... and also their children and grandchildren because who, anywhere, wouldn't do this ?
Even while living in Minneapolis, in the dead of winter, we still cleared the air each day. I guess forced air heating made that relatively pain-free since you can reheat the entire house very quickly ...
FWIW - Many places/people. Most, in my anecdotal experience.
- I've seen numerous condos in north america and Europe that do not have effectively openable windows, certainly not in quantity to properly vent the entire unit. So you couldn't if you wanted to.
- Some cultures have very differing perspectives; where I'm from, interior "Cross-winds" are deemed to be deadly. You will NOT open two windows at the same time anywhere in the house, ever, period. If any window happens to be open and a kid opens the front door, they'll be yelled at to close it ASAP lest... I dunno, something about their lower back?
- But most people I've spoken to / lived with, across countries and continents just don't bother / it doesn't occur to them. It's not a thing (this includes living with three host families in Minnesota in the 90's - none of them opened their windows much if at all, trusting their HVAC to take care of them. Two of them were medical professionals.
Interesting! Never heard this before. Where are you from, if I may ask?
https://zablogreb.wordpress.com/2012/12/26/propuh-or-the-gre...
My family members used to yell at me for sitting down on a stone fence or concrete bench, because something something cold stone ... lower back / kidney disease.
Some people would feel a slight draft indoors and immediately start yelling for the windows to be closed.
I knew a very wealthy guy in Germany who bought a Mercedes 560SEL - at the time, the top-of-the-line model. He ordered it without air conditioning because he didn't want to get bronchitis.
This makes literally zero sense. It's even stupider than Korean Fan Death.
(I think the article I linked later demonstrates some interesting and radically differing cultural assumptions)
In Romania, too, popular belief considers drafts to be a dangerous cause of illness, but at least in my own experience, opening all the windows in the morning is an exception. Airing out the house daily in winter is seen as a healthful thing to do by many if not most families... but of course once all the windows are closed again, there shouldn't be the slightest hint of a draft anywhere in the house.
Whoever paying to heat the building in question isn't gonna do this.
This thread seems to give a great overview of all interactions: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/45349/how-air-hu....
It's actually common part of contracts in Germany that you have to vent at least 10min per day through 2 different rooms etc.
Even when it's raining outside, etc?
Where I live, allowing outside air in greatly increases the inside humidity. And I would guess this is true for most people given the widespread complaints of dry winter skin and bloody noses. Which is the product of increased furnace operation.
Just because a rental contract includes a clause doesn't make the intentions of that clause consistent with reality.
Generally speaking "traditional" houses in Europe (made with brick or stone walls) tend to have rather poor insulation but very high termal mass, as opposed to more modern houses (and to the essentially wood/timber based houses in north America) that have a higher insulation but very low thermal mass.
In high thermal mass houses completely changing the air does not lower that much the temperature as as soon as you re-close the windows the air is re-heated by walls, ceilings and floor radiating the heat they accumulated before.
[1] whilst in reality it only re-heats the air
I know my grandmother did it but people seem to have lost the habit. I’ve only heard of it being widespread in Germany.
Would be interesting to see a world map of daily clear-the-air adoption. I hadn’t heard of it before this year.
https://welcometogermerica.com/2018/12/how-to-air-out-a-room...