Just like humans, buildings need to breathe. Both for the building itself and the people in it to feel good. Good indoor air makes you feel, sleep and perform better.
Ventilation is the building’s way of breathing. Therefore, it is extremely important that the airways of the building are kept free, and clean. In ventilation language, we call the products ventilation ducts and air valves.
Do you know what kind of ventilation you have where you live?
It usually depends on when your house was built (or renovated). In the past, many houses and apartment buildings were built with natural ventilation, a draught system that made the air circulate on its own. But as we began adding more insulation and replacing to better insulated windows the buildings have become increasingly airtight, and then the principle of natural ventilation fails. This means that you must ensure a good air exchange to get a healthy indoor climate.
Mechanical Exhaust Ventilation
Mechanical exhaust ventilation is common in houses from 1970 onwards. This system uses fans in the bathrooms and laundry room to remove the used and polluted air. The fans are connected to a duct system and the fan can be placed in the attic, in the cooker hood, or in a hood on the roof. This way, the bad air is removed and new air is added via open windows or fresh air valves in the outer wall.
Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery
Many newly built houses today use ventilation systems with mechanical supply and exhaust air plus energy recovery – a Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery (MVHR) System. This type of system not only ensures a healthy indoor climate for your home, it also lowers your energy consumption. It uses the heated air in the house to heat the new air that is supplied to the house. In other words, it’s good both for the environment and your wallet, because your heating system does not have to heat new cold air all the time.
Mechanical Exhaust with Heat Recovery
An intermediate variant of the two above is mechanical exhaust ventilation with heat recovery. Then the hot and humid air in the bathroom and laundry room is used to heat, for example, waterborne radiators or the water heater.
Interested in taking a closer look? Visit http://www.lindab.com/global/pro/lindab-inside/Pages/default.aspx for more info.
By the way, you don’t have to worry about noise from your air valves or your ventilation system. We solve this through correct adjustment of the valves, and silencers that do their part to keep the sound level low. So, keep the fresh air valves free and we’ll have more power in our lungs to cheer our favourite team to victory!
