Where to start...
About 9 months ago, we finally purchased our first, very nice ground floor, 2 bedroom flat. Within days (mid Feb) we found that this place really need some sort of ventilation as there was way too much condensation, so there it was: replaced bathroom fan (100mm) for more economical and more powerful, same with kitchen (and discovered that there was same cheapo fan 100mm)... Not much difference. Under cut door for better air flow. Not much change. Checked for any leaks. No leaks. Air bricks? Yes, biggest I have seeing in both bedrooms. They are always fully open thus making them really cold... But RH is still around 70% in the morning.
Next upgrade: we went for dehumidifier... It will extract about 2L of water in 4h. and drop RH to 55%, but... 3 settings where lowest is 350W and highest 850W measured at the plug, is no go for a long run.
Then it got me thinking: If this place is so tight, why not to fit properly functioning ventilation with heat recovery because to waste heat from kitchen and bathroom is plainly stupid.
So, I spent next to nearly 2 weeks researching trough various places for my ultimate MVHR. The options are varied but there it is one common point in all of them: PRICE. there is virtually nothing below £600 with some sort of quality build... Ok, they will tell you about 70-85% efficiency but with AC motors build in them. Basically very juicy and suitable for whole house application. What about flats...?
Then 2 items caught my attention: VUE-100-P-Mini @ £199 and HR-100-RS @£220. After research on various web pages i decided to get VUE-100-P-mini. What a disaster. Unit itself is great and very good quality but with wrong description. VUE-100-P-mini has Energy Recovery Paper Core and NOT Plastic/Aluminium Heat Only Recovery core. Description will tell everyone that you can connect unit to kitchen and bathroom but original manual on manufacturer page will tell you that this unit is not suitable for such configuration... All this I found after ordering and receiving unit at home and only after spotting lack of drain on casing... Unit going back to seller. I hope there will be no problems with it.
Next is HR-100-RS (bottom access), there are 2 companies having the same unit just different name Vent-Axia and Swiftair, but basically this is the same unit. So, unit received within 24h from ordering, very good. Smaller box than VUE and the unit is about half size of it. First impression: how this unit suppose to ventilate up to 30m of 100mm duct?? Never mind, lets open it.
You know, there are times that you just want to throw things around or shoot that person who design such a thing... Motor not fixed anywhere, gaskets sitting half way or is rolled off not sealing anything, core... CORE is just a piece of thin plastic sheets squeezed in between and gaps between sheets for around 4-6mm... this is for 100mm duct but if you look inside there is fan window about 30mm x 60mm inside of that round duct... I just wanted cry.
I've lost 1 week for it. Now, I have a problem with either keeping HR-100-RS in my cupboard and forcing to work and than replacing soon after I will get all the bits and build one off for myself, even knowing that it's just piece of.... or send back both units first thing on Mon. I'm working with big industrial Air Handling Units, but seeing this is just a shock for me.
About 9 months ago, we finally purchased our first, very nice ground floor, 2 bedroom flat. Within days (mid Feb) we found that this place really need some sort of ventilation as there was way too much condensation, so there it was: replaced bathroom fan (100mm) for more economical and more powerful, same with kitchen (and discovered that there was same cheapo fan 100mm)... Not much difference. Under cut door for better air flow. Not much change. Checked for any leaks. No leaks. Air bricks? Yes, biggest I have seeing in both bedrooms. They are always fully open thus making them really cold... But RH is still around 70% in the morning.
Next upgrade: we went for dehumidifier... It will extract about 2L of water in 4h. and drop RH to 55%, but... 3 settings where lowest is 350W and highest 850W measured at the plug, is no go for a long run.
Then it got me thinking: If this place is so tight, why not to fit properly functioning ventilation with heat recovery because to waste heat from kitchen and bathroom is plainly stupid.
So, I spent next to nearly 2 weeks researching trough various places for my ultimate MVHR. The options are varied but there it is one common point in all of them: PRICE. there is virtually nothing below £600 with some sort of quality build... Ok, they will tell you about 70-85% efficiency but with AC motors build in them. Basically very juicy and suitable for whole house application. What about flats...?
Then 2 items caught my attention: VUE-100-P-Mini @ £199 and HR-100-RS @£220. After research on various web pages i decided to get VUE-100-P-mini. What a disaster. Unit itself is great and very good quality but with wrong description. VUE-100-P-mini has Energy Recovery Paper Core and NOT Plastic/Aluminium Heat Only Recovery core. Description will tell everyone that you can connect unit to kitchen and bathroom but original manual on manufacturer page will tell you that this unit is not suitable for such configuration... All this I found after ordering and receiving unit at home and only after spotting lack of drain on casing... Unit going back to seller. I hope there will be no problems with it.
Next is HR-100-RS (bottom access), there are 2 companies having the same unit just different name Vent-Axia and Swiftair, but basically this is the same unit. So, unit received within 24h from ordering, very good. Smaller box than VUE and the unit is about half size of it. First impression: how this unit suppose to ventilate up to 30m of 100mm duct?? Never mind, lets open it.
You know, there are times that you just want to throw things around or shoot that person who design such a thing... Motor not fixed anywhere, gaskets sitting half way or is rolled off not sealing anything, core... CORE is just a piece of thin plastic sheets squeezed in between and gaps between sheets for around 4-6mm... this is for 100mm duct but if you look inside there is fan window about 30mm x 60mm inside of that round duct... I just wanted cry.
I've lost 1 week for it. Now, I have a problem with either keeping HR-100-RS in my cupboard and forcing to work and than replacing soon after I will get all the bits and build one off for myself, even knowing that it's just piece of.... or send back both units first thing on Mon. I'm working with big industrial Air Handling Units, but seeing this is just a shock for me.