Is this how all new homes should be built in 2023? (Case Study)

MVHR kitchen extract grille with grease filter in luxury home

Heat, Space and Light Ltd has completed the design, supply and commissioning of a Passivhaus-specification MVHR ventilation system for a luxury new build in the northwest of England. The home was also tested by our building airtightness team and achieved an incredibly airtight result of 0.76 m3hr/m2 @50Pa. It’s only slightly shy of a fully-certified … Read more

MVHR system balancing and handover in Surrey luxury eco new build

MVHR system installed into plant room next to Air Source Heat Pump and hot water cylinder

Our MVHR design and commissioning team has recently completed the detailed ductwork design, supply of materials and balancing of our Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery system (MVHR) at a highly sophisticated new build home in Surrey. As part of our turnkey MVHR design, supply and commissioning service we’ve issued the MVHR Ventilation Airflow Measurement and … Read more

Cheap MVHR or expensive MVHR? The science behind Heat Exchanger Efficiency

Building dust is visible inside the heat exchanger as the filter doesn't fit properly - this will damage the heat exchanger

A Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery (MVHR) unit is a cornerstone of a low energy home with healthy indoor air. There are a lot of MVHRs on the market, and one way to compare between another is to look at its Heat Exchanger Efficiency score. Today I’ll explain what to watch for when comparing a cheap … Read more

MVHR retrofit design and installation in a 100-year old cottage

Loft-fitted Zehnder Q350 MVHR with pre-heater by Heatspaceandlight.com

We have completed the design and first fix installation of a Zehnder Q350 MVHR system with ComfoTube ducting into a 100-year-old cottage that’s undergoing a low energy retrofit upgrade. The MVHR system will improve the indoor air quality, comfort and energy efficiency, but also protect the century-old building fabric by ensuring indoor humidity is dealt … Read more

Hygiene Ventilation and why it should be designed into homes and offices

Filters for a Zehnder ComfoAir MVHR unit

When we consider examples of good hygiene in our home, we may think of easy-to-clean materials, strong disinfectants and mops and buckets. But as Covid-19 is proving, hygiene in the home also relates significantly to the air we breathe indoors, and the bacterial and viral particles suspended within the air around us. There are many … Read more

Do we need to make homes airtight in the UK?

Level 2 airtightness testing with blower door fan

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

MVHR Commissioning of a Zehnder ComfoAir Q600 with ComfoCool unit completed

Complicated ducting for an MVHR system with ComfoCool

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

Five most common problems with Mechanical Heat Recovery (MVHR) Units

MVHR Schematic showing how warm ambient air can affect the accuracy of the Heat Exchanger Efficiency

Modern homes are shifting towards increasing levels of airtightness in order to secure heat-saving benefits. With increasing levels of airtightness comes a need for a ventilation strategy. For Passivhaus, this means an MVHR system. Heat from the home is lost in two ways: through the fabric elements as it passes through our walls, windows, doors, … Read more

How poor ventilation in your office is making you tired and ill

Mould in a classroom of a school near the window frame

We spend a huge part of our lives indoors – I’ve spent 96 per cent of my last 24 hours indoors, and it’s not an unusual day for me in winter. Consider your day. How long were you actually outside in the sunshine (or rain) altogether today? During mid-winter in England here was my typical day: … Read more

Why double-glazing doesn’t solve your comfort issue – and can make it worse

See if any of this sounds true to you. You live in a typical English home. It’s made of brick, it has timber-frame and single-glazed or double-glazed windows and woolly yellow insulation stuffed into the rafters in the loft. It was built after the first or second world war in post-boom Britain. You spend £800 … Read more