Alaska homes are sealed too tight to breathe on their own. A professional ventilation assessment identifies the gap between your home's air exchange needs and what your current system provides.
Modern Alaska building codes prioritize energy efficiency — and rightfully so. But the result is homes that are so airtight they trap stale air, moisture, CO₂, and pollutants with nowhere to go. The building science principle is simple: you can't build a tight home without also building a ventilated home.
Heat Recovery Ventilators (HRVs) and Energy Recovery Ventilators (ERVs) solve this problem by continuously exchanging indoor air with fresh outdoor air while recovering most of the heat energy — so you get fresh air without wasting the energy you spent to heat it.
Many Anchorage homes have HRVs that are improperly balanced, under-maintained, or running at the wrong rates. A ventilation assessment identifies whether your system is actually doing its job.
Get My Home AssessedASHRAE Standard 62.2 requires a minimum of 0.35 air changes per hour in residential buildings. Many Alaska homes fall short of this — sometimes dramatically.
A well-maintained HRV recovers 70–80% of the heat from outgoing stale air, transferring it to incoming fresh air. This dramatically reduces the energy penalty of ventilation.
Anchorage homes with inadequate fresh air exchange commonly measure CO₂ above 1,500 ppm in sleeping areas overnight — well above the 1,000 ppm cognitive impairment threshold.
Both systems exchange indoor and outdoor air while recovering heat energy. The difference lies in how they handle moisture — and Alaska's climate makes this distinction critically important.
An HRV transfers heat between outgoing and incoming airstreams but allows moisture to pass separately. This means it exhausts humid indoor air and brings in drier outdoor air — ideal for Alaska's winters when indoor humidity is often too high.
Best for:
An ERV transfers both heat and moisture between airstreams, retaining more of the indoor humidity as it ventilates. This prevents over-drying in extreme cold — particularly useful in Alaska's harshest winter periods.
Best for:
Most Anchorage homes benefit from HRV systems due to the high indoor humidity generated during long, cold winters. Our ventilation assessment includes a specific recommendation for your home's conditions.
A comprehensive evaluation of your home's ventilation performance — from existing equipment inspection to air exchange rate calculation.
We inspect your existing ventilation equipment — checking core condition, filter status, ductwork connections, and control settings. Many systems have maintenance issues that significantly reduce performance without the homeowner knowing.
Using CO₂ decay testing, we calculate your home's actual air changes per hour under normal operating conditions. This tells us whether your ventilation system is meeting ASHRAE 62.2 minimums — or falling short.
We measure humidity levels throughout your home and assess whether your ventilation system is adequately managing moisture — the primary driver of mold, dust mites, and building material degradation in Alaska.
Ventilation is only as effective as its distribution system. We review duct routing, supply and exhaust locations, and balance between rooms to ensure fresh air reaches where it's needed most.
We review any existing blower door test data for your home, or explain what a blower door test would reveal. This helps establish whether your home's air sealing level requires mechanical ventilation to meet ASHRAE standards.
Our assessment concludes with a written report detailing findings, ASHRAE compliance status, and a specific upgrade roadmap — whether that's a tune-up of your existing system or installation of a new HRV/ERV.
We visit your Anchorage home, review existing ventilation equipment, and take baseline air quality measurements. No cost, no obligation — just answers.
We conduct CO₂ decay testing, humidity mapping, equipment inspection, and ductwork review. Written assessment report delivered within 5 business days.
We install recommended improvements — from HRV servicing to full new equipment installation — and verify results with post-installation air exchange testing.
Every Aurora Air Quality home visit includes a ventilation evaluation. Book your IAQ audit and find out if your Alaska home is breathing as well as it should.
Serving Anchorage, Eagle River, Wasilla & the Mat-Su Valley · No obligation · Starting at $199
We travel throughout the greater Anchorage area and Mat-Su Valley. Don't see your area? Call us — we likely cover it.