Purpose of air vent in room?

david4791

I have problems with wind through air vent in room n windy nights waking up the kids, could I cover this vent?

What's the purpose of this vent?

henryporter

To introduce air changes which remove excess moisture created in dwellings by breathing, cooking washing etc. if there's no ventilation then moisture will allow moulds (including toxic moulds) to grow in covered areas, eg between beds and walls, behind wardrobes etc. my advice would be to leave the vents alone.

archtech

One solution would be to provide a basic demand control ventilation system, Basically proprietary wall vents which open and close based on humidity and CO2 levels. There's a company based in Cork whom have a french system. Google should find them.

david4791

Thanks for advice

oats 2

i closed up some or most of vents in my new build because they were both
breezy an noisy. this would not comply wit build regs but they just dont make
sense. why heat the bloody rooms an then a cold breeze blowing threw them.

david4791

Oats please refer to henryporter comment

Malaka

Im currently building and noticed from wet plaster drying - slight black mould in utility window recess and back bedroom window north wall - Which fits with water condensing in the coldest spots of the house. You could fit a temporary air vent plug and inspect latter for mould. Some folk seem to be spraying there rafters with insulation leaving no air space between insulation and felt ??. I find in family houses built as recent as 2006 around doors and windows and closed window vents -you get plenty of drafts and those who blocked the odd vent are not now suffering from mould etc. If you have Stove and wish to close other vents I would just make sure the draw is not affected as you could end up having more smoke and carbon monoxide entering the room - I have fitted Carbon monoxide alarm. If any doubt about safety check with professional.

bruschi

Malaka wrote: »

Im currently building and noticed from wet plaster drying - slight black mould in utility window recess and back bedroom window north wall - Which fits with water condensing in the coldest spots of the house. You could fit a temporary air vent plug and inspect latter for mould. Some folk seem to be spraying there rafters with insulation leaving no air space between insulation and felt ??. I find in family houses built as recent as 2006 around doors and windows and closed window vents -you get plenty of drafts and those who blocked the odd vent are not now suffering from mould etc. If you have Stove and wish to close other vents I would just make sure the draw is not affected as you could end up having more smoke and carbon monoxide entering the room - I have fitted Carbon monoxide alarm. If any doubt about safety check with professional.

this right here. <SNIP> ......just that vents help alleviate the problem of carbon monoxide. you never know when their purpose will be required. they are there for a reason, blocking them up is dangerous.



Mod edit: Please dont speculate on events the outcome of which has not yet been determined.

macnab

I recently had the same noise problem with my room vents. I added some air filters to the vents. This allows the vents to pass air into the room but slows the air speed as it is doing so. I reduced the room noise from 60+ db to below 40db (phone app). The filters themselves are cut from a 2m x 1m x 30mm sheet of material that is used for industrial door filters. Sorry I dont know where the material can be bought.

Carlow52

macnab wrote: »

I recently had the same noise problem with my room vents. I added some air filters to the vents. This allows the vents to pass air into the room but slows the air speed as it is doing so. I reduced the room noise from 60+ db to below 40db (phone app). The filters themselves are cut from a 2m x 1m x 30mm sheet of material that is used for industrial door filters. Sorry I dont know where the material can be bought.

This al very well if dealing with windy conditions but the regs talk about a minimum free air area ( or similar wording) and when u use fine mesh or even finer filters such as above this area is much reduced. In addition the internal resistant to free air flow through a 30 mm fine filter means that some pressure differential is required to allow air to pass through

macnab

Carlow52 wrote: »

This al very well if dealing with windy conditions but the regs talk about a minimum free air area ( or similar wording) and when u use fine mesh or even finer filters such as above this area is much reduced. In addition the internal resistant to free air flow through a 30 mm fine filter means that some pressure differential is required to allow air to pass through

The material I used is described as Coarse Filter Cotton as far as I remember, resistance to flow would be negligible. It would act more as a baffle that a barrier.

Carlow52

macnab wrote: »

The material I used is described as Coarse Filter Cotton as far as I remember, resistance to flow would be negligible. It would act more as a baffle that a barrier.

Thanks for that, I was concerned that folk might not be aware of the issues and the difference between a baffle and a filter: u know the drill:)

air

Heat merchants do an Aereco product that is designed exactly for this.
It goes into the wall vent and reduces the air flow through the vent at high wind speeds. It's basically two pieces of rubber pinched together and facing towards the outside wall. When the wind gets strong it pushes against the flaps spreading them and reducing the effective area of the vent and thus the rate of air flow through it. When wind speeds are low it offers little obstruction. I think they are 10-20 euro each.
It's listed as item AEA064 on their website here although I can't find much further detail on it.
There may be similar products on offer from other manufacturers, this is the only one I've come across.