Circulating heat from conservatory

[MarkSmith]

Hi folks,

I am having a cellar conversion done, and it will of course include radiators. However even in the summer (when the central heating is switched off) the cellar is pretty cool. We will have to see whether the insulation being installed will solve this, but I suspect not - the walls don't get heated by sunlight and never will.

The conservatory on the back of the house (south-facing) gets warm, even in January, if there is decent sunlight.

I have an idea to use a centrifugal fan to suck air from high up in the conservatory and push it down through ducting and insulated hose, into a vent in the cellar wall, circulating the warm air from the conservatory into the cellar.

Possibly use one of these http://www.reuk.co.uk/buy-SOLAR-PUMP-CONTROLLER-WITH-RELAY.htm or something similar to switch the fan on only when there is a decent temperature difference.

Does anyone have any information on this sort of thing? Haven't been able to find much about it on Google, though it seems like a sound idea on the face of it. Perhaps I don't know the keywords to search for.

Total pipe run would be about 6 metres long, probably a mix of 225mm (flat) ducting (the "down" part in the conservatory) and 4" insulated pipe (for the horizontal run, which can be under the floor), of which the vertical drop would be about 2m.

Thanks in advance!
-Mark

 

[^woody^]

You probably need some advice from a M&E engineer preferably a CIBSE member ( www.cibse.org ) or similar

My thoughts are that there could be a condensation issue with this air ducted into a cooler basement

 

[mointainwalker]

Interesting idea but as woody says, possibly problematical.

You could look at using a MVHR ( heat recovery system) which would incorporate a heat exchanger but they are normally designed for whole house use and cost GBP 1000 - 2000, the ones I have seen anyway .

 

[MarkSmith]

Thanks Woody, Mountainwalker.

Interesting idea about the condensation. I don't normally worry about condensation when I use the air in one room to heat another by opening the doors, so I wonder why this would be different.

I have seen the MHRV systems - good, but a bit overkill for what I am doing here I think...

 

[mointainwalker]

I would guess that condensation in a cellar would hang around much longer than in upstairs rooms.

 

[^woody^]

I don't normally worry about condensation when I use the air in one room to heat another by opening the doors, so I wonder why this would be different.

Because natural air movement via doors, and moving moisture laden stale air from a specific location to another specific location are completely different

 

[MarkSmith]

Because natural air movement via doors, and moving moisture laden stale air from a specific location to another specific location are completely different

How, please? (Genuine question.) It's the same air as it would be if it went through the door.

 

[^woody^]

You will be moving warm air of a high(er) moisture content, ducting it through long ducts, where it may condense, and then dumping it into a room with completely different temperature and humidity levels in a concentrated and unnatural way. Totally different to natural air movement via doors

To move air around internally via forced ventilation, it really needs to be dried and ideally filtered

 

[chapeau]

I don't normally worry about condensation when I use the air in one room to heat another by opening the doors, so I wonder why this would be different.

It wouldn't be different, the same rules of physics apply, and perhaps you should 'worry' as what you are doing has the potential to cause condensation too.