Cellar ventilation advice

[MacLaverty]

I have a converted cellar and have been using an air purifier for air movement and a dehumidifier for 4hrs a day to keep it dry. Have had a few issues with moisture and mold along the carpet line but nothing substantial over the 3 years we have lived in the house.

I am trying ways to stop using the dehumidifier as getting a tad bored of emptying it every 3 days and having to use a 20ltr bucket when going on holiday for it to drain into. There is a small window in the corner and an air brick in the other and have tried to simply leave the window open and switched off the dehumidifier for a 2 week period to see if that's enough to keep it dry but had a massive mold outbreak after the 2 weeks so window closed and dehumidifier back on.

Thinking of getting an extractor system placed in the far corner by the washing machine, picture attached, as the wall is external and backs onto a pit on the other side. Or on top of the washing machine cupboard for better access and ducting running out the back of the washing machine cupboard.

The room is 5m by 4m so would an extractor in the far corner be powerful enough to extract the air from the entire room or would It just extract the air closest to the corner? Was looking at a continuous DMEV system to constantly extract stale air and bring in fresh air through the air brick.

But, I am wary about drilling a hole through the cellar and potentially disrupting the equilibrium of the cellar and unsure whether to just keep the dehumidifier running and deal with the upkeep.

 

[blup]

I would leave as is given the current set up is working. Or, finance permitting, fit the extractor as an experiment with the existing system as a fall back, but be absolutely sure you wont create a new source of damp from drilling the wall/ perforating the tanking. The open window experiment shows how well the present set up is working.