New build houses and air vents

Cyrus

We have moved into a new build and it has one of those pesky airvents in most rooms.

With the cold weather you can get quite a draft in (and thats with a hit and miss vent fitted closed over)

anyone got any solutiuons short of stuffing the thing

slavetothegrind

have you gas appliances in the house?

daheff

Cyrus wrote: »

anyone got any solutiuons short of stuffing the thing

dont stuff them. then you run the risk of poor ventilation and ultimately mould growing. and thats before you have to worry about faulty appliances causing carbon monoxide poisoning.

Cyrus

slavetothegrind wrote: »

have you gas appliances in the house?

gas fire only, everything else is electric

Idbatterim

are vents available that automatically control the vents based on moisture etc?

Askthe EA

Vents in most rooms? Are you sure they are not part of the air to water heating system?

Cyrus

Askthe EA wrote: »

Vents in most rooms? Are you sure they are not part of the air to water heating system?

nope, isnt it to do with the fact that new houses are airtight so they add the vents afterwards to allow fresh air in

enfant terrible

Cyrus wrote: »

nope, isnt it to do with the fact that new houses are airtight so they add the vents afterwards to allow fresh air in

Thought all houses had air vents

Cyrus

Cyrus wrote: »

nope, isnt it to do with the fact that new houses are airtight so they add the vents afterwards to allow fresh air in

If a house is airtight no vents, postboxes, etc are allowed. Putting in vents would undo all the good insulation. Other methods such as ventilation systems are used.

Cyrus

Deleted User wrote: »

If a house is airtight no vents, postboxes, etc are allowed. Putting in vents would undo all the good insulation. Other methods such as ventilation systems are used.

er

anyone with a new build house care to comment, any of them i have been in have the same thing

Cyrus

enfant terrible wrote: »

Thought all houses had air vents

not that im aware of

Askthe EA

Deleted User wrote: »

If a house is airtight no vents, postboxes, etc are allowed. Putting in vents would undo all the good insulation. Other methods such as ventilation systems are used.

Thats why I asked about air to water system. There shouldnt be vents in modern houses (or so I thought).

tbayers

Recently moved into a new house, all our vents are in the windows at the top, even when close they leave a tiny amount of circulation through.

Alkers

Idbatterim wrote: »

are vents available that automatically control the vents based on moisture etc?

There are yes, you can get humidity controlled vents which regulate the airflow based on the humidity in the room. They are typically used with an extract fan which runs continiously in a bathroom or kithen.

Sleeper12

Cyrus wrote:

We have moved into a new build and it has one of those pesky airvents in most rooms.

You need air vents in every room in the house. What rooms don't have an air vent?

Askthe EA

Askthe EA wrote: »

Thats why I asked about air to water system. There shouldnt be vents in modern houses (or so I thought).

Yes I agree!

Cyrus

Askthe EA wrote: »

Thats why I asked about air to water system. There shouldnt be vents in modern houses (or so I thought).

here is a kitchen in a brand new A2 rated house

see to the side of the sliding door at the back

Cyrus

Cyrus wrote: »

er

anyone with a new build house care to comment, any of them i have been in have the same thing

Not if they are airtight! They cannot be airtight if they have vents directly to outside that is impossible. Different systems can be in use as I said but not direct to outside vents otherwise how could the house possibly be airtight?

Cyrus

Sleeper12 wrote: »

You need air vents in every room in the house. What rooms don't have an air vent?

any room in my parents house for a start off

Cyrus

Deleted User wrote: »

Not if they are airtight! They cannot be airtight if they have vents directly to outside that is impossible. Different systems can be in use as I said but not direct to outside vents otherwise how could the house possibly be airtight?

reread my post

Gumbo

All new houses need to comply with Part F of the Building Regulations. Part F is Ventilation.

Don’t confuse air tight with ventilation and air change ratios.

All new houses will either have permanent back ground ventilation and this will be in the form of trickle vents or wall vents as in the OP case. The air change rate (or air tightness) test is Carried out with these blocked up as it is a measure of the air leakage through the fabric.

If you have no vents then you need to introduce fresh air through a mechanical system and these are generally circular ducts in the ceiling.

Air to water systems have nothing whatsoever to do with this system.

No such thing as an air tight house, just one that has a low air change rate.

Cyrus, nothing you can do as they are required to keep a fresh air circulating through the house.

Gumbo

Deleted User wrote: »

Not if they are airtight! They cannot be airtight if they have vents directly to outside that is impossible. Different systems can be in use as I said but not direct to outside vents otherwise how could the house possibly be airtight?

Air tightness tests are carried out with these vents blocked up temporarily.

garancafan

Sleeper12 wrote: »

You need air vents in every room in the house.....

Why?

Gumbo

garancafan wrote: »

Why?

Technical Guidance Document Part F
Our minimum building standards.

To ensure an adequate supply of fresh air. They can be permanent vents or a mechanically controlled system.

slavetothegrind

its a legal requirement with a gas appliance fitted

Gumbo

slavetothegrind wrote: »

its a legal requirement with a gas appliance fitted

Part J covers heat producing appliance such as gas. Vents are for ventilation to the room itself.

garancafan

slavetothegrind wrote: »

its a legal requirement with a gas appliance fitted

That's understandable. But what about a house in which there is no combustion taking place?

Gumbo

garancafan wrote: »

That's understandable. But what about a house in which there is no combustion taking place?

As per my previous posts, nothing got to do with gas appliances. It’s fresh air circulation to the dwelling and is still required in houses with no gas fires, boilers etc

Sleeper12

garancafan wrote:

Why?

When I was a kid in the 70s we had no mould in any room in our house. People didn't suffer from asthma and the likes as much either. I'd wake up on a frosty morning with ice on the inside of my bed window.

In the 80s and 90's people started to insulate their homes and get double glazing etc. The more cosy we made our homes the less fresh air we had circulating in our homes. Stale air will contribute to mould and condensation. So we need vents in every room.

Even your attic needs to be able to breathe. If your attic is properly insulated you will notice that the insulation does not go right into the eaves. This is to allow air from outside to to enter the attic. Without it the attic will slowly decay & rot

garancafan

kceire wrote: »

All new houses need to comply with Part F of the Building Regulations. Part F is Ventilation.

Would be grateful for a reference to these regulations.

duvetdayss

We did a job on the house that involved getting new vents. I could feel the breeze coming in so said it yo the builder and he put some kind of sponge in to make it more of a passive airflow

Gumbo

garancafan wrote: »

Would be grateful for a reference to these regulations.

On phone so just google Technical Guidance Document Part F.
They are a free download from the department of environment. They are our minimum building standards/Regulations/codes

mickdw

garancafan wrote: »

Would be grateful for a reference to these regulations.

They are all available on environ.ie
Got to building standards or technical guidance documents and you will see them all there. The different parts refer to differing aspects of building
Part B fire
Part F ventilation
PART L energy
Part M disability access and use.

These would be the main ones of interest for a casual observer.
The regs have been updated over the years. Old versions are also on the site to view. You would need to know age of property to assess which version of the regs apply.
Ventilation is a requirement however the current regs make it pretty difficult to comply without using a heat recovery and ventilation system. This is why open vents are becoming a thing of past and I'm not sorry. The mechanic system with heat recovery gives a controlled air change rate and also uses a heat exchanger to run the fresh incoming air past the warm dirty air to create a very efficient system.

ArnieSilvia

This is shocking to read frankly, what's the point of an airtight house with vents like these and calling it A2 house??? This is very misleading as my house is A2 (IIRC) but has forced ventilation system with heat exchanger, no draught whatsoever. Always warm. Heating bill is so small that I don't even know exactly.
Good to know then that an A2 house nowadays doesn't have to be a passive house at all !!!

I'm renting a room temporarily in a 600000 euro worth of decaying, underivested 7 bed MC Mansion circa 10 years old with shocking build quality and terrible thermal efficiency in comparison to my 3yo house. I would never swap them. Constant temperature is a very important measure of comfort as well as making house more efficient in terms of use of space and features (home office, home cinema, audio system, convenient storage space etc)

listermint

You need vents in all rooms.however in rooms that are prone to breezes or excessively noisey install a draught damper inside the vent itself.

These come in the form of either a plastic or metal shaped cowling which diffuses the air flow.

Gumbo

ArnieSilvia wrote: »

This is shocking to read frankly, what's the point of an airtight house with vents like these and calling it A2 house??? This is very misleading as my house is A2 (IIRC) but has forced ventilation system with heat exchanger, no draught whatsoever. Always warm. Heating bill is so small that I don't even know exactly.
Good to know then that an A2 house nowadays doesn't have to be a passive house at all !!!

I'm renting a room temporarily in a 600000 euro worth of decaying, underivested 7 bed MC Mansion circa 10 years old with shocking build quality and terrible thermal efficiency in comparison to my 3yo house. I would never swap them. Constant temperature is a very important measure of comfort as well as making house more efficient in terms of use of space and features (home office, home cinema, audio system, convenient storage space etc)

A2 is just a figure from the BER/DEAP calculation.
You don’t have an air tight house. Just a low rate of air changes per hour.

listermint

On a side note it's quite amusing that some folks appear to think you can install triple glazing fully insulate and draught proof and then heat a house and not provide airflow into and out of it. It's a necessity!

garancafan

Thank you kceire and mickdw.

garancafan

listermint wrote: »

On a side note it's quite amusing that some folks appear to think you can install triple glazing fully insulate and draught proof and then heat a house and not provide airflow into and out of it. It's a necessity!

I'm pleased to have been a source of amusement for you.

Lumen

Ignore combustion appliances for a second and think about humidity. If you had no ventilation then human activity (washing, breathing, sweating) would quickly push humidity to 100% and then condensation would form everywhere. The water would leave your body and end up dripping from the walls. Then you'd be breathing in mould spores and develop respiratory and skin problems.

Heating fresh air once doesn't take much energy, even if that air is changed fairly frequently. What takes energy is keeping that air warm in rooms with cold surfaces of windows, walls, ceilings and floors. They're like anti radiators. That's what the insulation is for, to passively raise the temperature of those surfaces.

Askthe EA

Thats quite the education. Thanks all.

Cyrus

Thanks all who actually knew what they were talking about and not trying to tell me what did and didnt exist in the house i was sitting in typing :P

Kceire especially, you are a fountain of knowledge on this stuff, fair play.

I said about blocking them up in jest, but practically, is there anything i can do to lessen the impact of a cold breeze? Someone mentioned a sponge, bad idea as well i assume?

loyatemu

OP - you can buy heat recovery wall vents to replace the open vents, but it's probably not cheap to do the whole house. You can also buy better open vents that are designed to minimise drafts using internal baffles - this might be cheaper. what you currently have sounds like just a hole in the wall with a grill on either end.

This is a failure of the building or BER regulations so - you shouldn't be able to sell a house as A2 (implication being that it is warm), when it has big holes in the wall of every room. HRV should be a requirement - this is builders being cheap/lazy, but the regs should prevent it.

Cyrus

loyatemu wrote: »

OP - you can buy heat recovery wall vents to replace the open vents, but it's probably not cheap to do the whole house. You can also buy better open vents that are designed to minimise drafts using internal baffles - this might be cheaper. what you currently have sounds like just a hole in the wall with a grill on either end.

This is a failure of the building or BER regulations so - you shouldn't be able to sell a house as A2 (implication being that it is warm), when it has big holes in the wall of every room. HRV should be a requirement - this is builders being cheap/lazy, but the regs should prevent it.

thanks and i agree,

ill look into the heat recovery wall vents, do you have a link to the open vents with baffles?

daheff

Cyrus wrote: »

er

anyone with a new build house care to comment, any of them i have been in have the same thing

I have a new house (in the last 18mths). Its not an 'airtight' house. We have loads of airvents. There are even trickle vents in the windows.


House is quite warm considering (and a lot warmer than the last house).

JoeyJJ

Great thread. I could do with some dampners in my vents at the front of the house to reduce noise (windy at night) I'm not very handy. I replaced the vents previously with ones that can be closed which helped as i left half way open however as plastic vent covers they let some through even when closed which I never do as fresh air is required for circulation. General handy man prob able to fit. I could do with an electric one in bathroom anyway.

The Ging and I

I think the biggest problem with ventilation is its location. Why put it high on a wall where naturally all your heat escapes. I would prefer it above skirting level.
I had to replace on as I had a gale coming through it. I found the vent cover was angled into the prevailing wind.Being on a noisy busy coast road I ordered a sound reducing one which can be closed if need be.

mikeysmith

The Ging and I wrote: »

I think the biggest problem with ventilation is its location. Why put it high on a wall where naturally all your heat escapes. I would prefer it above skirting level.
I had to replace on as I had a gale coming through it. I found the vent cover was angled into the prevailing wind.Being on a noisy busy coast road I ordered a sound reducing one which can be closed if need be.

I'm guessing they're up high to drive the moist air out

Cyrus

daheff wrote: »

I have a new house (in the last 18mths). Its not an 'airtight' house. We have loads of airvents. There are even trickle vents in the windows.


House is quite warm considering (and a lot warmer than the last house).

the point i made was that the house was airtight BEFORE the vents were put in, the same as you i also have loads, one in nearly every room.

house is warm but when its cold outside and there is a wind you will feel it thro the vent.

Marcusm

Cyrus wrote: »

the point i made was that the house was airtight BEFORE the vents were put in, the same as you i also have loads, one in nearly every room.

house is warm but when its cold outside and there is a wind you will feel it thro the vent.

You need the vent to get some oxygen! Surprised that in a high end house they didn’t fit a heat recovery system and regulate the airflow.

Cyrus

Marcusm wrote: »

You need the vent to get some oxygen! Surprised that in a high end house they didn’t fit a heat recovery system and regulate the airflow.

so am i now as well

they spent money on a lot of stuff, proper wiring around the house, the kitchen, the doors and handles etc, bathrooms, but this was done as cheaply as they could obviously :mad: