Yes I ventilate basically daily. I have windows that open like this but im in Europe.
this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2026
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Chapotraphouse
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This is good to do. Many people live with terrible indoor air quality. Think about all the petroleum derived products offgassing in your home, and then think of all the other stuff. Even just bio waste stinking the place up. Ventilation is good.
You are right about thermal mass too. A quick air change once or twice a day is not going to increase your energy costs much because your furniture etc does not change temp much in that time. Your fridge works the same way: the more filled, the less impactful it is to open the door.
My wife won't let me open the windows because every time I do, it's like a firehose of insects coming in through or around the landlord special screens.
maybe you could caulk around them or something, add some tape? idk it'd be too much effort for me
I open the windows at night to get all the cool air in, then close it up in the morning so the cool lasts through most of the day.
Those windows sound so dope! It's also a genius idea to open from the top because of pets, notthatiwouldknowanythingaboutpetsbreakingscreenshahaha.
Yeah they're probably really expensive though. I am just thinking "wow haha i hope this never breaks" when i open them
I have all windows open almost all the time.
The only time I close is during wild weather (like the wind is blowing shit over indoors, or the rain is pooling on the floor), or during heatwaves (in which case I close all windows and blinds that face the afternoon sun, then only open them in the evening when the outdoor temp is lower, then I use a box fan pointing out the window to draw in the cooler air from outside).
I don't have aircon, I do have a wall mounted electric heater in the two rooms I use the least, so they're never on. In the cold I just rug up, wear socks or use a hot water bottle.
I love being able to hear the world around me, like my neighbours practicing piano, or the train going by, or birdcall, helps with the tinnitus too (if it's too quiet the ringing in my ears gets disorientating)
Hello fellow bringing outside to inside lover.
we should all ventilate ~~CEOs~~ more
luigi i'm glad they let you post
My apartment doesn’t have any ac so when the summer comes my windows are basically open 24/7
Unintuitively it's better to keep the windows open all night and then closed during the day, and the shades closed, to keep a place cool in the heat. I'm in an attic apartment so I've got the strategy down now, even made a bunch of reflective foils with suction cups to put on the outsides of the windows on really hot days, I can keep it below 26 or 27 even when it's 35+ for a while. I close everything up when the outdoor temperature reaches the indoor temperature or the sun starts really hitting the windows, whichever happens first. But I have a particular hatred for heat, it kinda sucks living in the dark in the summer.
I totally agree with you, I’ve just got to get some bug nets that are renter friendly first. Without those nighttime windows are a no go. I’m also in an attic apartment, and our strategies are basically the same lol. Only difference is instead of leaving the windows open at night, I open them in the morning and close them around noon. Biggest advantage for your version tho imo is all the nighttime airflow that helps with the residual heat from the day.
I'm in an attic apartment
I'm so sorry that must be lile being in a pressure cooker! I have the same strategy and I'm in the sandwich filling apartment.
I mentioned in my top level comment, but I've also got two box fans, one quite powerful, that when it cools down overnight I point them out the window of the hot room to bring in the cold from the the other rooms and outdoors.
I don't remember the scientific principle behind it but, idk I think it works.
Otherwise the hot rooms just become a heat sink. Great for indoor plants that love the heat, and for getting your laundry dry, but not so good for us who don't like the heat as much.
Yeah, I do the same thing with the fan, or if it's been really hot I point it inwards in my bedroom and leave the door open to the rest of the place, just to cool that room down the fastest so I can sleep.
Unintuitively it's better to keep the windows open all night
I guess I just have shitty windows, but if I do this then there'll be five moths and a few mosquitoes when I wake up. I have a screen but I guess they wriggle through or something . . .
Yeah, I get the occasional insect, but I just deal with it. I'd rather that than suffocate.
it's summer and our AC has a leak so the windows are open 24/7. i hate "room temp" anyways, it's too cold. i hate every office building i set foot in. my ideal room temp is 26°C which apparently makes me a lunatic.
i need to be like way colder than that to even fall asleep or my head will feel like it's baking itself
i don't know about my sleep quality, and my sleep quantity is all over the place but it's not because of the temperature. i also sleep on the ground which is usually colder as well.
unrelated but my hot take (pun intended) is that people who run their AC all night and still sleep under their heavy blankets like it's winter should be put in an insane asylum.
Im sorry i am the way i am but my feet get really cold but if the ambient temp is 70 or above even with a big industrial sized fan turbo blasting my head, my head and pillow just get hotter and hotter like it's a runaway greenhouse effect and it's just another on a long list of things that make me never able to sleep
Uncomfortable truth no one wants to know: being in a room with no ventilation will decrease oxygen to less than optimal level within a few hours. If you have plants in your bedroom they will consume oxygen at night so you should have a window open all night.
Im never going to sleep with a window open but i don't have thousands of dollars for an energy replacement vent to pull fresh air into the HVAC system so i'm wondering if it'd be good enough just to cut a big hole in the bedroom door and put in a vent (can't just leave it open because the fat cat will literally walk on our heads complaining that she's starving at 4am)
Anything is better than nothing. Can’t say how well it will work because it depends on the dimensions of your room and the vent, and the initial air quality inside and outside of your house. If you want to know the air quality in your house you can buy a cheap co2 meter to check and experiment on how to improve it.
Bad air quality is not the end of the world, ventilating twice a day is a big improvement compared to never ventilating. Really bad air quality will affect your cognition, energy and sleep quality. If you constantly wake up with headache and feeling like you aren’t rested it could be caused by lack of ventilation during your sleep.
I open the windows whenever my Aranet4 shows the CO~2~ is above ~800 ppm
how often does that happen for you
Not too often if the AC is running because the house isn't well-sealed.
would you say the air monitor has been worth it? it seems expensive but also it feels like an important component of personal health, idk
(I'm trying to not just sit around unemployed all summer thinking of shit to buy when I'm not making sustainable money on UI. but it's hard because my inactive brain is like "I want [random thing]" and it turns out it always costs money )
I use it to tell if a room is safe or if I need to put on a mask. I view it as a borderline necessity, but it all depends on your financial situation.
Oh is it like easily portable? I thought it was like a home co detector
I keep my windows cracked as often as I possibly can. If I dont get enough fresh air in a day I feel like I start going insane.
That seems like a really dramatic difference though, if you have gas heating do you have a carbon monoxide detector and is it good
Ventilation is cool and good and doing something bad for your lungs does not mean doing something good for your lungs isn't worth it.
You're in your German phase
ach schade :(
rülpsen dein Haus!
I have my window open all they. It's warmer inside most of the day anyway.
what about humidity though
I don't think about it
The thing says 50%, means nothing to me.
Thought this post was about that little old dog on Instagram that loves to take hits of 'ventynol'
Windows are for opening.
As much as we'd like to think we've made "climate control", there is no substitute for fresh air, for normalizing oxygen levels, humidity, temperature, and whatever pollutants might be in the home.
akshually the machine that tells lies informed me that we could have an energy replacement vent installed, which actually does bring in fresh air, but it also said it would cost like 2-6000 dollars and it's like, we ain't got that kinda money to maybe breathe slightly better
i got started thinking about all of this because our bedroom gets noticeably musty throughout the night. I'm wondering if I should just cut a hole in the bedroom door and put in a vent (we have cats we need to keep out because they're annoying)
They invented these fancy "energy replacement vents" so that people would start to think there was something insufficient about just opening the windows, and eventually become more complacent and reliant on passive systems with high upfront costs.
Same way they invented fiberglass and rockwool batts to get us to forget how good of an insulator 12 inches of straw is.
Same way they invented fiberglass and rockwool batts to get us to forget how good of an insulator 12 inches of straw is.
Nah. Straw actually sucks as an insulator. Walls need to be 12+ in thick, they rot like crazy if the relative humidity is above about 40-50%, or if there's any water incursion through the wall. It's also extremely flammable unless you compress it into a solid, wood-like material though that makes it much worse as an insulator.
Fiberglass and Rockwool didn't replace straw, they replaced asbestos.
12"+ exterior walls are good actually, and there are plenty of non-hazardous mineral additives that you can put in a plaster to prevent the interior of the wall from rotting (along with a roof overhang and a good foundation).
And they invented electricity because fire wasn't good enough! (I'm poking fun lol i agree with your sentiment)
During the summer I do 100%. I've got a fan in my kitchen hanging from the cieling next to one of my windows, gets a nice circulation through the whole house when I turn it on and open up, I almost never resort to air conditioning.
It's called Stoßlüften and it's fucking awesome