Installing the MVHR machine

Finally, our MVHR machine and ducting parts had arrived from Green Building Store. They had a long wait in the queue to get to design stage and then a long wait for the parts to arrive. We couldn't progress much further without it so we were keen to get it installed. The machine we had been recommended by the Green Building Store was the Ubiflux Vigor 325. As a GBS windows customer we received a 10% discount on MVHR materials.

Perhaps you haven't heard of Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) so he's a quick summary: 

MVHR (Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery) provides fresh filtered air into a building whilst retaining most of the energy that has already been used in heating the building. Heat Recovery Ventilation is the solution to the ventilation needs of energy efficient buildings. Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR), heat recovery ventilation (HRV) or Comfort ventilation are all names for the same thing. A heat recovery ventilation system properly fitted into a house provides a constant supply of fresh filtered air, maintaining the air quality whilst being practically imperceptible.  MVHR works quite simply by extracting the air from the polluted sources e.g. kitchen, bathroom, toilets and utility rooms and supplying air to the ‘living’ rooms e.g. bedrooms, living rooms, studies etc. The extracted air is taken through a central heat exchanger and the heat recovered into the supply air. This works both ways, if the air temperature inside the building is colder than the outside air temperature then the coolth is maintained in the building.

This beginners guide from PAUL is quite informative:   https://www.paulheatrecovery.co.uk/mvhr-guide/
Below are images of our ducting design from the Green Building Store:



There were quite a few pieces of the puzzle that took a while to work out. We had received the initial designs following payment of the invoice. Then some cad drawings of each individual duct marking the part number e.g. elbow, collar etc. And then we downloaded the installation guide for the machine. But it was still a huge challenge working out how things were meant to connect etc. But our GBS designer, Paul, was really helpful. He shared an toolbox talk video of how to install an MVHR system, which would have been hugely useful at the beginning and saved us quite a bit of time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIzoVzGJXW8




to be continued....

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