One disadvantage with having a very well insulated home is that in the summer the house takes a long time to cool off in the evening. Often with a house that is insulated well it also means that there are fewer windows and limited cross ventilation and cross breezes.
Recently we have been hitting over 30C in Calgary. It is nice for change during the day, but it leaves us with a rather hot house come evening when it is time for bed.
Last year we installed a new vented range hood in our kitchen. The range hood we got is a NuTone Deluxe Allure® III, which is rated at about 300 CFM on the “3″ setting, and 430 CFM in boost mode. I figured that is a lot of air to be pulling out of the house, so it needs to get the air from somewhere right?
When it cools down outside I find that I can open up some windows far from the kitchen, put the range hood on the highest setting and actually feel the air being pulled into the house from outside. It really seems to help to cool down the house…
A bathroom extractor fan can perform the same task here, great idea!
I have used the bathroom extractor fan in our ensuite before to pull fresh air into the master bedroom. It seems to make a difference in that small area but since our bathroom fans only remove 70 CFM it probably wouldn’t do much for the overall house.