MVHR and building physics knowledge for healthy, comfortable and energy efficient homes
I’ve written before about the average price of a high quality Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery (MVHR) installation, which includes an itemised price for each detailed ductwork layout, materials supply, installation and commissioning (airflow balancing and client handover). Today I’m going to explain (with photos) why the cheaper MVHR units are a false economy, and can … Read more
30 years ago house-builders in the UK would have never considered how airtight they were building new homes. “Aren’t all homes fairly airtight, once you put the windows and doors in and pump the gaps with insulating foam?” Well, not necessarily. Fireplaces used to be for both heating and ventilation Traditionally, homes built before our … Read more
A Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) ventilation system is a technology that requires pre-design before it can be installed into a home, office, school or boat. The MVHR may include any and all of the following schedule of services: Calculation of required boost airflow rate to meet or surpass Part F Building Regulations Sizing … Read more
The most common question I’m asked by people interested in mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR), low energy building design or Passivhaus is: How much space do we need for the ducts in an MVHR ventilation system? Variations to the question include: How big is the MVHR unit itself? How big are the ducts? Will … Read more
In my role as the lead MVHR technician at Heat, Space and Light Ltd we receive lots of questions and queries about MVHR systems. I’ve collected together my responses to some of the most pressing concerns that people have with a home ventilation duct system – from airborne spores to cleaning, maintenance, kitchen extraction and … Read more
When you have decided to specify a Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) system for your home, it can quickly become confusing which type of ducting to use. There are two main types of MVHR ducting to choose from, explained below: MVHR ventilation ducting in a “branch” layout This is the classic ventilation system, also … Read more
Building Regulations requires that an MVHR’s intake grille (bringing fresh air into the property) and the MVHR’s exhaust grille (exhausting air from the property) should be 2 metres apart from each other. This is to prevent the system from sucking in the warm, humid exhaust air back into the property, also known as “cross-contamination”. The … Read more
14 June 2017: Today we finished the final stage of what was a complete design, supply, install and commissioning of a Zehnder ComfoAir Q600 Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) system – that also features cooling air-conditioning. Although we’ve commissioned many Zehnder and PAUL MVHR units in the past, this was the first time we … Read more
Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery systems (MVHR) are actually very straightforward to install yourself, as long as you’re reasonably handy with a drill and you aren’t afraid of heights. Here’s a step-by-step process for how to install your own MVHR or HRV system, safely, without leaks and saving a lot of money. If you’d like … Read more
We’ve been chatting with people at the 2016 Homebuilding & Renovating Show in London all this weekend, and one of the cool toys we’ve had on offer has been one of the newest, top-of-the-range MVHR units from German-manufacturer Zehnder. The HRV unit had its panels removed and mounted in plexiglass, and the unit’s internal heat exchanger was … Read more