A picture is worth a thousand words…

This is mold.

Nothing illustrates the importance of good ventilation more than this photograph. It was taken in a bedroom that had no natural ventilation whatsoever. Worsening conditions was the fact that this bedroom is located right beside an unventilated bathroom, regularly used for showers, and tends to capture humid air.

Once all that moisture reaches the cold surface of the window at night, it condenses into water, soaking the surrounding plaster. As this is a South-facing window, it heats up during the day, warming the moisture trapped in the plaster, creating ideal conditions for rapid mold growth.

The resident who sleeps in this room complains of regular coughs and head colds.

It has – according to the homeowners – resisted any and all attempts at eradication. Thorough cleaning with bleach and even applying fungicidal paint have failed to eliminate the growth. Plaster has already flaked away in places, damaging the weather seals on the windows in the process. This is a sure sign that the mold has penetrated deep into the plaster itself. The only way to remove it at this point would be to completely remove the plaster and replace – something that will cost both time and money to put right.

Even then, this will only treat the symptom, and not the cause.

Keep Mold from Taking Hold

Maintaining good ventilation not only ensures your comfort, it minimises the chance of mold taking hold in your home. Heat Recovery Ventilation from Greentherm extracts humid air from your bathrooms, utility room and kitchen, exhausting it to the open atmosphere while simulataneously drawing in fresh, clean air to the inhabited parts of your home, ensuring your comfort.

Greentherm Ventilation Systems are designed to capture the heat still in stale air, using it to preheat the incoming fresh air to ensure valuable heat isn’t lost from inside your home, while maintaining a clean air supply. Bad smells and odours are pulled from your home, carried away along with the stale air.

Greentherm Heat Recovery Ventilation is an active solution, ensuring optimal ventilation rates regardless of weather conditions. A single electronically controlled silent-running fan unit provides extraction and ventilation, helping to maintain air quality in your home, ensuring that you always have fresh clean air in your home and that mold can never take hold.

Part F of the Building Regulations.

Recent revisions to the building regulations have – since March 2014 – effectively made some form of active heat recovery ventilation mandatory for new constructions, in order to achieve the required performance while still maintaining adequate ventilation levels. While it is possible to achieve compliance with passive systems, it can be difficult and the performance can be variable and weather dependant. For an optimal solution, Active Ventilation is the only convenient option.

Greentherm are experts in the new regulations, and can advise you on installations for your new-build home in order to ensure that you both remain in compliance with the regulations and have a system that is comfortable and reliable for years to come.

Contact us for technical inquiries on Heat Recovery Ventilation.