You want to open windows in opposite sides of the house to quickly circulate air from outside to inside. 5 minutes should be enough. It will get colder, but most of the heat is in walls and furnitures and as long as you only open the windows for a few minutes it should be quick to heat up the air again.
I don't know; is it more energy inefficient than having a fresh air intake via a duct? Maybe they are comparable in the absence of a heat recovery ventilation system (mentioned by a sibling comment upthread)?
HEPA and carbon filters do wonders for cooking smells, particulates etc, but unfortunately do nothing for the main reason you want air exchange with outside, which is CO2 buildup.
Seems like it would be more efficient to wear a climate controlled bubble suit than heating up entire rooms. And you could even go outside when it is cold or hot or dusty.
If it's pretty cold outside, then you're throwing all of the ostensible energy savings of a heat pump out the window the minute you open it to air out the house.
Following the thread of conversation, it just didn't compute to me:
>>>> Heat pumps are great for climate control
>>> Yeah, ducts are dead
>> What if you want to recirculate air in your house through your central air filter to eliminate smells?
> Just open the window
It's like we've hit a contraction: the premise is that we care about energy but the contractions is then that we don't and we open the window while climate controlling the house. So to me it does seem to prove that in some climates, duct work with a central blower and filter mat not be dead.
We've just today had our first snow of the season here in a lower elevation of the Sierra Foothills. It's been chilly for 3 months or so, and our heating is an 'old school' ducted propane furnace. In time, we'll replace it with a heat pump, but not this year. Anyway, we're sensitive to accumulated odors that go with a well insulated, closed-up home in winter.
Every evening, we open three doors in the house to the outside. This is after the furnace has entered its timed 'off for the night' state. We exchange pretty much all of our air for fresh ambient, which is great when we wake up in the morning.
The impact from doing this on our propane bill is undetectable. This is because air, even humid air, has a trivial heat capacity compared to the warm house structure and contents. Those are by far the greatest energy reservoir in our home. Very little energy is lost in a daily air exchange with the ambient.
I'm not sure why "Heat pumps are great for climate control" went to "ducts are dead".
I live in Florida, we've used Heat Pumps for as long as I can remember. We also have central air handlers with blowers and ducts to distribute the conditioned air. Mini-splits can _also_ be ducted mini-splits. According to my HVAC geek friend, mini-splits are pretty terrible about humidity control (an important thing in Florida). For proper humidity control you'd ideally have a dedicated set of dehumidification ducts (powered by a central dehumidifier) as well. Mix in an ERV and you have the ability to build a fairly air-tight house with _controlled_ ventilation and very efficient conditioning of the air in the house.
The Melbourne climate I was referring to needs heating 9 months of the year. The vast majority of houses have very simple, inefficient gas ducted heating. Rightly or wrongly, humidity control is generally not well considered.
I was going to install an ERV system but the payback was not within the life of the equipment.
Someday I’ll build a Passivhaus with a system as you describe.
No doubt: majority of the southern US went to heatpumps with central air handlers 2-3 decades ago. Ducts are definitely not dead. Or, if they're dead, then they must be as dead as BSD. :-P
I was responding to a comment that presupposes the need for fresh air. If you don't need that, feel free to close the windows then.