energy

SMARTEFFICIENCY
Ventilation has been raising the bar on efficiency, but now it is smarter too with a host
of clever features that benefit installers and households alike. Ian Mitchell, Product
Marketing Manager - New Build Residential at Vent-Axia explains.
Efficiency is king. Manufacturers have been continuously
re-designing ventilation to be as efficient as possible. As a
result, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR)
has now reached incredibly high levels of heat recovery
whilst specific fan powers are extremely low.
Just a quick look at the Product Characteristics Database
(PCDB), an online database that publishes independently
tested product data, shows this trend. Sophisticated
computational fluid dynamics used in the design process
have helped the latest MVHR units achieve the holy grail
of high efficiency and low sound levels. For example,
Vent-Axia’s Lo-Carbon Advance is designed for New
Build Residential applications and tops the PCDB list as
the best performing MVHR unit in its class, with a specific
fan power down to 0.38W/l/s, 93% heat recovery and
trickle settings of up to 40% staying below 20dBA.
Households also benefit from the App, using it to boost
the unit and view efficiencies, flow and temperatures,
enabling occupiers to achieve healthy indoor air quality
(IAQ). Programmable controllers can schedule Advance
to boost when it’s very warm or avoid boosting, perhaps
when a baby is sleeping. And with thermal comfort, a
significant issue in air-tight energy efficient new build
properties, Advance includes a fully automatic 100%
Summer Bypass, featuring an evening or overnight
purge. This allows homeowners to choose when to take
advantage of cooler air during hot summer periods. It
also offers filters up to F7, ensuring that even homes in
heavily urbanised areas can filter out most impurities,
including damaging PM2.5 particles. A filter-check
warning tells households via email or the App when filters
need changing, therefore helping to maintain good IAQ
and performance.
Control is the next step in efficiency
So with such high levels of efficiency built into MVHR units
what’s next? As Pirelli once said “power is nothing without
control”. Having achieved high levels of efficiency,
ventilation companies are making their products smarter,
with ever more sophisticated controls. One route is app
control, which has multiple benefits. It gives homeowners
more control of their energy by allowing them to control
their ventilation and showing them their energy usage,
which is key in reducing energy use.
The next generation of MVHR therefore provides both
energy efficient ventilation and pioneering control. By
making ventilation smarter in this way, manufacturers
have made ventilation that is simple to install, easy to
use and even more energy efficient thanks to the greater
level of control. For electricians, MVHR units offering
this new connectivity are a great fit in the smart-home
market, whilst also offering simplified commissioning and
installation and a host of added value features that will
appeal to developers and homeowners alike. ■
Meanwhile, app-controlled commissioning offers
simplified installation and improved performance, saving
time and money. One example is when installers use a
vane anemometer to measure airflow, they can use a Wi-
Fi enabled App to control airflows during measurement,
making it unnecessary to repeatedly return to the unit to
adjust fan speeds. This simplifies and reduces installation
time, ensuring accurate commissioning and efficient
performance, so encouraging best practice.
£
The Advance is the first web-enabled UK-manufactured
MVHR unit and is fully autonomous but provides interactive
control via a free App or on-board screen. With a simple
to use interface. Installers can pre-commission Advance
through its USB functionality, saving time on developments
with same specification builds.
2016 | ISSUE 03 Smart Electrician 35