windows with trickle vents, leave them open as much as possible.
• Move furniture away from walls so that warm air can circulate.
• Don’t cover air vents, they help moisture escape and ventilate your home.
• Avoid paraffin or gas bottle heaters. They produce large amounts of water vapour and are very expensive to run!

Health and Safety Executive (HSE)

Working on roofs is a hazardous activity because it involves working at height.

Roof work accounts for a quarter of all deaths in the construction industry. Falls through fragile materials, such as roof lights and asbestos cement roofing sheets, account for more of these deaths than any other single cause.

Not all the people injured while working on roofs are trained roofers: many people accessing roofs are maintenance workers. There are also many serious injuries, often resulting in permanent disabilities.

The Health and Safety Executive has produced free guidance on health and safety in roof spaces anyone planning, arranging or supervising roof work, including:

• directors and partners of companies who carry out roof work
• clients of projects involving roof work
• designers and specifiers of buildings and components
• principal contractors for projects that include roof work
• owners of buildings where roof work may take place
• trade union safety representatives and employees' safety representatives
• anyone carrying out roof work, including employees and the self-employed, and safety consultants

Visit the HSE website for more information or to download a free copy