Fresh air and low-carbon: a practice approach to maintaining home ventilation

Abstract

Fresh air and low-carbon: a practice approach to maintaining home ventilation

The imperative to reduce carbon emissions, to counter climate change, demands that new dwellings are airtight to minimise heat loss. Airtightness amplifies the need for effective home ventilation, to prevent negative consequences for indoor air quality and thus for occupants’ health. This research is rooted in the intersection of these critical concerns for housing – healthy indoor air and minimal carbon emissions.

Previous research has focused on the design, installation and operation of ventilation systems, but little attention has been given to the maintenance of ventilation in occupied homes, critical to ongoing effectiveness. This gap in knowledge is investigated in the context of low-energy housing association homes in England, aiming to understand what shapes maintenance practice and how it impacts on the effectiveness of ventilation in the long-term.

These questions are explored and explained through qualitative, interpretive research in five case-study housing schemes. Using a Practice Theory framework, the breadth and complexity of practices that influence ventilation maintenance are revealed. The findings suggest a new theoretical dimension to practices that deepens understanding of how ventilation practices are bundled, shaped and interact together. Illustrating how diverse practices obstruct ventilation maintenance in a typical low-energy housing association dwelling provides the basis for an alternative view, offering the potential for change as identified through key recommendations.

Without effective ventilation, maintained through the life of the dwelling, the health of residents will be at risk, a danger brought sharply into focus by the advent of Covid-19. Revealing through this research a deeper understanding of how ventilation is maintained in low-energy homes, cutting carbon emissions and providing healthy indoor air, is therefore significant and timely and demands that the crucial role of ventilation maintenance is embedded in housing practice.