Edit: Context behind this question is because my parents always tell me to shut the windows all the way and I kinda feel like I’m suffocating… literally… (it’s Winter here)
Like I just struggle to breathe with windows closed…
So I’m just curious, how do y’all not suffocate while trying to keep house warm and spend less on heating?
I live in a forested countryside in the Northern Midwest. Leaving the windows open invites in bugs and other small critters. Even with screens on the windows, insects crawl through the cracks, and I’ve definitely had several field mice chew their way through screens. I also have rabbits and possums who tend to nest up against the foundation of my house, and if a lower window is left open for prolonged periods, I sometimes find babies nesting in the window frame.
If I open my windows, it’s for a limited time to get some fresh air moving through the house. I’ll turn on strategically placed fans in various rooms to encourage rapid airflow through the house so I can close the windows sooner.
I only open windows in the winter if I need to cool a room quickly. For instance, I’m renting my first floor to a friend and I live on the second floor. But I only have one HVAC unit and thermostat for the entire house. The first floor always stays a few degrees cooler than the second floor (heat rises), so I keep it a little extra hot upstairs to ensure I’m not freezing out my friend. But I’m always hot in general, so I’ll either have fans on me all winter, or I’ll occasionally shut myself in a bedroom and open the window for 15-20 minutes, just to lower my body temp a bit and help me tolerate the hot house.
There have been a few winter nights where my wife and I have left the bedroom window open to cool down our bedroom, while burying ourselves in thick blankets. We don’t sleep well if we’re sweaty and stuck to the bed. I usually get up a few hours later and close the window, so we don’t freeze overnight.
Never, I switched to Debian…
Mostly just the spring and fall, but occasionally the summer if it’s nice out and rarely the winter if it is unseasonably nice. Sometimes crack a window for a short time if the toddler makes a really smelly bm
Paris here, we sleep usually windows (slightly) open, yes even now in winter
Windows open just a bit in winter is wonderful. Such good sleep!
Almost never. I lived in a bad neighborhood for too long, so I doubt that habit will change.
bad neighborhood
I remember when I was in China we used to have 防盗网 (“Anti-Theft Nets”) all over our windows… I mean it also prevents us kids from falling out of windows I guess.
I remember my old apartment in Guangzhou, there was a sofa next the the window, the TV is on the opposide of the sofa. And behind the sofa was the window, that looked down straight to the alleyway (not a street, cars can’t get in, the main road is like 10-20 minutes of walking distance away)…
Like sometimes as kids you play around and climb the sofa and then the top of the sofa (like the thing where you lean you back against) is the same height of the window.
So you could accidentally play around and if the window was open, you could, you know how kids be, peek out the window out of curiousity and fall out and die.
Like the only thing standing in the way is the Anti-Theft Net thingy.
This is what it looks like (random image found online):
I was always told to “be careful or you can fall out of there and DIE” and jeez… kid-me got so terrified of heights.
The stairs also have a bare-minimum concrete/cement barrier, you can get drunk, accidentally hop over it, and fall down to your death…
Come to think of it you could literally murder someone and pretend they accidentally fell. (Russian Dissidents have joined the chat 👀)
I remember when I visited one of my aunts apartment… it was like 16 floors high in the middle of Manhattan… OMG I got so scared… but I wanna look outside the window but I immediately just feel like I have a panic attack like “OMG what if I fall out?”…
I remember having a sleepover there with my family and literally every moment awake I was like Window = Scary
But yea I asked my parents “why not install those like we had in China”, but apparantly most cities in the US have city ordinances against these things, you need a permit for it… and then since it’s not the norm in the US, you’d just get targeted since people would think: “Ooh they must be rich / hiding a lot of valuables” so yea we don’t have those anti-theft nets here in the US.
Rarely, I just have my AC on to make it hot or cold and the solar panels make it almost free.
Window open means bugs get in, and they tend to like lights like my computer screen and I’m sick of cleaning bug goo off the screen.
Window open means bugs get in
No window screens? 🤔
I thought that was the standard for every window… never even saw a window without the window screen thing
Where I live, there’s usually 3-4 months out of the year that it’s better to open the windows to let the air in than to use central air. Cheaper as well. In the winter we usually get a day or two where it’s warm enough to open up to let air circulate. But swamp ass summer and deep winter here suck eggs to be opening the windows.
Honestly. I used to always keep my window open* over the night. This winter was the first I have regularly not opened my window and just opened it for a bit during the day (yes stoßlüften), which I of course did before as well, since I’m German 😅
* when I say “open” I mean my window would usually be tilted open (“gekippt”) not fully opened wide
I got a Technoline WL1030 meter for my room and whenever it reaches 1500 ppm CO2 I open the window until its back down below about 600-700, then I close it to not waste more heat than necessary
Edit: To give some more context, my room is 14 m^2 and about 2.50m high so roughly 35 m^3 of air minus some occupied by furniture call it 30 m^3 maybe. It is a modern house with good insulation and energy retention rating (built to the “Minergie” standard we have here in Switzerland), but without forced air, so not much air is exchanged when the windows are closed. With this I end up roughly having to exchange the air every three hours or so.
When we taste the air is a bit a stale, we open the all the windows and sliding doors to exchange the air during all seasons.
I find that I need to open them 2-3 times a day.
I open them when humidity goes above 60% in my room, and keep it open until it reaches under 50.
This usually means opening them 2-3 times daily.
Otherwise I get the same suffocating feeling.
This definitely varies by region.
Your parents are right in terms of energy waste, im sorry to say.
I’m quite similar though and air about five times a day but with a timer so that the air gets circulated completely without cooling out the house itself.
The breathing struggle is most likely a mix of dust sensitivity and psychology. For me an air cleaner made a huge difference in my comfort level.
I’d you want to go the scientific approach get a CO2 monitor (the most important element for brain performance when talking about home air) and a PM2.5 sensor for dust levels.
Lol mom told me to “go outside if you can’t breathe” 🙃
So what do I choose, freeze to death or suffocate to death?
I dont think we ever circulate the air… felt like I lost a few iq points… from the lack of oxygen
Haha I feel you!
Perhaps try to be a bit less extreme in your language in front of your parents - or offer them a bet: if a CO2 monitor is yellow or red at the evening they pay for it and you can air whenever it’s getting yellow. If it stays green you pay for it and shut up about the windows!
I always have a window cracked open in my room, but SoCal coastal weather is best in the world year round. There are few locations with deep water upwelling AND onshore flow atmospheric patterns. Of those, there is only one other location, in Peru, where it is also a temperate desert.
mediterrenean climate, california, chile, perth, S africa,etc.
My weather is the same but I live on the first floor on a very busy Los Angeles street, so opening the windows lets in too much unfiltered grit and smog. I do step out onto the balcony daily to care for my plants and feed the birds, so some air gets in then.
Daily, all year roun,for a short time.
Let me introduce you to Stoßlüften.
Stale air contains high levels of CO₂, which can make you feel tired
Oh… no wonder why my circadian rhythm is fucked up… I feel so tired in the day and now its 1AM and I’m wide awake… 🫠
Lpt: if your residence has central heating/ac and was made within the last 50 years then your house is probably getting sufficient airflow.
Central heating, no AC.
Heat is not carried by air, but by those pipes with hot water running to radiators… so I don’t know if there’s any airflow.
Built before 1978, might have lead paint under there… but it was painted over once before we moved in so its probably lead safe(? I hope lol, i’d be lame to lose a few iq points to something stupid like lead)
Ah, then no forced air through ventilation ducts to move air around.
My current house doesn’t have vents either, but I have fans that move air around the important bits that get occupied the most. With my dogs needing to go out, and work, the doors are open enough, and there’s enough leakage to not worry about co2 levels. Except my wife sometimes trips the sensor in the hallway when she takes a long bath while burning multiple candles…
isnt also the lack of sunlight too during winter makes you depressed, less VITAMIN D more depression.
As a foreigner living in Germany, I just knew this would be the main response. Germans LOVE to air out rooms
This foreigner made a video out of their experience
(I was looking for a different one I thought they made, but this is where I ended up.)
Dies ist der einzigste Weg.
This is the only way
Wenn schon, dann auch the onliest way.
Sadly my upstairs and downstairs neighbours are chain smokers. They close their windows and the balcony doors and I get all the (pot) smoke. Why does Germany have so many smokers?
Oh wise German Airbender, what do I do if I live in a small apartment with no windows across from each other to create a cross draft? My windows in are in two rooms on the same side of the apartment. Save me from ventilation sin!
For real tho if you have any ideas I love fresh air and would love to hear them!
Neat, that was a fun read! I’ll have to try it!
I try to open my bedroom window as little as possible because the air outside is usually poor quality and I have an active air filter monitoring my room and removing crud from it. I LOVE living in a car centric city in a country who’s government has been partly captured by oil companies and dealerships at all levels.
I like to think the plants I have in my room help with the CO₂, but I don’t feel they make that much of a difference.
same here. you probably need alot of plants to make a difference, or larger ones. monstera, dracaena, rubber tree fig
How old is stoßlüften? I know people that are always opening windows and telling their kids to go outside to “blow the stink off” and while they have german ancestry it would be from over a hundred years ago.
Southern US, windows are only open in winter, basically whenever it’s comfortable outside. Never in the summer. The A/C runs basically 24hrs a day during the hottest 2 months of the year.
Windows on the car are basically left cracked for the opposite time. Rain deflector are installed to allow for this without rain getting in.
I have windows in my house that have not been closed for 20 years. The one in my bedroom for one.
