Low cost ventilation solution for small Dublin office

geoman1

Hi there,

I have a small office in the Dublin 4 area, about 800/900sqft. Attached is a rough layout. https: *** //s3.postimg.org/62bdw0acj/room_ventilation *** .jpg

The air doesn't feel great in the main room since we put in some noise reduction meeting room partition system at either end of the room. We have essentially boxed the room in with little ventilation...:( dumb

So basically I'd like to get fresh air into this main room without losing heat or damaging the new partitions. There is a suspended ceiling and I believe there might be an air vent tube running above the ceiling tiles.

I was thinking a ventilation system could be a solution.

Question:

Advice regards Demand Control Ventilation System versus an MHRV regular system. As far as I can tell the HRV seems most suitable because DCV is not compatible with air tightness and HRV is, the room in question is air tight.... Do people agree?

Can some recommend someone who can supply and install?

Metric Tensor

Ventilation is a lesser concern than fire safety to me. Did you get a fire safety cert for this work? I realise some things may not be shown but as drawn it looks like a death trap.

If this is an office you need to calculate an air demand based on the number of people and type of equipment in the office and then supply this amount of air changes per hour to the office via a mechanical supply/extract system. The systems you are talking about are mainly domestic orientated and the "buy off the shelf" variety of them probably wouldn't supply enough air for the office.

Unless this is a span new building with modern air-tightness techniques used in it your definition of air tightness if probably different from the articles you read on line.

Seriously - get a fire consultant immediately. I hope I'm mistaken and that you already have!

geoman1

The recent works have been cleared for fire safety. The drawing I did may not communicate the layout perfectly from a safety perspective. Doors and glass everywhere, we just like to keep the door closed over so this reduces air flow....


Can some recommend a type of system if a residential type isn't suitable....?

Metric Tensor

Fair enough - provided it has the appropriate escape routes etc and has a fire cert I feel better!

The best option may be mechanical air supply unit. Essentially a fan in some pipes supplying the correct quantity of air for the office. If it's completely internal and surrounded as shown it's probably fairly warm most of the time? (If so heat recovery might not be worth the extra spend.) There are things to be considered when looking at supply or extract - if you supply a lot of air it will then leak out around the doors/corridors into the surrounding rooms. The alternative approach is also an option - extract a lot of air thereby sucking it in from the surrounding rooms. MHRV works on a similar system but the supply and extract are balanced across the whole house.*

How many people are working in the office?

* N.B. - You would need a mechanical or ventilation engineer (which I'm not so I'm only offering opinions) to design this to make sure the balancing and pressure differences are correctly specified and also to make sure it isn't too noisy.

geoman1

Great. Thanks for the advice. I'll take those tips and make a few calls! Thanks

Calahonda52

As above with the additional piece of make sure there are no draughts created on staff: they can be very touchy..
Also will it/ should it/ incorporate air con?