Ventilation systems are a great way to make sure your indoor air is healthy. They help you remove many kinds of pollutants, moisture and odors from your building or home.
The best ventilation equipment can bring in fresh air and exhaust stale air without losing heat or cooling energy. ERV and HRV systems from Zehnder America do this by using an energy recovery process.
Improves Indoor Air Quality
Since indoor air quality can make or break health, proper ventilation is essential. Ventilation systems bring in fresh outdoor air, expelling stale indoor air and reducing levels of contaminants. These pollutants include airborne bacteria, fungi, dust mites, pollen, chemicals and gases like carbon monoxide. These contaminants can cause a variety of health problems, including respiratory distress and even cancer. Some individuals are more sensitive to poor indoor air quality, such as young children and pregnant women. People with asthma, heart disease and chronic diseases also may need a ventilation system designed to reduce their exposure to harmful particles.
The ventilation system in your home can be as simple as opening a window or as complex as a whole house fan or ductwork with built-in fans and exhaust vents. Most homeowners choose a mechanical or hybrid ventilation system that uses home design, HVAC units and ducts to control the airflow rate into a home and the flow rate of dirty air out of a home.
Properly designed mechanical ventilation systems minimize energy costs by locating intake and exhaust vents far away from sources of odors, pollutants and moisture. They also use large filters with more surface area than smaller ones to increase efficiency and reduce static pressure loss that drives the use of more power to operate fans and blowers.
Stops Condensation
Condensation is a common problem in homes. If left untreated it can lead to damp problems around the home, black mould growth and damage to decoration. Ventilation systems help to stop condensation by removing excess moisture from the air. They are also able to prevent humidity from rising. There are a number of ways to tackle condensation in the home including using a dehumidifier or opening windows and doors more often. However, ventilation is by far the best way to combat condensation.
Ventilation systems such as the Nuaire Drimaster Eco PIV work by continuously replacing the stale moist air in your property with fresh clean filtered air from outside. This dilutes and displaces the damp stale air, helping to eliminate condensation in the property.
MVHR (Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery) systems are the best solution to avoid condensation in new builds and renovation projects. These systems provide whole house ventilation supplying fresh air into living areas, bedrooms and kitchens and extracting warm stale air from bathrooms, utility rooms, kitchens and WCs while recovering up to 95% of the heat that is normally lost through the building fabric.
The MVHR system can be installed into existing dwellings without the need for ducting and uses negative pressure to force out damp stale air, creating an overpressure of fresh filtered air in your property. This air is then warmed by the heat extracted from stale air in the property.
Controls Air Temperature
The air in buildings can become hot and stuffy over time, making people feel uncomfortable and reducing productivity. Ventilation systems help to control the temperature of the air by bringing in fresh air and expelling waste air. This can also reduce condensation which can lead to mould and rotting surfaces.
Ventilation systems can also be used to remove harmful gases and unpleasant odours from the building. For example, ventilation systems can remove carbon monoxide that can build up in a room from gas stoves or heating. Carbon monoxide is a colourless and odourless gas that can be fatal if inhaled. Ventilation systems can also be used to ventilate health-care facilities as they can provide high-level infection control when combined with appropriate cleaning regimes.
Energy recovery ventilation systems such as heat-recovery and enthalpy-recovery ventilators (ERV and HRV) from Zehnder America are an efficient way to bring in fresh air while removing stale, polluted air without losing any energy. They do this by transferring heat from the warm exhaust air to the cold supply air, which helps reduce heating costs in winter and cooling costs in summer. These ventilation systems are a good choice for areas that experience cold climates, and newer airtight houses. They can prevent problems caused by depressurization in the winter that allows moist air to leak into the walls and cause moisture damage.
Reduces Noise
Noise pollution affects people’s ability to focus and concentrate, leading to mental health issues. The good news is that ventilation systems can help reduce ambient noise levels to create a more harmonious indoor environment. Conventional soundproofing methods often come with a high price tag, but natural ventilation provides a sustainable solution that’s eco-friendly, affordable and energy efficient.
Ventilation systems can also be used to prevent airborne contaminants from migrating into other areas of the building or home. For example, the right mechanical ventilation system can be designed to locate intakes far away from sources of odors and pollutants, as well as exhaust locations so that moisture-laden air is not being expelled where it could cause damage or linger in the air for family members or employees to breathe.
Noise from ventilation ducts can also be reduced with the use of sound attenuators. These can be mounted on air handling units or on the ends of ventilation ducts and work by absorbing the vibrations caused by the fan blades spinning, resulting in less noise and vibrations being transmitted through the ductwork into other rooms. They are ideal for domestic mechanical ventilation systems with heat recovery (MVHR) as they can be installed at the point of exhaust preventing noise transfer from the unit into the house through the ductwork.