Bedroom ventilation

slave1

Hi all,

Post redundancy I've been updating our 45 y/o home for the last 16months. Back and front gardens are now complete.
New kitchen/living area complete with new floors, radon/floor insulation, insulated slabs and expanded foam into ceiling, multiple 1.2w LEDS and new wiring and networking installed, triple glazed windows (north facing).
New utility room put into converted garage with new insulated slabs.
Three bedrooms given make overs, some window sizes reduced (NF) and new triple glazed (NF) and double glazed (SF) windows installed.
Showerroom literally being slabbed at the minute and ready for tiling on Monday.
Multi-fuel stove up and running and pretty decent home cinema in sitting room.
House now pretty much networked as well as multiple Saorview and 8 satellite feeds.
All appliances (bar fridge?) now replaced with A+ models. Electricity bills now 8-10 cheaper per month.
My car now drives itself to either local builders or Ikea, considerable internet purchases along the way.
Just one box bedroom and attic to tackle and that is effectively everything done in circa 1200sq ft house...

I'm painting a picture here of pretty extensive effort and my aim is to tackle everything where I can but bring in proper tradesmen when I need to. The home is certainly more comfortable and warmer.

Now to my point....

I've yet to drill through the vent for the kitchen/living area, it's a pretty big space, around 30ft X 12ft and back door has been open most days since finishing the room in Spring. Yesterday I upgraded our bathroom and shower room extractor fans to in-line Manrose which are most impressive which leads to my post.

Ventilation, I believe our downstairs bathroom and upstairs shower room are now well mechanically ventilated with the Manrose's.
I've three daughters and bedroom ventilation is an issue, try as I may at this time of the year they won't leave their windows open and trickle vents don't do it, same with the missus. Rooms are muggy in the morning and very warm, plenty of condensation on the windows.

What mechanical ventilation would you guys recommend, the bedrooms are upstairs in a typical two floor semi so attic pretty easily accessible. The house is obviously of an age and not air-tight but I want something that will allow fresh air to circulate in already warm rooms and relieve symptoms of muggy air and lots of condensation on the windows, something that's really required from Oct to May....
A recommendation for the kitchen area too please, unfortunately I did not leave a power point available for ventilation so pretty pissed about that...

Thanks in advance

Markcheese

I'm in a similar boat... (My place isn't as teched up as yours though) . Just had a lot of renovation work done , would like to ventilate the place a bit better, without having the windows wide open and heating flat out ...
Was thinking of a basic hrv system, our utility/bottom of the stairs is pretty central and could access most rooms from there... The house is not anything like airtight though so don't know if I'm wasting my time ...

893bet

Demand controlled ventilation

Markcheese

893bet wrote: »

Demand controlled ventilation

Cooollll . What's that then ?

BryanF

Markcheese wrote: »

Cooollll . What's that then ?

Type it into Google?
Here is one link in the first page:
http://www.seai.ie/EnergyMAP/Energy_Wizard/Action/Demand_control_ventilation_.html

There is no point considering Hrv unless your willing to address your homes air-tightness & test it.

I'm curious to know did either of yee git professional advice before starting renovations and whether anyone discussed ventilation requirements be that building regs or even just how ventilation systems are easier & cheaper to install if they are considered at an early stage in the renovation process

slave1

HRV, is there an argument that HRV can be used as a seasonal (cold weather) air conditioning system for upstairs bedroom? Heat recovery being a side benefit?

In response to your query re professional advice, I've previously looked for professional advice and not been impressed with knowledge or live examples of previous work, that's across someone who calls themselves an engineer, a builder, a plumber, an electrician, a carpenter or a plasterer. IMHO I am a source of income and they want to get in and get out as quickly as possible taking any shortcut possible when not being observed. I have a much higher attention to level of detail (given my proprietary interest) and do not have an issue e.g. spending 3 hours placing a soil pipe at exact centre of window at exact anticipated height after ply and adhesive and tile versus plumber horsing out a hole and leaving soil pipe not in perfect position and slightly 'uphill'. All along the way I've had a lot of 'you can't do that' type of responses when I can and did as folk do not like something new or hardship e.g. found a barge under some windows crossing cavity and creating a cold bridge, told by builder I can take it out because window and chill would need to be removed and new block work required with all extra effort and time delay so can't be done, I did it myself...
Perhaps bitten, perhaps cynical, probably a bit of both.
In fairness the agency conflict between work and income does not exist here so hence I believe more to honest and real life responses on fora like this.

Markcheese

BryanF wrote: »

Type it into Google?
Here is one link in the first page:
http://www.seai.ie/EnergyMAP/Energy_Wizard/Action/Demand_control_ventilation_.html

There is no point considering Hrv unless your willing to address your homes air-tightness & test it.

I'm curious to know did either of yee git professional advice before starting renovations and whether anyone discussed ventilation requirements be that building regs or even just how ventilation systems are easier & cheaper to install if they are considered at an early stage in the renovation process

I considered it , but since the cottage is over 150 years old , and the main thrust of the very limited budget was to prevent the roof falling in and replace a wonky seventies extension with a less wonky and smaller one I ended up not going there ... As far as we got on ventilation was trickle vents and not even on all windows, (existing ones)

Does mHRV slightly pressurize or depressurize the building ? If not why is it pointless in an unsealed building ( I could see not as effective) , I mean at least any stale air that's being mechanically removed is heating the fresh air introduced ... True some of this heat is then escaping , but would be through an open vent or window anyway !

ammc

slave1 wrote: »

Hi all,

Three bedrooms given make overs, some window sizes reduced (NF) and new triple glazed (NF) and double glazed (SF) windows installed.

Rooms are muggy in the morning and very warm, plenty of condensation on the windows.

Hi Slave1, are you getting condensation on your triple glazed windows?

slave1

ammc wrote: »

slave1 wrote: »

Hi all,

Three bedrooms given make overs, some window sizes reduced (NF) and new triple glazed (NF) and double glazed (SF) windows installed.

Rooms are muggy in the morning and very warm, plenty of condensation on the windows.

Hi Slave1, are you getting condensation on your triple glazed windows?

Hi, downstairs I installed triple glazed and only condensation on the outside of the windows in the morning, upstairs I need to observe better but it was (prior to the triple installation we had double) considerable on the inside, two sleep in the room, no ventilation but trickle on the new triple install...

slave1

Markcheese wrote: »

If not why is it pointless in an unsealed building ( I could see not as effective) , I mean at least any stale air that's being mechanically removed is heating the fresh air introduced ... True some of this heat is then escaping , but would be through an open vent or window anyway !

Snap!

893bet

Markcheese wrote: »

 

Does mHRV slightly pressurize or depressurize the building ? If not why is it pointless in an unsealed building ( I could see not as effective) , I mean at least any stale air that's being mechanically removed is heating the fresh air introduced ... True some of this heat is then escaping , but would be through an open vent or window anyway !

It is pointless as the amount of heat being recovered is too small to justify the cost of installation.

vincent_os

Folks,

I have a 3 bedroom house that has passive venting (with the exception of bathrooms and kitchen which have mechanical extraction). Humidity can be an issue at times as the house is well sealed up. I was considering the following and wondered if there may be any issues with this approach. In each of the bedrooms, I plan to place vents in the ceiling to vent into the attic. On the attic side of the vent there is ducting to bring the air up through the RockWool insulation and discharge into the attic. The attic is well ventilated with Gas permeable felting under the slates. The air in the attic warmer than the air outside the house so I believe this is a better option than putting a wall vent in the bedroom?

I had considered HRV but it is just too expensive. Any issues with the above approach?

vincent_os

Folks,

I have a 3 bedroom house that has passive venting (with the exception of bathrooms and kitchen which have mechanical extraction). Humidity can be an issue at times as the house is well sealed up. I was considering the following and wondered if there may be any issues with this approach. In each of the bedrooms, I plan to close up the wall vent and place larger vents in the ceiling to vent into the attic. On the attic side of the vent there is ducting to bring the air up through the RockWool insulation and discharge into the attic. The attic is well ventilated with gas permeable felting under the slates. The air in the attic is warmer than the air outside so I believe this is a better option than putting a larger wall vent in the bedroom and should keep the rooms warmer while pricing increased ventilation. If this does not provide sufficient ventilation I am going to add a humidity controlled fan into the bedroom as well.

I had considered HRV but it is just too expensive. Any issues with the above approach?