I didn’t know changing the air was a thing until I came to Japan. And everyone here always says how important it is. I get that if you’re using oil heaters and the fumes are building up, it’s good to flush that out. But in an aircon only environment , does it do much good for anything?
Everyone’s also always talking about SDGs, saving energy and what not. But you know how much energy you’d save if you didn’t leave the window open when the aircon is on (looking at you, schools)? I don’t either, but something, for sure, right?
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it’s for reducing covid spread. Not sure of numbers, I’m sure you can find them pretty quickly if you look, but the basic idea is that you’re making the indoors more like outdoors, and we all know covid doesn’t spread as much outdoors
Ventilation is indeed important.
https://www.lung.org/clean-air/at-home/ventilation-buildings-breathe#:~:text=Proper%20ventilation%20keeps%20the%20air,dust%2C%20and%20other%20air%20pollutants.
CO2 builds up over time in occupied closed rooms, so changing the air can refresh the room.
In Europe with their better insulation/weather proofing it’s common to have a requirement that you open the windows and air out your flat for 15 minutes or so a day. So yes, it’s important and there is scientific data to back it up.
With the kerosene heaters at the schools for example then it’s definitely required. Some have co2 sensors in the rooms that sound an alarm
If the levels get too high.
If you’ve ever felt drowsy in a small room with a few people, the Co2 levels were high – this can be dangerous. Need that O2 to live.
In Europe, we learned to open the windows wide for about 5 to 10 minutes a few times a day and then close them up tight again. Like this, the walls, floors and other materials stay warm, and we get fresh air inside; the old used air, humidity and smells go out, and you don’t get mould.
At school, where lots of people occupy one room, we did that every hour or two; with a bit of cool air, the head stays fresh and works way better than in a soup of old used humid Co2.
In addition to all the other stuff, ventilating a place makes it harder for humidity to settle in corners and start feeding moldd
I don’t think it’s a japan only thing. Even back in Canada we would often open the windows a bit to let in fresh air once a day or so. Especially after you’ve been out for a while and just come back home it often hits you that the air feels “stale” or “old” and letting some fresh air in just makes the place feel and smell better.
In Japan I think it’s maybe a bit more important since it’s very humid here for half the year and things get moldy if they’re left sealed in a humid stale environment. Japanese homes are traditionally built to “breathe” and be aired out almost constantly.
The dangers of poor air circulation/quality have been known for longer than germ theory. I think there was a 99% Invisible episode about this…
Did your mother never tell you to open your bedroom window when you got up in the morning?
Try googling “ventilation”.
You will find that it is a concept that has been around longer than you may think.
Is it an American thing not to know this stuff, or do some people just not leave Texas for too long? 😀
Also, aircon doesn’t change the air. Some people don’t realize this.
Ventilation and letting in fresh air isn’t some mystical Oriental woo or anything. I will do it sometimes just to let built up house smell out. You don’t realize how much all the cooking and human smell builds up over time because your nose acclimates to it. Also dry air is good for keeping mold and other things from growing in your house.
For schools or what have you they’re probably also doing it because their ventilation is not strong enough to deal with all the moisture being put out by forty people. Nothing worse than a muggy classroom. Shoddy ventilation and such is kind of a thing here.
Y’all just living in your filth and stank for days on end, huh?
It was common with my family in the UK at least
It’s called ventilation and you should be doing it all year.
Changing the air? You mean ventilation?? Yeah.. That’s very important.
In the US most commercial buildings fall under a code that requires a certain volume of air from the outside to be brought in and circulated into a room which is done by use of expensive HVAC systems. This can also be further treated with HEPA filters to remove allergens and other things and guarantees a certain amount of “fresh air”.
Opening a window is the time honored and free way to ventilate but highly dependent of the speed of the wind going through a window and the angle it enters the window to determine the amount of circulation and is usually a slow process. Usually not a problem for smaller spaces. If you ever drive through tunnels, usually the long way ones but also as I mentioned above, some locations just have less wind and poor angle of wind entry so even some shorter tunnels require giant fans for ventilation of exhaust fumes or smoke from fires despite having 2 giant windows open all the time.