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Ventilation

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Daveysgingerlovechild

Daveysgingerlovechild

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Dear Grandolddadsnet.com,

Anyone got experience with having mechanical ventilation installed in their property?

I'm weighing up getting a Positive Input Ventilation system installed in my house. It gets terrible condensation and very humid (leads to mould when very cold) in winter - a case of an old house which has had most of the natural airflow sources sealed by modern doors, windows etc.

Reviews seem to be mixed online. Some wonderous claims made by the companies that make them too. But my understanding is to work they need an exit point for air to escape from, so am I bit skeptical.

Any insights?
 

Daveysgingerlovechild said:
Dear Grandolddadsnet.com,

Anyone got experience with having mechanical ventilation installed in their property?

I'm weighing up getting a Positive Input Ventilation system installed in my house. It gets terrible condensation and very humid (leads to mould when very cold) in winter - a case of an old house which has had most of the natural airflow sources sealed by modern doors, windows etc.

Reviews seem to be mixed online. Some wonderous claims made by the companies that make them too. But my understanding is to work they need an exit point for air to escape from, so am I bit skeptical.

Any insights?
Click to expand...
Don't let them install it where it's easiest, it has to go in the right place, and that means weighing up your average prevailing wind. You want the system to have the optimum conditions to provide fresh airflow with the swapped warmth kept.
Condensation is easier dealt at source, extractor fan in bathroom and use it for showers/baths and keep the bathroom door shut proper.
Don't throw wet clothes on radiators to dry, it just passes the problem on.
Extractor fan for cooking, take all that steam away or it will find the coldest place it can and collect. (get your damp coursing checked, and if you have a crawl space under the floor where the joists are, get in there and have a look!)

Surely there should be a bag of rice and saw dust option by now though?
 
Daveysgingerlovechild said:
Dear Grandolddadsnet.com,

Anyone got experience with having mechanical ventilation installed in their property?

I'm weighing up getting a Positive Input Ventilation system installed in my house. It gets terrible condensation and very humid (leads to mould when very cold) in winter - a case of an old house which has had most of the natural airflow sources sealed by modern doors, windows etc.

Reviews seem to be mixed online. Some wonderous claims made by the companies that make them too. But my understanding is to work they need an exit point for air to escape from, so am I bit skeptical.

Any insights?
Click to expand...
They take dry air from the loft and put it around your house, you can get ones with a heater element as well to take the edge off in the winter as my wife kept commenting on how cold the air was when she walked directly under it, she did not like my suggestion of “not walking DIRECTLY under it then” 🤔 so I turned the heating element on and all was well. They work pretty well, you need to place it in a central location and make sure you have at least a 10mm gap under doors so the cold air can circulate. The main downside is that the loft smells can grate (we place a neutrodol gadget in the vent which works ok) we only have it on during the winter and just leave windows open as much as we can. It is not a magic solution that will solve your issues completely but it does work.
Any houses suffering from condensation/mould don’t have enough fresh air coming in to the house in the first place combined with poor extraction from showering/bath and steam in kitchen.
Lastly, as a tradesman I fitted ours myself and it took about an hour and a half … the cheeky swines that quoted to provide and install one for £1200. It cost me the price of the unit and a vent (£350) , it’s really not difficult as long as you have a spare socket in the loft.

We have the 5 year old version of this:
 
Daveysgingerlovechild said:
Any insights?
Click to expand...

Before shelling out on mech ventilation either open a couple of windows to let air through for ten minutes two or three times a day* or borrow / buy one or two decent dehumidifiers.



*when to do this depends on internal and external temperatures and humidity.

You can get a cheap device to measure the relative humidity in your house and, if it's more than 60% then use something like

www.richard-stanton.com

Humidity Calculator

My small corner of the internet
www.richard-stanton.com www.richard-stanton.com

to work out if it's worth opening your windows. You can get the external humidity data from the bbc weather or met office sites.
 

Woolly Blue said:
Before shelling out on mech ventilation either open a couple of windows to let air through for ten minutes two or three times a day* or borrow / buy one or two decent dehumidifiers.



*when to do this depends on internal and external temperatures and humidity.

You can get a cheap device to measure the relative humidity in your house and, if it's more than 60% then use something like

www.richard-stanton.com

Humidity Calculator

My small corner of the internet
www.richard-stanton.com www.richard-stanton.com

to work out if it's worth opening your windows. You can get the external humidity data from the bbc weather or met office sites.
Click to expand...
Do this already mate.
 
Clarky cat said:
They take dry air from the loft and put it around your house, you can get ones with a heater element as well to take the edge off in the winter as my wife kept commenting on how cold the air was when she walked directly under it, she did not like my suggestion of “not walking DIRECTLY under it then” 🤔 so I turned the heating element on and all was well. They work pretty well, you need to place it in a central location and make sure you have at least a 10mm gap under doors so the cold air can circulate. The main downside is that the loft smells can grate (we place a neutrodol gadget in the vent which works ok) we only have it on during the winter and just leave windows open as much as we can. It is not a magic solution that will solve your issues completely but it does work.
Any houses suffering from condensation/mould don’t have enough fresh air coming in to the house in the first place combined with poor extraction from showering/bath and steam in kitchen.
Lastly, as a tradesman I fitted ours myself and it took about an hour and a half … the cheeky swines that quoted to provide and install one for £1200. It cost me the price of the unit and a vent (£350) , it’s really not difficult as long as you have a spare socket in the loft.

We have the 5 year old version of this:
Click to expand...
Yes, the other thing I'm having done is a couple of fans shoved into the kitchen and bathroom. The bathroom has one (it's old and crap) but the kitchen doesn't. Might just see how I get on with those first.
 

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