Dinneswood Self Build- Sept/Oct 09

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March - July 09

While we were awaiting delivery of our ventilation system, which we were fitting ourselves, the strapping out inside was finally finished allowing our plumber to make a start! That inspiring term of "first fix" was becoming a a distant reality!

I was really busy in September with tours which was quite nice as I got a break from the house and the caravan. I did feel really heart sorry for Jen as I lay snug in my very posh bedroom in my very posh hotel in the Swiss Alps for nearly 10 days......
No seriously I did!

We got delivery of our heat recovery and ventilation system (HRVS) from a company called Starkey Systems down south. They were recommended to us and I can say I am happy with the product and price. We also ordered our central vaccum system from them as we got a deal buying both products. You can find their details in the contacts section. For those of you who do not know what a HRVS is let me explain as best as I can...

Once finished our house will be airtight(hopefully); You need to have a circulation of fresh air inside your house to provide a healthy environment which is normally provided by air vents in your walls, or by trickle vents in your windows for example. Obviously we cannot have any of these so we need to mechanically vent our home, which can be controlled. What the HRVS does is to extract stale warm air from the house in particlar from the bathrooms, toilets and kitchen, where the air will be warm and damp. The extracted air passes through an exchange unit which then extracts the heat before exhausting outside the house.

Clean fresh air is brought in from outside, passed throught the exchange unit heating it up to a selected room temperature, before distributing it around the house, thus keeping the whole house at an even air temperature with a continual supply of fresh air. This elimates the need for noisy extractor fans in your toilets and it stops the build up of moisture in your bathrooms and kitchens. It also works to keep your house hopefully dust free which means a healthier living environment if you suffer from any respitory problems.
From our point of view it allows us to have a sealed air ventilation system which we control meaning the house remains airtight, no draughts, no heat loss and a step closer to that heavenly term in house building "passive"!

We decided on using ridged Stainless steel ducting which came in 3 sizes, 150mm, 125mm and 100mm, with a selection of fittings to take the ducting from the main unit to all the rooms around the house. The reason for going with stainless steel instead of plastic was simply noise as the plastic ducting is prone to creaking as the air passes through it.

This is our unit which has been fitted in a cupboard made upstairs on the mezzanine. It sits directly above the Utility room which was so handy for the routing of ducting.

As you can see its not the smallest or most flexable of stuff and was the cause of many rising blood pressure moments......

But we got there in the end and we are very pleased with the finished layout!

.Next Job is the fitting of the Hoover! More Pipes........