Hot summer weather naturally makes temperatures rise both outdoors and indoors. Seeking cool shade, drinking plenty of fresh water and avoiding strenuous exercise makes life easier for all two-legged and four-legged residents. In addition, we have listed some practical tips for controlling the temperature in your apartment.

• the window surfaces inside are steamy or frozen.
• there is condensed humidity on the structure surfaces.
• smells and smokes spread inside the apartment or from one apartment to another.
• the room air continuously feels stuffy.
• the bathroom dries slowly after using the shower/bath.

Exhaust air valves can be found in the bathroom, toilet and kitchen, for example. In these rooms, there is a small gap under the door for the air to move. The valves have been adjusted to be open at all times. A blocked, removed or incorrectly adjusted valve prevents correct ventilation in your apartment and in your neighbours’ apartments.

By placing a piece of toilet paper in front of the exhaust air valve, you can check that the valve is functioning properly. The exiting airflow should carry the piece of paper.

It is recommended to clean the valves 2–3 times a year; however, valves located in the kitchen should be cleaned more regularly.

The make-up air valves are located in the upper part of the apartments’ outer walls, above the windows or inside the ventilation shutters. The make-up air valves usually have a filter for filtering coarse dust from the outdoor air. Regularly clean the valve and change the filters 1–2 times a year. Factors like air quality and traffic in your residential area impact the need for cleaning the valves.

If your apartment has mechanical ventilation, there are supply air valves in the bedrooms and in the living room for filtering and heating the entering air. Always keep the supply air valves open.

The cooker hood is an important part of mechanical ventilation as it removes air from inside of the apartment. If the cooker hood in your apartment has a control panel, you can adjust the intensity of ventilation yourself. If there is no control panel, air automatically flows through the cooker hood.

The cooker hood must not be used without a grease filter as the filter prevents the exhaust air channels from getting dirty. Food smells generated during cooking are removed best if the kitchen windows and the balcony door are kept closed during cooking. This prevents the smells from spreading to the other rooms of the apartment or to your neighbours’ apartments.

Wash the grease filter of your cooker hood 2–3 times a year by hand or in the dishwasher.

The extractor hood improves ventilation in the kitchen during cooking. Remember to turn off the extractor hood after finishing cooking. Adhere to the manufacturer’s instructions in maintaining and replacing the grease and odour filter. The grease and odour filter must be replaced approximately every two years.

This is the most common ventilation system used in apartment buildings. The air is exhausted by using a shared exhaust fan. It is not possible to separately adjust ventilation for each apartment.

The make-up air enters the apartment from the window draught excluder gaps or through the make-up air valves in newer buildings or buildings that have undergone major renovations. The exhaust fan runs at full power during the most common hours of cooking and using the wash facilities, and at half power during other times of the day. During freezing weather conditions, the exhaust fan runs at low power in order to save energy and to ensure as little draft as possible inside the apartment.

This system is used in older buildings. The air is exhausted from the apartment with the help of gravity and through the flues. The make-up air enters the apartment from the window draught excluder gaps or through the make-up air valves in newer buildings or buildings that have undergone major renovations. Keeping the windows open during summer improves ventilation. An extractor hood equipped with a grease filter and a fan decreases the amount of smells and smokes generated during cooking.

The air is exhausted by using an apartment-specific exhaust fan. The exhaust fan is continuously running and the ventilation efficiency can be adjusted by using the extractor hood’s control panel in line with the appliance’s instructions. The make-up air enters the apartment from the window draught excluder gaps or through the make-up air valves in newer buildings or buildings that have undergone major renovations.

In this ventilation system, the exhaust and supply airs pass through fans. The apartment’s supply air is filtered and sometimes preheated. Heat is recovered from the exhaust air. The ventilation is continuously running and the efficiency is adjusted in a centralised manner or separately for each apartment by using the control panel of the cooker hood.