Air vents

Yellow_Blue

Hi All,

We are considering purchasing old house built in 90s, these have hole in the wall type of vents.

How much would it cost to install proper ventilation (similar to what they have in new builts) with temp and humidity sensors, 140 sqm.

We are not fron Ireland and didn't really enjoy renting apartments with old school vents

Lenar3556

Difficult to say, €7k maybe.

But I wouldn’t see the benefit of doing it in a 90’s built house. The air tightness and insulation will be such that a heat recovery ventilation system will be neither particularly effective or indeed necessary.

Direct ‘hole in the wall’ ventilation works well and some will say it is brings about a more comfortable enviroment than is provided by mechanical ventilation systems. The only real drawback is increased heat loss.

What was it about your previous experience that was the issue?

Sleeper12

I'd forget about the vents. I'd be more concerned about the insulation or lack of insulation. I'd be pumping any available funds into insulation. You can install hit & miss vents for only a few euro. This allows you to close the vents on very windy days. You can't install a hit & miss vent in rooms where are you burning fuel, for example whatever room your gas boiler might be in

dathi

"for example whatever room your gas boiler might be in"

gas boilers are room sealed as they take their combustion air from outside the building so they don't need a permanent open vent

building regulations part J Tgds

Room sealed appliance:

appliance whose combustion system is sealed from the room in which the appliance is

located and which obtains air for combustion from a ventilated uninhabited

space within the premises or from air outside the premises and which vents

the products of combustion directly to open air outside the premises

Lenar3556

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120892734#Comment_120892734

Any gas boiler installed in recent years would be room sealed.

There were various animals in the past that weren’t in which case a supply of combustion air to a room by way of a vent would be critical.

Wearb

AFAIK room sealed stoves need permanent non closable vents, even though they are room sealed.

mulbot

I wouldn't be too focused on the mechanical heat system, too stuffy, dead air feel, and focus more on insulation for the house instead-much more comfortable

circadian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058305792/air-vents

I've gone through this, your major issue is finding someone to do the work as it'll almost certainly involve boring out the hole. Most of the hole in the wall vents are around 100mm but they HRV systems vary between about 110-140mm from what I've seen. Then they require a fused spur to each connection which you could DIY but I had a spark do this as I believe it needs to be signed off.

You can get units for around 200-300 euro but you can also splash out and spend about 1k per unit. I went for cheaper units and then bought some temp/humidity sensors and run the whole thing through homeassistant.

dathi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120895165#Comment_120895165

thats because there is no such thing as a room sealed stove as the home owner can open the door while the stove is burning fuel. they can also partially close of the dampener resulting in co entering the room. this is also true for stoves equipped with "external air supplies"

Sleeper12

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120892734#Comment_120892734

I assumed you needed a vent because of risk of carbon monoxide build up. Shows how little I know