Air conditioning

[EmilyG2010]

Hi

I've lived in my rented Barratt built flat for 8 years now and I used to think there was a problem with the water as my skin was always very dry and irritated after washing. By chance I slept in one of the other bedrooms in the flat and discovered no problem washing the next morning. This had become a serious problem for me and I was always going to the gym to wash rather than doing it in the flat.
So I've now figured that the air con - which is a Baxi WH system - is faulty. The one in the other bedroom I slept in blows air out but mine seems to suck air in. Sometimes I wake up at night struggling to breathe. I also feel very lethargic and get lots of bloating (I have a large fibroid tumour in my abdomen). The symptoms all disappear when I switch the unit off.
As far as I know there is just a central switch for the unit and I can't leave the whole thing off for too long as the bathroom starts getting really damp.

So what I need help with: (have no idea how this works)
Is this thing dangerous to my health? I almost feel it caused my tumour!
Can I get it fixed? IF so how much is it likely to cost?
Can I turn it on and off all the time or is this not a good idea?
Can I just turn my vent off or block it somehow?

I'm just renting a room at this place and I need to know the thing is fixable before going to my landlord as he could just say it's all in my head.

Thank you. hope someone can help.

 

[Steve]

Can you trace the pipework from the vents? You might find your bedroom has the intake for the system - perhaps the room wasnt originally a bedroom, but a landing or something, and when the place was divided into room lets, it got made into an extra bedroom.

If this is the case it really isnt right, every habitable room should have an air outlet. Tell your landlord its affecting your health, you are effectively sleeping in a part-vacuum.

Is the system really air con? I think you'll find its actually just a heating system, unless its a really trendy place, in which case this should have been done right.

And its not up to you to fix. Explain the problem to your landlord, and he should have it fixed, or they could decide its too much to fix and evict you from the unhabitable room.

 

[EmilyG2010]

Many thanks Steve

It does feel like a part vacuum. I'm sure it can't be healthy.

It may not be called an air con. I think it's a Baxi WH 402 - noisy white box with pipes coming out of it in the under stairs area. In my bedroom there is a large (about 15cm width) pipe shaped void in the ceiling which is covered by a push-in white circular cover. how much the cover is open is up to you. When I left the cover off once I found I woke up gasping for air and felt very ill. Maybe it is just an "air purifier" or "vent" system?

It'll be hard moving after 8 years so hoping I can get this sorted.

Pretty sure the room was intended as a bedroom

 

[Steve]

Your description is very vague, can you take a picture? It sounds more like a forced heated air system. I'm not an expert by the way, but if you can provide more info I might be able to point you in the right direction, and maybe one of the experts will come on and help.

When the system is running, put your hand up to the vent in your room, with your fingers apart. Can you feel air coming out, or does it feel more like air is being drawn in through your fingers? A better test might be a piece of paper the same size as the vent, hold it up to the vent and if it sticks, we have a problem! But if this were the case, the room would be cooler than the other rooms, unless there is another heat source in there.

(Dont be tempted to leave the piece of paper there or block this vent up, the boiler may blow up. )

 

[stem]

I've never heard of a Baxi WH. Baxi use the reference WM (stands for Wall Mounted) but this is usually used with regard to a boiler that is used to heat radiators and provide hot water. Do you have radiators?

My guess is that you may have a separate ventilation system with a heat exchanger. If so the air coming in will be direct from outside, so it shouldn't be doing you any harm, at least no more than having a window open would.

Click here for a diagram of how it works

On its way into your home, the air from outside passes through a set of tubes that the air being sucked out of your home passes over and so it collects up some of the heat through the tube walls. The two air streams don't meet.

As suggested previously, some extra info and photos would help with the guesswork.

 

[EmilyG2010]

Thanks a lot guys

I will try to get some pics up tomorrow. It does sound a lot like the EnviroNomix thing though.

Any idea how the unit distinguishes between wet and dry rooms? It may be that it has my room confused with a wet room and is extracting air rather than supplying it. It gets quite hot too, if this is diagnostic.

There are electric radiators - not connected to the vent thing.

 

[stem]

If you happen to live in Lewisham or Canada Water then Barratt have fitted Vortex ventilation systems to these properties. There are probably others also fitted with them.

Barratt Lewisham News Item

 

[stem]

Any idea how the unit distinguishes between wet and dry rooms? It may be that it has my room confused with a wet room and is extracting air rather than supplying it.

The idea of the system is to provide ventilation yet retain as much heat as possible. To do this, all of the air entering and leaving the building should go through the system. To work efficiently it should have the same quantity of air coming in and going out, otherwise it will be unbalanced and air will start leaving and entering via other means (windows, letter box, floorboards etc.,) The installer will connect the inlet and outlet points to equalise this as much as possible and get the best air flow through the property. This will depend very much on the room layout.

Normally the extraction would be from the kitchen and bathroom and the inlets would be to the living areas and bedrooms, however this is not always possible to do and keep the balance, the layout of the property may also play a part. The only crucial part is that wet or smelly areas are connected to the extraction (if air was introduced at these points it would pressurise the room and push it to other parts of the dwelling)

For a bedroom a fresh air inlet would be preferred, but an extraction point will remove stale air and the fresh air from the inlets in rest of your home will be drawn in to replace it, so either way the room is ventilated.

 

[David937]

It could possibly be made by Vent Axia as they acquired Baxi Clean air systems a while back, sounds like a whole house heat recovery unit to me as mentioned above

 

[stem]

Sounds about right. Then the WH will be correct and it will stand for Whole House.

EmilyG2010. Because hot humid air (from the bathroom & Kitchen) meet a surface cooled by the incoming outside air, condensation can form. This condensation needs to drain away somewhere, otherwise the water will remain in the heat exchanger and you may end up with a musty smell and maybe the odd bug or two. I don't think that it would cause the symptoms you describe though, and you would probably smell the 'damp' on the incoming air.