After the heat exchange thread does anyone have a heat recovery system?

Can’t help you but am happy to bump your thread so that you get an answer

Probably lots of info on line and in some of the house building and renovating magazines but it’s always nice to get a bit of firsthand information from experienced Grans.

Thank you Polly. I have done quite a bit of research but haven’t managed to convince my DH.
I thought if I could just show him some people think it’s great that I might ‘win’.

Hi - my daughter has a heat recovery system in her kitchen and bathroom . It just looks ( and sounds) like an extractor fan in a bathroom and is about the same size . I wouldn’t want the noise going all night but it can be switched off . I always find her kitchen/diner is a pleasant temperature even when it’s cold. I would say they work best where you get warmth and moisture ie in the kitchen or bathroom That’s all I know !

I can't help with retrofit part but can recommend heat recovery. We live in Cornwall which is naturally a damp and humid place.

We are doing an eco self build and decided on a complete whole house heat recovery system. Before we decided we went to see two houses that had it and were very impressed. Level of humidity is constant and comfortable and you could even dry clothes inside without it changing and get no condensation anywhere.

There should be hardly any noise through the ducting with a good MVHR system. The pump itself will hum slightly. Our MVHR system (Nuaire) has to meet Building regs on noise level. They get noisy if they are turned on and off regularly making the pump struggle to keep the air control level.

You asked about vents. No need for them as the system needs a building to be airtight.

If you do decide go for heat recovery, get a quality system and have it commissioned. That will ensure it's efficiency.

The unit is in our plant/utility room and ducting around the house takes the warm or hot air from rooms where it is created living/kitchen area with fire and range, bathroom and ensuite. Off it goes to the unit. Moisture is taken out and warm air is then pumped through to the three rooms that need heat: bedrooms and our study. It cost us £3000 to install it and will be about 10p a day to run.

Hope this has helped but there specialist companies that will talk to you. It is certainly the way forward in many new builds.

Muse - that’s great to hear - I think my what my daughter has is more of an extractor for warm moist air. Yours sounds perfect . Is there any other heat system ? Of course it’s a bit different up north but it sound ideal for Cornwall !

Hello marymary62. Good to hear that it has made your daughter's living area is so comfortable.

We won't have any other heating except for the log fire and the range. They are both in the open plan room but we have laid slate flooring throughout and it's south facing with lots of glazing. The sun heats up the slate floor which retains the heat and releases it at night.
The MVHR will more than likely lower the temperature on hot days.
Today, even though there's no sun, it is warmer in the new build (no fire going) than in our damp little cottage with the log burner blasting away. That's all the insulation doing its job. We have also installed two solar thermal panels on the roof for all our hot water.

We have friends in North Wales that have installed it and it's working a dream for them so ??for us.

The dehumidifier is working most of the time to get rid of some of the condensation in the cottage.

Yes we have a heat recovery set up , it brings in fresh air and warms it on the way in by the air it is expelling . My washing mostly hets dried outside but this time of year it gets finished off on the airer , no condensation , and it dries very quickly , the cooking smells , and bathroom ones , get wiped out very quickly , it has a booster button if it’s needed
Our main heating is underfloor , but the heat exchange set up seems to help a lot

Thank you all for your input.
muse don’t you need vents in rooms to allow the air to circulate?
Our bungalow is very air tight, I think this is why we get the condensation problem. Unless we have the windows open the air circulation isn’t great. If we have the windows open we get cold.
You and aggie have inspired me to make a few more enquiries.

I think I’m confused by heat recovery and heat exchange !

muse your new house sounds awesome!

Yes you have vents to take air in and out or each room , but the noise is very minimal , I find it easy to tune out

Hi PamelaJ21 and aggie

Sorry, I misunderstood about the vents. I was thinking you meant vents on outside walls or in windows. The nuaire vents are all on the internal walls/ceilings. (photo). It's just the bottom bit you see. It fits almost flush.

The doors have all been fitted with a statutory gap at the bottom. This allows for circulation.

Condensation is from too much moisture in the air inside the room. Do you know what the humidity level is in your home PamelaJ? Recommendation is 50% - 60%. More than that, is a health risk.

Our cottage is currently 71% which is very high. So we've got condensation and black mould on the walls. The dehumidifier has been on all afternoon. Without it, the humidity level is around 80%.
The new build is registering between 55% - 62%. Never been higher. The MHVR is not connected yet but the insulation is keeping it steady. Once we are living in it and the fire and range are on, the moisture will build. That's when the MHVR will keep the humidity at a comfortable level and at the same time giving us warm air around the house.

I bought a few cheap thermometers/humidity displays to use around the new build and the cottage for a comparison.

As aggie says it takes away smells so we will be fitting a cooker hood that just circulates - no extraction through the wall. There are two outlet ducts/vents near the cooker.

Thank you Blossoming. We hope to be in for Easter. It's taken us a long time.

Oh , that explains why my cooker hood doesn’t go out through the wall , I am thick !

muse I haven’t measured the humidity but I will. Our dehumidifier keeps me in pure water for the iron very easily in winter.

Hello, we put ours into our self-build 11 years ago (muse, I am interested in your posts!). Ours is Villavent and I love it.
Our cooker hood does extract separately, to outside - we have a kitchen / dining / living room and so we wanted a good extraction system. We do extract heat from the rest of the kitchen area.

We have: solar thermal panels, photovoltaic cells and the heat recovery system. I love them all, but if forced to pick one, it would be the heat recovery / ventilation system.

We have neither ground source nor air source heat pumps. When we built, the co-efficient of efficiency was not good enough to warrant it. However, with our underfloor heating system, we are well placed to install an air source pump when the time is right (our ground is not very suitable for ground source)

Really good to hear of someone with a similar build to ourselves Nannarose. We are off grid but have just invested in connecting - £17,000. Ouch! We've relied on a diesel generator over the winter and want to stop using it.

Would it be possible to pm you Nannarose?. Love to ask you more but I'm derailing PamelaJ1's brilliant thread.

I’ve been moving our barometer and my alarm clock- yes it measures humidity as well as waking me up!- around the house and reporting my readings to DH. I think I’m getting there?
It’s a over 80 in the two end rooms.