Room Vent

brownbinman

We got our box room's external walls insulted internally, if that makes sense.

It's due to be our nursery and I was working on it over weekend. I decided to fill up the vent as I thought having the cold air coming in over baby might be bad idea.

Now I'm having second thoughts and wondering if I made a mistake. I can quickly reverse it as it's only pollyfill and I could put in a adjustable vent.

Anyone any advice?

Thanks in advance

_Brian

Some ventilation is always good, adjustable would be the way to go.

brownbinman

Much obliged, don't mind admitting I made a mistake and fixing it

Sleeper12

Every room must have a vent. The room needs fresh air to breath. Without the vent you will get condensation and mould. It will be less healthy without the vent

Lumen

brownbinman wrote: »

I thought having the cold air coming in over baby might be bad idea.

I know this isn't a parenting forum, but babies sleep better (and safer, I think) in a cool room.

It's been a few years and I've tried to blot out the suffering but ISTR 18C was recommended, which was below the temperature at which the mother started moaning about the house being freezing. :pac:

Doop

Blocking up vents is not a good idea and will lead to mold and condensation problems. You can get a 'hit and miss' vent cover which you can close if you feel a draught or its particularly cold, fresh air will still permeate the vent to some extend while closed.

brownbinman

picked up adjustable vent there, definitely made mistake with it so

Will fix it later when home

Thanks folks

listermint

Dont ever block a vent up in any room - ever!

Blocking up vents prevents moisture exiting the space. This moisture has to go somewhere and condenses on the coldest surface in that space.

Mainly windows. but can be cold walls or ceilings. This leads to mould growth and respiratory problems for anyone inhabiting that space.

you have to reopen that vent, you can replace its inside cover with something that is more adjustable but never fully close it.

the baby will do fine, get a baby thermometer and leave it plugged in, they have a colour coded light on them indicating when its too cold, just right or too hot.

just right ranges from 17-20 Degrees.

GreeBo

Sleeper12 wrote: »

Every room must have a vent. The room needs fresh air to breath. Without the vent you will get condensation and mould. It will be less healthy without the vent

What about passive houses?

Seems a terrible waste to get external insulation and then have a hole in your wall.

Something like the below might be worth a look.
https://www.sovchem.co.uk/passyfier-vent-mk-2.html

listermint

GreeBo wrote: »

What about passive houses?

Seems a terrible waste to get external insulation and then have a hole in your wall.

Passive houses are Air Tight

they also have a central air ventilation system to control air flow in and out.


This is not the case when just throwing up external wall insulation.



You need Air Flow!!

GreeBo

listermint wrote: »

Passive houses are Air Tight

they also have a central air ventilation system to control air flow in and out.


This is not the case when just throwing up external wall insulation.



You need Air Flow!!

You deffo need air flow in a cold leaky house, but do you still need vents in a well (externally) insulated house? Where is the vapour going to condense? there shouldnt be any cold surfaces?

You will still need them under suspended floors/cold attic spaces etc, but I would have thought the living portion of the house would be vent free.

Most of the heat loss is through air movement, so external insulation would seem to be a waste of time if you still have vents to the outside?

Calahonda52

GreeBo wrote: »

What about passive houses?

Seems a terrible waste to get external insulation and then have a hole in your wall.

Something like the below might be worth a look.
https://www.sovchem.co.uk/passyfier-vent-mk-2.html

You need to go to specsavers:
OP wrote: We got our box room's external walls insulated internally

listermint

GreeBo wrote: »

You deffo need air flow in a cold leaky house, but do you still need vents in a well (externally) insulated house? Where is the vapour going to condense? there shouldnt be any cold surfaces?

You will still need them under suspended floors/cold attic spaces etc, but I would have thought the living portion of the house would be vent free.

Most of the heat loss is through air movement, so external insulation would seem to be a waste of time if you still have vents to the outside?

Jesus wept.


YES

you always need ventilation in a house be it mechanically controlled or passively controlled.

External or no external insulation.

For example you will not qualify for the Grant if you have your house externally insulated and there are no vents. no installer will do the job for you if there is no vents on the house.

GreeBo

Calahonda52 wrote: »

You need to go to specsavers:
OP wrote: We got our box room's external walls insulated internally

Ahh, indeed I do!

listermint wrote: »

Jesus wept.

Did he have adequate airflow for this?
Knowing what I know about his family, he probably lived in a timber framed house!

YES

you always need ventilation in a house be it mechanically controlled or passively controlled.

External or no external insulation.

For example you will not qualify for the Grant if you have your house externally insulated and there are no vents. no installer will do the job for you if there is no vents on the house.

Interesting, yet there are many homes that have no vents at all in the living spaces.
I presume they will do it sans-vents if you are aiming for an airtight system with HVAC?

listermint

GreeBo wrote: »

Ahh, indeed I do!

Did he have adequate airflow for this?
Knowing what I know about his family, he probably lived in a timber framed house!




Interesting, yet there are many homes that have no vents at all in the living spaces.
I presume they will do it sans-vents if you are aiming for an airtight system with HVAC?

There are many homes with no vents and no mechanical ventilation

What they do have is a respiratory problems like you find across Dublin CC social housing of the 80's 90's early 00's from people blocking up vents or having none.

Sage way of handling the constant moisture that humans put out.


If the house is passive it has ventilation. There is no way around this.

GreeBo

listermint wrote: »

There are many homes with no vents and no mechanical ventilation

What they do have is a respiratory problems like you find across Dublin CC social housing of the 80's 90's early 00's from people blocking up vents or having none.

Sage way of handling the constant moisture that humans put out.

Most likely those houses are leaky enough to not need vents!

If the house is passive it has ventilation. There is no way around this.

Sorry, Im not saying that a passive house doesnt have ventilation, I'm saying it wouldnt have external room air vents, but would/could still be externally insulated.

listermint

GreeBo wrote: »

Most likely those houses are leaky enough to not need vents!



Sorry, Im not saying that a passive house doesnt have ventilation, I'm saying it wouldnt have external room air vents, but would/could still be externally insulated.

It would have external vents, they are centrally controlled.


At this point im not even sure what you are arguing about, Do you know anything about the subject matter?

I do because i installed 200mm external insulation on my entire house , added ventilation had cavities filled and installed up-rated windows and doors.

Sleeper12

GreeBo wrote:

Interesting, yet there are many homes that have no vents at all in the living spaces. I presume they will do it sans-vents if you are aiming for an airtight system with HVAC?

I don't know if you are right or wrong. Could these house have trickle window vents?

GreeBo

listermint wrote: »

It would have external vents, they are centrally controlled.

Yes, it would vents to the outside but they would not just be passive holes in the wall.

At this point im not even sure what you are arguing about, Do you know anything about the subject matter?

I do because i installed 200mm external insulation on my entire house , added ventilation had cavities filled and installed up-rated windows and doors.

I thought I was having a discussion on a discussion forum, but if you are going to try to turn it into a pissing contest I'll just ignore you and move on.

Sleeper12 wrote: »

I don't know if you are right or wrong. Could these house have trickle window vents?

From my experience they are just leaky!
Any that have retrofitted double glazing units could well have trickle vents in them, but as above, they are usually built like sieves with the crawls spaces ventilation having unrestricted access to the rest of the living space.

The "dirt under the floorboards" kinda stuff that I grew up in.:o

listermint

There is no pissing contest.

You need airflow

end of story.

Orchids

I live in a 1960’s house with solid block walls, the vent in the master bedroom is hidden by built in wardrobes which are sealed to the walls & the window is covered in condensation during the winter; is there anything I can do to rectify the problem as I suffer repeated chest infections and I doubt the situation helps much

Thanks for any advice

Sleeper12

Orchids wrote:

Thanks for any advice

You can get a vent installed on the wall outside of the wardrobe. Long term you should be looking at insulation on the walls either inside or outside.

brownbinman

wasn't expecting this when I asked the question. Got home and fixed it last night

Thanks everyone