How Ventilation Can Help Improve Air Quality in Your Home
By Ruth MacEachern
Product Manager
Jun 24, 2025
Maintaining clean indoor air is essential for health and comfort. Pollutants from both household activities and external pollution can build up in your home and affect air quality, but thankfully, you can reverse this and protect the health of your family through improving ventilation.
Why indoor air quality matters
Poor indoor air quality can lead to respiratory problems, allergies, and other health issues. There are a variety of different pollutants that can build up and reduce air quality including carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), mould spores, and particulate matter from both indoor and outdoor sources. Without proper air circulation and filtration, these pollutants can linger and affect your well-being.
Indoor factors affecting air quality
While we often think about pollution in the air being an outdoor problem, activities and products in our home also contribute to imperfections in the air we breathe.
Cooking and heating with gas or open fires can release pollutants like carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide into the air that can cause serious health risks.
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are carbon-based chemicals that evaporate at room temperature and have been associated with health problems including worsening allergies. Sources of VOCs in the home include building materials, carpets, and new furnishings, but they are also released by many cleaning products and aerosol air fresheners. Because there are so many different sources of VOC in the average home, levels can be high and cause short term health problems if not dealt with.
If your home has condensation or damp problems, mould can become a serious issue, and this also affects indoor air quality. The spores that mould uses to spread are an allergen if inhaled and can also irritate the skin.
Without good ventilation in your home, these different pollutants, and others such as cigarette smoke, dust, and pet dander can build up to high levels and irritate your lungs as well as contributing to other health problems such as asthma.
Pollution from outdoors
Whether you live in the city or the countryside, there’s a good chance that there are pollutants in the air.
People living in cities often avoid opening their windows because of emissions from traffic. Nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter from vehicles can seep indoors and affect your children’s health as well as causing problems such as headaches and fatigue.
Dust from construction sites can also be a problem in the city, and if you live in an area with lots of building work going on, it’s likely that you will often find a layer of unwanted dust settling on surfaces in your home. Fine dust particles will hang in the air and can be inhaled.
In greener areas, there are still things to think about. Seasonal pollen from trees and grass can infiltrate indoor spaces which can make summer miserable for people with hay fever, and the pollen grains are so small that it is difficult to prevent them coming into your home.
Radon gas and indoor air quality
Radon is an invisible and odourless radioactive gas that seeps out of the ground in some parts of the country where the local geology means that there’s more uranium in the ground. Places like the Southwest of England, parts of Wales and central Scotland have high levels of radon, and it needs to be monitored closely to prevent it reaching dangerous levels in your home.
Long term exposure to Radon gas is linked to several different cancers, and as such, if you live in an area with higher concentrations of Radon, it is important to be mindful of its effects and take steps to protect your home.
Improving indoor air quality with better ventilation
Improving the ventilation in your home is one of the most effective ways of improving the quality of the air your breathe.
Extractor fans are an important part of maintaining good air quality, but it’s important to note that they only cover a limited space. In your kitchen they help to remove excess moisture, fumes, and airborne chemicals, which also helps to reduce condensation and mould.
A more effective method of improving the quality of the air throughout your home is a whole house ventilation system. Positive Input ventilation Systems such as EnviroVent ATMOS feature a central unit mounted in your loft which draws air into the property at roof level. Air at higher levels is not as laden with the pollutants from traffic such as particulate matter. The incoming air is filtered before being gently distributed around your home.
The incoming air displaces the humid or stale air that has built up and reduces the concentration of pollutants including VOCs. PIV systems are highly recommended in areas with higher radon levels as they help to circulate air throughout all rooms and prevent radon from reaching dangerous concentrations.
Find out more
The quality of the air in your home is essential in protecting your health and that of your family. Chronic allergies and headaches may be a symptom of poor indoor air quality. If you are concerned about the risks of bad indoor air quality, please book a free home survey from a local EnviroVent ventilation specialist. Enter your postcode below to find an expert in your area who can visit your home and provide you with help and advice about how ventilation could help you.
