Nobody likes noisy ventilation, it’s the most common complaint when you trawl the online forums. A poorly designed system or one that’s made to fit on-the-fly can end up sounding like a swarm of bee’s in the ceiling, or it can rattle and whistle above your head. But even a very faint background hum will eventually drive you to despair. It’s called the dripping tap syndrome in the trade. After life expectancy, the main difference between budget and premium systems is acoustic performance. It’s the little details that matter, like a sound-proofed steel case, attenuating air distribution manifolds, anti-vibration mounts, and ultra-low pressure ducting to minimise workload.
To create an exceptionally quiet system you need an acoustician as much as a ventilation designer, and then you need a project delivery process that ensures it goes in exactly the way they’ve designed it, and then gets set-up exactly the way the manufacturer intended. A reliable MVHR with quality components that’ll deliver day-to-day ventilation at 30-40% fan power, not something cheap you need to thrash get the same duty. Beside the after-market sound proofing products inside the building, you need to think about your neighbours and other outdoor noises too.
If you’re very close to another building you may need larger roof or wall terminals to minimise external noise. Larger ducting slows the air down as it enters and leaves the building to prevent roaring noises or singing louvre vents. Silencers in the plant room will attenuate unwanted sounds at source, before they’re carried around the property inside the ducting. But above all, to create a quiet system you need to avoid sharp bends and tee connectors on the pipework. Forcing air around a corner creates turbulance, that creates pressure, and that mean more humph from the motors. Design for laminar air flow and you’ll barely know it’s running.
NB: For Part-F compliance everything must run below 30 decibels, equivalent to a whisper, but for Passivhaus the limit is 25. Because sound level doubles every 6dB(A), 25dB(A) is actually 83% quieter than 30.
For over a decade Solarcrest have designed, supplied, installed, and maintained hundreds of Adroit MVHR systems. Our own Adroit is over ten years old too. Like the rest, it still looks and works like new. In all that time we’ve replaced only a handful of components, and those have only failed due to lack of maintenance. Practically nothing. We know the Adroit is a bullet proof unit, we know the design will be right and it’ll go in properly, so that’s why we offer Platinum customers a complete 5-year guarantee on everything. The design and performance, Part-F, L, O, B compliance, the workmanship and all materials.
An Adroit/Airflex Pro system with acoustic upgrade might cost a bit more upfront, but longer term it’ll cost less to own because you won’t be replacing it every 5-10 years.
Particulate matter (PM) is everything in the air that is not a gas. It consists of a huge variety of chemical compounds and materials, some of which can be toxic. When inhaled, these toxins enter the bloodstream and get transported around the body, lodging in the heart, brain and other vital organs. Exposure to PM can therefore lead to serious health issues, especially in vulnerable groups of people such as the young, elderly, and those with respiratory complaints. Heart disease, strokes, cancer, and dementia have all been linked to PM2.5 exposure.
But what’s most alarming is that the majority of the UK is exposed to unsafe levels of PM2.5 according to the W.H.O.
Because MVHR extracts and supplies air, the air it supplies can be filtered before you breathe it. Every MVHR includes a basic G4 filter to catch large particles like dust, insects, and leaf debris. Some suppliers swap this basic G4 for an F7 fine particle filter capable of stopping PM2.5, but when they do they’re relying on this expensive, impossible-to-clean F7 filter stopping everything. When that happens it gets blocked very quickly so needs replacing very often.
The Adroit is different because it has both a G4 and an F7, one behind the other. The G4 protects the F7 to extend it’s life, and the F7 protects you to extend yours.
SERVICING NOTE: The G4 should be vacuumed 3-4 times a year. The G4 and the F7 should both be replaced annually. NOx filters can’t be cleaned but should be good for 1-2 years depending where you live.
Study enough academic papers and you’ll discover the optimal environment for human occupation involves maintaining relative humidity in the 40-60% range, and CO2 concentration under 800ppm. They call it the ‘Goldilocks zone’ because it’s just right. Throw in air filtration to stop you breathing harmful microparticles and potentially harmful gasses, and you’ve got the ultimate in air quality.
The Adroit is the only MVHR with six Temperature, Humidity, and CO2 environment sensors to keep you in the zone automatically. If your property is getting too hot, it’ll automatically pull in cooler air in from outside assuming it’s available. If it isn’t, the Adroit can switch on an active cooling system if you have one installed. If your relative humidity gets too high, it’ll speed up the ventilation to bring it back down, or visa versa if your humidity drops too low. Similar adjustments are made if your CO2 levels creeps outside the Goldilocks zone.
Take a look at our MVHR cooling options.
Roughly speaking, every year a 200m2 property needs 2 million cubic metres of air supplying into it and another 2 million extracting from it. That’s dusty, damp, and normally contaminated air getting sucked in and sucked out of the property via a metal or plastic box. And that box also collects water from both air streams like a dehumidifier, sometimes litres per day. While all MVHR’s have filters to protect the machine as well as the property, some filters and some boxes are better than others.
To save cost budget MVHR’s are made of plastic, have a cheap polystyrene lining for insulation purposes, along with a pair of G4 mesh filters to stop some but not all of the muck. But when that lining gets damp and dusty over time the polystyrene gradually perishes. When that happens all the air you breathe gets drawn in over a mouldy, contaminated surface. See inside any 5-year old budget machine for details.
Unlike most units, the Adroit has a smooth powder-coated steel internal lining that can be wiped clean and sterilised indefinitely. It won’t get pitted, go mouldy or perish. Our unit is ten years old and still looks like new inside. Add to that the Airflex Pro ducting with its smooth anti-bacterial and anti-static lining that prevents dust collecting inside the pipes, and the grease filter inside the kitchen extract valve and you’ve got the most hygienic system possible.
Take a look at the Airflex Pro ducting brochure.
Connecting your MVHR to the Internet may sound like a feature you can live without. After all, is it really necessary to set programmes, adjust ventilation rates, and monitor your indoor environment from your smartphone? It’s neat because it saves fitting wall-mounted switches and controllers, but is it really essential? Short answer – yes if you value expert aftercare.
The main advantage of Internet connectivity is that you can get remote support without incurring engineer call-out fees. Whether that’s firmware updates over the air, adjusting programmes to better suit your lifestyle based on historic temperature, humidity, and CO2 data recorded on our Support Cloud, or just help diagnosing suspected faults. It’s not help you’ll need often, but when you do this feature will prove invaluable. Don’t forget, your property needs ventilation forever.
Other web-enabled MVHR units are available, but we find the Adroit offers the best functionality. It can even send signals to activate heating or cooling systems, or connect to your home automation.
