Ten Steps to Ensure Good Indoor Air Quality:
- Vent bathrooms, kitchens, toilets and laundry rooms directly outdoors. Use energy-efficient and quiet fans.
- Avoid locating furnaces, air conditioners, and ductwork in garages or other spaces where they can inadvertently draw contaminants into the house.
- Properly vent fireplaces, wood stoves, and other hearth products; use tight doors and outdoor air intakes when possible.
- Vent clothes dryers and central vacuum cleaners directly outdoors.
- Store toxic or volatile compounds such as paints, solvents, cleaners, and pesticides out of the occupiable space.
- Minimize or avoid unvented combustion sources such as candles, cigarettes, indoor barbecues, decorative combustion appliances, or vent-free heaters.
- Provide operable windows to accommodate unusual sources or high-polluting events, such as the use of home cleaning products, hobby activities, etc.
- Use sealed-combustion, power-vented, or condensing water heaters and furnaces. When natural-draft applications must be used, they should be tested for proper venting and should be located outside the occupied space when possible.
- Put a good particle filter or air cleaner in your air handling system to keep dirt out of the air and off your ductwork and heating and cooling components.
- Distribute a minimum level of outdoor air throughout the home using whole-house mechanical ventilation.
Source: ASHRAE Standard 62.2 Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality on Low-Rise Residential Buildings, and 2001 ASHRAE Handbook, Fundamentals, Chapter 26, Ventilation, and Infiltration.