The German trend of “lüften” involves opening the windows of your home a few times a day, in order to air it out, regardless of the temperature outside. While it may seem like an unremarkable practice, “lüften,” or “house burping” as it’s referred to in the U.S., is gaining popularity on social media and trending online. The concept is simple: open your window, or windows, for a few minutes a day to let stale air out and fresh air in through all the seasons, including winter. The practice has been part of German culture for a long time. Since mould removal is the responsibility of the landlord in Germany, they often make their tenants sign agreements to regularly air out the house in order to prevent toxic fungus. Social media users caught wind of the exercise at the start of the pandemic, when then- German chancellor Angela Merkel suggested it as a method to contain the COVID-19 virus in her country. However, there is some research that points to the effectiveness of practising house burping. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) advises people to open windows of a residence as a way to lower the concentration of volatile organic compounds indoors, often released by a large selection of common household items like furniture, paint and household cleaning products. A 1985 EPA study found that the levels of a dozen common organic pollutants were “two to five times higher inside homes than outside, regardless of whether the homes were located in rural or highly industrial areas.” Dan Karimi is the president of Air Leaders, a heating and cooling company based in Markham, Ont. He said many homes in North America are built with ducts that help channels air, which makes it unnecessary to “burp” your house year-round. It’s a contrast to much of Europe, Karimi said, where a lot of housing transfers heat from boiler systems to the radiators, which means there is less air flow involved. “In Canada, ducts heat the air and moves the hot air through the house, removing the cold air,” Karimi told CTV News. He added that opening a window for a few minutes a day in extreme cold weather may not be a good idea when it comes to energy efficiency. “It means you lose a lot of heat and humidity,” he said. “We usually use the whole house humidifier to add more moisture to the air and you lose that (when you open a window) and have to make up for it.” The same thing goes for the summer, if the house is air-conditioned. “Then your air conditioner has to work overtime to remove that humidity that you brought in,” he said.
