Ever since I was a kid I always wondered how people are not suffocating from staying in their house. Like if all windows are closed how does air get in? Wouldn’t we just breath up all the available air in a matter of hours and die? Same goes for cars too. If I’m on a long road trip and the windows are closed how am I still alive?
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One of the things builders are required to do now in some areas are blower door tests. This test basically tests how leaky your house is, how many air changes per hour your house does (This is outside air getting into your house and inside you have spent money to condition going outside). The more air changes per hour the less efficient the house is, so building science tries to seal up houses as much as possible to prevent that.
If you can build a really efficient tight house then you can use an air exchanger which takes the air you have already paid to heat or cool and then gives that energy to fresh incoming air before exhausting the old air outside.
Cars are nowhere near being airtight, if you have ever seen a video of a car going into a body of water it sinks because water is getting inside. If water can get in then air can get in even easier.
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