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Thanks but I doubt that. When neighbors use the leaf blower outside the dusts get into our house.
The poster you responded to is correct. HVAC's use an inside air intake, not outside air. If you had outside air your would never be able to get the home cool and dehumidified.
As to dust and smells coming in, rest assured there are many places where outside air could be coming in, whether it be door thresholds or lack of proper seals around doors, windows, etc.
So you will smell dope and such coming in from such places and then getting circulated by the A/C once it hits the intake and spreads through the ducting and registers.
If you want to decrease outside air coming in, address some of the things I mentioned.
Many local electric companies will do a free home inspection to help you reduce energy consumption by identify air leaks/intrusion.
Many wall-units have a vent that can be opened and closed.
Right, you are talking about a 'supply' vent, the place where your conditioned air comes from. The trick is that the ductwork behind that vent does not come from outside. The 'return' vent, the place where the AC unit pulls air from, is INSIDE the house for residential units. Central, mini-split, or window units, they all pull the air from inside the house, cool it, and return the air.
Take a look at your house. Do you have any vents in the walls with ductwork leading to your air handler? If you have a window unit, take the plastic cover off the front of the unit. The cover immediately under the supply vent. You will see a filter, a screen, and behind that a fan. That is because the AC unit pulls air from inside the house, cools it over the evaporator coil, and returns it into the house.
Look around your house again. In several areas, typically low on the wall, you are going to see a louvered vent, about 18" high, about the same wide. No fan inside, you never feel airflow coming from it. This is the air 'return' for central air units, called as such because it returns air from the house to the HVAC unit.
Don't take my word for this. Look online, there are a thousand simplified diagrams for residential units. Look at the units in your house. You will not find ductwork coming from the outside and feeding air to the inside. You will find refrigerant lines that are only large enough to pass liquid, similar to a plumbing line.
Houses get outside air in many ways. Open a window. Soffit/ridge vents for your attic (not connected to your HVAC in any way). Leaks around doors and windows. Every time you go into or out of the house through the door you exchange air. The one way houses do not get outside air is through the HVAC machinery. It would be way too expensive, too complex, and take too much space to install an economizer (a thing that mixes inside and outside air). It would reduce the efficiency of your HVAC considerably, having to condition outside air.
There are some systems that pull a small amount of outside air inside when its running. The OP may have one of these systems. Our old system was like that.
There are some systems that pull a small amount of outside air inside when its running. The OP may have one of these systems. Our old system was like that.
Give us an example of one then, as I am not familiar with any home HVAC systems that have an air-intake into the air-handler from an outside source.
I am not an HVAC expert, but it seems counter-intuitive that such a system would exist.
I suspect the OP might be assuming the outside unit is somehow pulling air in, which of course is not accurate.
Give us an example of one then, as I am not familiar with any home HVAC systems that have an air-intake into the air-handler from an outside source.
I am not an HVAC expert, but it seems counter-intuitive that such a system would exist.
I suspect the OP might be assuming the outside unit is somehow pulling air in, which of course is not accurate.
Give us an example of one then, as I am not familiar with any home HVAC systems that have an air-intake into the air-handler from an outside source.
I am not an HVAC expert, but it seems counter-intuitive that such a system would exist.
I suspect the OP might be assuming the outside unit is somehow pulling air in, which of course is not accurate.
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Just google fresh air exchange systems. Our old system had a unit that would pull in air from a duct leading outside. The filter was located there as well, actually 2 filters. We could turn it on or off with the thermostat.
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