MVHR and building physics knowledge for healthy, comfortable and energy efficient homes
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
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
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
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
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
Building physics is a relatively new science that’s only recently started to gain ground in the UK construction industry. A lot of builders nod agreeably when you mention “PassivHaus”, but not many know what it means when it comes to actually building your future home to that standard. PassivHaus takes a “fabric first” approach … Read more