[The significance of air exchange for air quality in homes]

The air exchange is an important parameter for the quality of the air in living spaces. It should be guaranteed by appropriate construction measures, such as by the choice of air permeability of joints, that the air exchange rate in living spaces is high enough to reduce the concentration of pollutants emitted indoors. Based of the measurement of the air exchange rate in about 100 rooms, a minimum ventilation rate of 0.8 h-1 is proposed for living spaces. Since higher rates may cause an increase in energy consumption, this value should not be exceeded by much. Appropriate measures should be taken to limit emissions from building materials, furniture, cleaning and polishing products and the like. If suitable heat exchange devices were also used in the ventilation of homes, better solutions than those presently existing may be found.