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Airtight homes

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  • 21-12-2015 11:48am
    #1
    GM77
    Registered Users Posts: 11 ✭


    Hi, we hope to begin building our new home next year, there is a lot of talk about the house being airtight and I just wanted to get a few opinions from people who already live in an airtight home. How healthy is an airtight home? I always seem to get some sort of a cold from aeroplanes\air conditioned hotel rooms and offices due to the fact that it is not fresh air? Any opinions\advice very welcome.
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    #2
    sydthebeat
    Subscribers Posts: 41,061 ✭✭✭✭sydthebeat


    "air tight" DOES NOT mean no fresh air


    "air tight" means NOT DRAUGHTY


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    #3
    delfagio
    Registered Users Posts: 376 ✭✭delfagio


    GM77 wrote:
    Hi, we hope to begin building our new home next year, there is a lot of talk about the house being airtight and I just wanted to get a few opinions from people who already live in an airtight home. How healthy is an airtight home? I always seem to get some sort of a cold from aeroplanes\air conditioned hotel rooms and offices due to the fact that it is not fresh air? Any opinions\advice very welcome.


    An airtight house basically means that the building envelope (walls, Windows, doors, roof) is airtight as much as physically possible. This means that cold air cannot get into the house and warm air cannot escape. That's all airtight means.

    To allow air into the building you use a Heat Recovery Ventilation unit (HRV). This HRV allows FRESH CLEAN AIR into the house at a controlled rate. No draughts from Windows, doors, etc.

    In the kitchen, utility and bathrooms you have extract points which take the warm moisture stale air out of the house. This warm air is used to warm up the cold fresh air that is been supplied into the house.

    So the air is always fresh. It's not like recirculation air conditioning units in hotels or planes.


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    #4
    GM77
    Registered Users Posts: 11 ✭GM77


    Thanks a million delfagio, I really appreciate your response. I'm a big fan of getting fresh air into a room, I wanted to get windows that I could leave open when we were not home but that were not a security risk - I was told that if I had an airtight house then leaving the windows open was not very energy efficient - hence my question above.


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    #5
    sydthebeat
    Subscribers Posts: 41,061 ✭✭✭✭sydthebeat


    GM77 wrote: »
    Thanks a million delfagio, I really appreciate your response. I'm a big fan of getting fresh air into a room, I wanted to get windows that I could leave open when we were not home but that were not a security risk - I was told that if I had an airtight house then leaving the windows open was not very energy efficient - hence my question above.

    you dont supply fresh air to a house by opening windows. Thats an incredible inefficient way of doing it. You only open windows to purge out smells etc.

    you supply fresh air to a house by offering constant background ventilation, be that by means of a mechanical system, by natural means such as 'hole in the wall' vents, or by passive intelligent systems such as 'demand controlled' ventilation or passive stack.

    Our building regulations are written to reflect this.


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