Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery Installer

What it is...

Heat Recovery Ventilation (HRV) or Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) as its also known, is a Heat Recovery System that is installed on your home or building. The HRV system is primarily used to provide ventilation to a tightly built (Airtight) home or building that doesn't suffer the inefficiencies of uncontrolled Air Leakage. (see Airtightness for the importance of making your home or building Airtight). A secondary use for a HRV system is to provide space heating to the home or building in place of radiators and other traditional forms of space heating.

How it works...

The HRV system works by extracting the warm, stale air from the "WET areas", Kitchens, Bathrooms and Storage rooms in the home or building through the use of ventilation ducting that channels the warm, stale air to a Heat Exchanger. The Heat Exchanger then extracts the heat from the exhaust air leaving the building and transfers it to a cross counter-flow ceramic plate. The cold, fresh air being injected into the building is then passed over this ceramic plate transferring up to 94% of the heat from the plate to the cold, fresh air. Before the air reaches the Heat exchanger it is passed through a layer of Filtration that removes small dust and pollen particles that may be present in the air. The warmed and Filtered fresh air is then injected into the "Living areas", Living room, Bedrooms and Dining room.

Alternative Space Heating Solution...

The use of the HRV system as an alternative space heating delivery system as well as a whole building ventilation system can be achieved by simply adding a Post Heater to the supply Air ducting network. The Post Heater is connected to the existing plumbing system and placed on the "supply Air' ducting network. The Post Heater works to further heat the warm air that has just passed through the Heat Exchanger to a sufficient temperature for Space Heating, the heated Supply Air is then distributed to all the "Living Areas" of your home or building.

When its used...

If your home or building has been built to a high standard and achieves an Air Change Rate (ACH) of less than 3 per hour at 50 Pascals you must increase your "hole in the wall ventilation" by a minimum of 40% or have a mechanical ventilation system installed on your home as set out by Part F of the Irish Building Regulations, Ventilation.

If you have made an extra effort to make your home or building Airtight it would seem contradictory and pointless to increase the holes in your walls by 40% as it completely defeats the purpose of making your building Airtight in the first place. Uncontrolled ventilation would only act to reduce the efficiency of your home or building and lead to higher heating bills.

That's why it makes more sense to have a HRV system installed in your home or building. When you install a HRV system on your home or building you can expect:

Reduced Heating Bills
Reduced production of harmful green-house gases
Can also act as the primary space heating system
Reduced Space Heating installation costs
Vastly improved air quality
Benefits people that suffer from Hay Fever
Benefits people that suffer breathing difficulties such as Asthma
Improved indoor thermal comfort
Elimination of condensation and nasty mold growth
Easy to operate
Minimal maintenance required
Future-proof your home

Benefits of HRV in your home or building...

Installing a Heat Recovery Ventilation system on your home or building has many benefits. A HRV system will help significantly reduce your energy bills. With high performing HRV units achieving up to 94% efficiency at recovering the heat from the stale exhaust air and transferring it to the cold fresh air meaning that if the exhaust air is 20 degrees Celsius it can transfer 17 degrees Celsius to the cold fresh air coming into the home or building. This means that you only have to heat the warm fresh air by a further 3 degrees celsius to maintain a stable temperature inside the home or building.

What this means for you is a smaller boiler will be required to provide space heating saving you money on boiler installation costs. The smaller boiler will also require less energy to run and so will continue to save you money and help safeguard against continually rising energy bills into the future.

The HRV ducting system can also act as the Space Heating delivery system in place of traditional methods such as hot water pipes and radiators. Why pay to have pipes and radiators that are cumbersome dust collectors that take up living space installed as your heating system delivery method when you have already paid to install the duct work for the Heat Recovery Ventilation system. Simply add a post heater to your HRV system installation for a fraction of the cost of installing traditional pipes and radiators.

Your home or building will also be much cleaner too, when you have a Heat Recovery Ventilation System installed in your home or building there is no need to open windows because the HRV system will be providing the occupants with clean fresh air, in fact it is recommended that you don't open windows while the HRV system is operating as the HRV system needs an Airtight environment to operate efficiently and as it was designed. This is a good thing, closed windows means that no unwanted dust and pollen can enter the building, including nasty traffic pollution. If, however you do want to open the windows of your home or building simply turn the HRV system off.

The HRV system installed on your home or building will also ensure that there is a constant supply of clean warm fresh air into the building 24 hours a day 365 days a year . The air is passed through a series of air filters and any Dust and Pollen particles that may be present are removed creating a clean and healthy environment for the occupants inside. This is especially important for any occupants that suffer breathing difficulties such as Asthma or Hay Fever .

What we can do for you...

At Passive Sustainable Solutions Ltd we handle the entire installation process from the design stage to installing and balancing the HRV system. Getting the system balanced correctly is extremely important as it can have a major impact on how efficient your HRV unit will operate and so having your system correctly designed, sized and balanced by Passive Sustainable Solutions Ltd will ensure that your system will perform to its optimum efficiency.

We can design your Heat Recovery Ventilation System in-house using the floor plans of your project and our highly trained Technician who has been certified, registered and expertly trained by the Passive House Institute will then install your Heat Recovery Ventilation System to the highest standard.

After we have successfully installed your HRV system your home will be transformed into a clean, fresh and healthy environment free from nuisance particles in the air such as pollen and nasty traffic pollution and you will have a constant supply of clean fresh filtered air every minute of every day.

Why you should use US to install your MVHR unit...

At Passive Sustainable Solutions LTD we only use the most efficient HRV units on the market such as Paul, Ventaxia and Proair in our installations ensuring that you get a quality installation and most systems can be installed in as little as three days to a week, depending on the system to be installed.

We also correctly size the duct work to carry the airflow that your particular system requires whereas some installers will just install 100mm ducting throughout the entire system which will reduce the efficiency of your HRV system.

We also offer a comprehensive guarantee on all the work we carry out and our after sales service is second to none that offers comfort and peace of mind that gives you the feeling of satisfaction that you have chosen the right company to install your HRV system.

So give us a call today and talk to us about transforming your home into a clean and healthy living space.