“House burping”, or lüften, as the Germans call it, is the new winter trend: opening the windows at home and letting the cold air in for a few minutes. In addition to improving the air quality in your home, it brings health benefits.
Ventilating the house in winter may seem strange, at a time when the cold penetrates our bones, but “house burping” the new home health trend, open the windows for 10 to 15 minutes to let in fresh air, even during the coldest months of the year.
The practice is better known in Germany as “ventilate“, which translates from German to Portuguese as “air“.The method makes it possible to maintain air quality in homes and reduce humidity, with health benefits.
According to experts, opening the windows just a few minutes in winter, and even longer during the warmer monthscan make a big difference.
“Adding volumes of outside air by opening windows reduces concentrations of indoor air contaminantswhich can make you and your family sick”, the interior environmentalist told the magazine Tony Abatetechnology director of an indoor air purification and monitoring company.
Choosing to “burp” your homes throughout the day not only improves air quality, it also rregulate carbon dioxide levels in our homes, he adds Megan Doserair quality specialist.
According to Doser, the increase in carbon dioxide levels may be caused by cleaning products, air fresheners, gas stoves or water heaters. “Replacing humid indoor air with drier outdoor air and reducing CO₂ concentration makes a big difference in the way we feel“, comes out to specialist.
However, “house burping” does not prevent the growth of mold spores on our walls or dust on the floor, adds Doser, who emphasizes the importance of keep houses clean even when the windows are open.
The science behind Lüften
There is a secular belief in German culture that fresh air is essential for physical health and a fully functioning respiratory system.
This is not some baseless superstition proclaimed by someone’s grandparents; is a idea that has since been corroborated by several scientific studies, notes the .
A 2022 Dane concluded that sleep with the window open improved the sleep quality of people and improved their work performance the next day.
Another, in 2025, concluded that a more frequent ventilation through the windows was associated with a lower risk of depressive symptoms in elderly people.
A vast body of evidence demonstrates that good ventilation, even if it is just open the windows occasionallyalso helps to delay the spread of infectious diseases.
The issue of ventilation was a pressing issue during a pandemic of COVID-19. In September 2020, German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that opening the windows “could be one of the cheapest and most effective ways” to contain the spread of the airborne coronavirus.
In addition to help human lungsopening the windows can benefit our home. Mold and other fungi thrive in warm, humid environments where the air is still and stagnant.
O “house burping” It doesn’t just have advantages: regularly opening windows is not the most efficient practice in energy point of view.
One from 2021 suggests that expensive energy efficiency measures of Munich’s highly insulated buildings had been undermined by residents’ regular lüften practices.
“The buildings we analyzed were well insulated, but residents did not fully understand the heating features, nor the air recovery systems incorporated into the home,” the first author of the study told the study. Amelie Bauer.
In conclusion… air the house, but without exaggeration.
