Envirovent PIV units

[Naz1977]

Hello

Had some mould building up in the house, specially in the cold wet winter. It is a 1930s bungalow with cavity under the floor. Has airbricks in already.

Envirovent came and had a look and suggested their wall mounted unit as I have no loft.

They quoted £1200 for the unit installed.

They say it will remove the problem and they offer a 100% money back guarantee, but I am always cautious of these claims. If it is anything like other people's money back guarantees, you have to jump through thousands of hoops and then they always blame something else and say their product works and ....

have read online reviews and although there are a few negative feedbacks, a lot seem to praise their product.

However I can't find any reviews after 2015.

My question:

1) Is £1200 reasonable? Considering it sounds like a glorified condensator?
2) What/who is their direct competitor so I can get an equivalent price.
3) What are YOUR thoughts if you have had their units installed.

Thanks in advance

 

[endecotp]

Do you have kitchen and bathroom extractor fans?
How do you dry clothes?

 

[^woody^]

PP fans do work, if properly specified, fitted and with any other necessary work- such as fitting vents or closing others

But they are a last resort, and you need to be sure that there are no other contributing factors to any condensation damp, otherwise they wont deal with the problem.

You could also try fitting modern continuous extract fans to the kitchen and bathroom, which could also deal with a condensation problem and be a less drastic and much cheaper solution.

 

[Naz1977]

Hi and thanks for the replies so far.

There is no fans in the kitchen and there is a vent in the bathroom, but not fans there. We are moving the bathroom and a fan is being installed. What is the best option for a fan in the bathroom.

Does the kitchen also need a fan? Again if so, what is the best option?

Clothes are normally dried in a small dorma we have in the loft. Unless these are towels which go in the drier which is in the garage

As regards to contributors: This is a 1930s bungalow and the ground in York currently is still very saturated. The ground is generally wet at the moment and I don't think this is helping much to the issue. Apart from the nature, as far as I know there is no other contributing factors.

 

[endecotp]

Fit basic extractor fans at the sources of dampness i.e. bathroom and kitchen.
If the house is fundamentally cold, investigate insulation ans/or turn the heating up.
(Mould = condensation = moist air on cold surfaces.)
If there's still a problem in a year, consider next steps.

 

[Naz1977]

Well you see I am too tight.

I have one of the Smart Energy pads and it tells me how much I am using, and when I put the heating up, my daily bill goes up to £8 per day! Ouch! With it turned down to 17, it sits at £6. a bit better

Now I was told that the cause of the damp/mould is the fact that we insulate our homes and are super picky about the environment. If this was a new built with concrete floor, then yes, insulate it. But as it is a 1930s with bloody floor joists and open air underneath, then if I insulate, I am told I make things 10 times worse!

Or was the man talking crap?

We normally open the windows in the bathroom as soon as we have a shower or bath. But can't do anything with the kitchen at the moment as no vent there apart from opening the window. But you can't do that all the time as it is bloody freezing!

What are the modern fans that was talked about above? Can someone post a name I can look up to see what they are?

 

[^woody^]

You should not fit a basic fan, but rather a continuous trickle fan with boost. This is what current building regs require.

See www.vectaire.co.uk/products/el1003

A constant, but low volume extract will keep air moving throughout the whole property, and in most cases, this will prevent condensation build up and subsequent mould

 

[endecotp]

Now I was told that the cause of the damp/mould is the fact that we insulate our homes and are super picky about the environment.

Mould is normally a result of condensation.
Condensation occurs when moist air encounters a cold surface.
You need to both remove the moist air at its source (and opening windows is fine) and fix the cold surfaces where it will condense. That means adding insulation to walls and ceilings, and/or turning up the heating. An issue is that unless you insulate everywhere there will always be one coldest spot (e.g. in an unheated spare room) where condensation can occur.

There is also a possible risk of condensation between the new insulation and the existing wall, if the moist air can reach that location; getting this right involves careful design and correct fitting.

The space under your ground floor needs to be well ventillated to the outside, and not ventillated into the house. If there are draughts through gaps in the floorboards you should consider fixing that.

Woody may be right about trickle ventillation, though I think it depends a bit on lifestyle and how much background ventillation there is through e.g. doors and windows.

Can you post a link to the specific device Envirovent are trying to sell you?
Is it this one: http://www.envirovent.com/home-vent...ouse-ventilation/mr-venty-eco-sub-2-sub-wall/

 

[Naz1977]

Hi

Thanks for the replies.

There is draft coming in at the moment in one of the bedrooms. I need to refit the skirting boards and that should get rid of that hopefully as I had been decorating that room.

And yes that is the fan Envirovent are selling. However since then I have had a quote from condensationcured and there equivalent FL2000 with heater switch is £800. But i know I can get the FL2000 for about £310 and should cost me less than £500 to get that fitted!

So might do that .

Also thanks for the link for the fan. I will look into that also when I come to refit the bathroom and kitchen.

 

[endecotp]

That unit is just a fan that sucks in cold air from outside, optionally heats it with an expensive-to-run electric heater, and discharges it at one point.

The more sophisticated "positive pressure ventillation" systems are multi-point, i.e. they have vents in multiple rooms (normally from the loft), and they include some sort of heat recovery i.e. they extract heat from the outgoing air to warm the incoming air, either with a simple heat exchanger or with a heat pump.

I think £1200 or even £800 is a lot for a basic fan. (It would be more believable if it included a heat exchanger, or if fitting involved ducts to other rooms.) And I'm not at all convinced that it is what you actually need.

 

[lostinthelight]

This is interesting reading?
http://www.preservationexpert.co.uk/relative-humidity-and-vapour-pressure-which-is-best/
litl