Is heat recovery ventilation for me?

[willcjarvis]

Hi all,

We are currently renovating a flat in a 100-year-old building and we are looking into various fixes for various problems.

The flat suffers from poor ventilation, mould, freezing cold in winter, too hot in summer, condensation, high heating bills, draughts, and other things.

We plan to replace the windows, most probably insulate the exterior, and hopefully draught-proof the flat a little, but I don't think it will ever be airtight...

Would a heat recovery ventilation system be a feasible fix?

 

[foxhole]

You certainly don't want it air tight or condensation and damp will ensue.

 

[willcjarvis]

Thx for the reply.

As I understand it, and as you have said, using more air tight building envelopes [in order to reduce heat loss though leakage, for example] often result in condensation, humidity, mould and generally poorer air quality.

I would love to increase the temperature and comfort levels and also to reduce the high heating bills by making a more air tight envelope, while at the same time avoiding the previously mentioned problems.

So i thought a HRV system might be suitable.

How air tight does the envelope have to be, more or less, for HRV to make any sense?

If this level of air tightness is not achievable, what other methods would suit?

 

[DRV2008]

You shoudl consider a demand control mechanical extract system this would solve all your ventilation problems and provide a control on the humidity within the property whithout looking heat and very efficient on energy being used and lost through a standard mechanical extract system