EasierVentilation

Houses with no roof cavity are the hardest to ventilate, they can feel very cold even though the thermometer says it is 21 deg C. These are the homes that really need to be ventilated heated and insulated well.

Ventilating a home with no roof cavity, a flat roof or a skillion roof design is something that should be planned prior to building and should involve a ventilation specialist and the architect who both understand each others point of view and the needs of the client.

There are only two ways to remove moisture from any container (ie your home)
Firstly : the easiest is to get a dry air source - drier than the inside of your home and blow it in, which in turn pushes the dampness out
and dries the container.
The only air source you have is the outside air but it is unfiltered, cold and sometimes equally as damp as your home.
To use this source you need to be very vigilant as to when you open and close your windows and or doors.
If you work away from your home, the problem is you are not at home to make the changes when need be,
If you leave your windows open as we did for many years, your home is no longer as secure.

Secondly: The expensive way, like a kettle, we remove the water (moisture) by heating it up and the water is boiled away and the kettle becomes very dry.
When we heat our homes in NZ we only heat them for 3 to 6 hours a day (depending on where you are) for 4 to 6 mths of the year, unlike England,
Europe or Canada where they heat for 24 hours a day for 8 to 10 mths of the year, and in those places they effectively dry the house out by heating
out the water, yes they have some different ventilation systems but you need somewhere to ‘hide’ or put it (usually in the ceiling).

A home with no roof cavity is very hard to ‘ventilate correctly’ to give you fresh but drier air than what is either inside or outside your home in all seasons.

If you have a space under your floor which can access each room in the house, then I would suggest you investigate a ducted central heating system which will circulate and heat the air in your home but at times can bring in air from outside which can be heated and filtered.
Therefore introducing dryer air in your home and reducing the possibility of condensation.

It is becoming very important that home designers, architect’s and the like, are very aware of the needs of all homes in relationship to Heating, ventilation and insulation as all 3 are equally important as each other and a balance is required in each home, along with using as much free energy as is available at the site of the proposed home.

In answer to the above question….
This can also be used as a guide as to the basics of choosing a ventilation system for any home, without a central heating system installed.
#1. It needs to be vented into each of your bedrooms and all living spaces.
#2. When the roof cavity is warmer than the house it should be capable of moving up to 2 1/2 to 3 times the air volume of your home. (so with a higher stud it is important the system can cope with the volume of your home)
#3. The system you install should work around your needs, if you want a heat transfer (say you have a large w/fire in your lounge) you can have one.
#4. I’m guessing your home does not get tooo hot in summer, Therefore you probably don’t need a summer fresh air supply, but you should be able to add that process if you need to.
#5. You should be able to choose the target temperature in your home - that way the system is working to raise or lower the house temperature to your needs, and should not cut off when the roof gets hot but the house is not up to your chosen temperature.
I hope this helps if you need more specific info email me through the contact page.

Humidex - This helps to explain the feeling of Cold and Hot in relationship to humidity and dampness in your home

Check out this chart on humidex and humidity and temperature

Discussion points on the EECA Home ventilation document

The Report done for the EECA in January 2009

I will be commenting and explaining each of these points over the next few weeks.

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The Need for Ventilation to maintain indoor air quality

The New Zealand Situations

Principles of Positive Pressure ventilation systems

Moisture control, airflows and ventilation

Is the roof space a good source of ventilation air?

Summary of Positive Pressure ventilation systems

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Principles of balanced pressure ventilation systems

Further explanation of the Heat Recovery and the Energy Recovery Ventilation systems - There is a very important difference.

Heat Exchange Ventilation in purposely built new homes

- possibly low energy homes

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and then the
Conclusions

The EECA had a report done (Jan 2009) on the home ventilation systems available in New Zealand.

This report (like most reports) seems to be done from a perspective and reading other reports. Some of the writer’s points of view are valid but still need discussing. 

Over the next few weeks I will put my perspective across to allow open discussion on various sides of this debate and I welcome any comments on my points of view.

Have a look at http://www.easierventilation.co.nz/eeca-home-ventilation-systems-assessment.html which is where i’ve started, if you have any questions or specific points you would like me to cover please leave a comment below this blog or  email me here .

Looking forward to opening up the areas of misunderstanding.

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Almost every day I get called into homes that have heat pumps installed and are still getting large quantities of condensation on all windows throughout the home.
These clients have been told by the heat pump sales person that installing a heatpump, they will remove all condensation. Yes a heat pump (AKA airconditioner) can remove moisture from the room which it has been installed but this can only happen efficently in cooling mode and below 20 deg C, in other words summer.
They have tried running the heat pump for 24 hours over a period of 2 to 3 weeks, they have tried to heat the home to either a higher or lower temperature (both ideas, as advised by various people) but to no avail, they still get condensation. In two cases they have double glazing.
Condensation can only be removed by introducing dry, fresh and wherever possible warmer air through your home by a continuously controlled ventliation system, which complements a correctly sized heatpump. Heating only enables the moisture to be held in or absorbed by the air. When you use a heat pump we tend to heat for longer and this therefore gives us the idea that the house is dryer but then we get more condensation the following morning.  

If you have condensation and want to get rid if it click here.

When we see condensation as a problem we tend to stick to just one thought and that is just to remove the condensation, what we forget is that our cold bed in winter (caused by winter dampness in our home) is also our hot sticky bed in summer (caused by the summer humidity in our home).

Condensation is only a signal that we have too much dampness in our home, some people believe that condensation is only a problem in winter. The results that we see are only in certain weather conditions that often occur in winter but as many of  you know our weather in New Zealand around christmas can even cause condensation to appear (and thats in summer).

This tends to show that it is conditions, rather than time of year, that causes condensation, therefore continuous year round ventilation is required to successfully remove excess moisture from our homes helping to keep your home dry,efficent and healthy for your family.

To Remove condensation and make your home healthy contact me here