Heat Recovery Ventilation

A heat recovery ventilation (HRV) or mechanical ventilation heat recovery (MVHR) system is designed to extract warm stale air from a building and exchange a portion of the heat energy to the supplied fresh air. This is done by using a HRV unit and a ducting system which supplies fresh filtered air to be distributed throughout the building in a controlled manner.

At Midland Renewables Heating & Plumbing we supply and install Enervent and Vent Axia heat recovery ventilation units. Both of these brands of heat recovery ventilation units are registered on the SAP Appendix Q database with the Vent Axia unit achieving a heat exchange efficiency of 92%.

HRV Benefits

The main benefit of a HRV system is that you recover heat energy which would normally be lost through wall or window vents. As a result this will reduce your heating costs. Moist stale air is constantly extracted from the building which prevents condensation and mould growth. Heat recovery ventilation also removes odours, radon and other gasses (VOCs from furniture, carpets house hold objects etc) from your building or home. In turn pre warmed, filtered fresh air is constantly supplied to the building which will give a comfortable and healthy living environment. Asthma and hay fever suffers who have heat recovery ventilation fitted in their homes find it especially beneficial. As the air that is supplied to the building is pre warmed by the outgoing air, the cold draught sensation associated with wall vents is eliminated.

System Design

Here at Midland Renewables Heating & Plumbing we can design a heat recovery ventilation system that best suits your building. Factors that need to be considered when designing the system are the level of air tightness, size of building, number of inhabitants and space for ducting and heat recovery ventilation unit. At Midland Renewables we will select the most suitable heat recovery ventilation unit and ducting system for your building ensuring that all building regulations are fully complied with and we will install your system to the highest industry standards.

Call us here at Midland Renewables Heating & Plumbing on 1890 90 45 45 to discuss your heat recovery ventilation requirements.

Operating Principal

A heat recovery ventilation system will ensure your building has a constant supply of fresh preheated air. This is achieved with a heat recovery ventilation unit and ducting system which extract warm air from areas with high moisture content e.g. bathrooms, kitchen and utility, this air is fed through the heat exchanger in the heat recovery ventilation unit where a portion of the heat from the outgoing air is transferred to the incoming fresh air. The outgoing air and the incoming air does not actually mix, it is just the heat energy that is transferred. The incoming fresh air is now preheated, it now passes through filters to remove any dust and pollen before being supplied to the habitable rooms in the building e.g. bedrooms and living areas. The heat exchanger can either be a cross flow plate heat exchanger like as found on Vent-Axia heat recovery units or a rotary thermal wheel like as found on Enervent heat recovery units.

The air is extracted from and supplied to the various rooms by a series of sealed ducting installed in the building. Heat recovery ventilation systems do not transfer sound from room to room unlike American style heating ducts.

There are a large number of heat recovery ventilation units to choose from but some commonly found features are a summer bypass system which stops exchanging the heat once the pre-set indoor and outdoor temperatures are exceeded, a humidity sensor is fitted as standard to the Vent Axia Sentinel Kinetic Plus units so the unit will increase the ventilation rate if it detects a rise in humidity above a certain level and a remote control can be used so the customer can select the fan speed of the heat recovery ventilation unit.

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For more information please contact us in Midland Renewables Heating & Plumbing

or Telephone 1890 90 45 45.