Hi All - You may have seen my posts a couple of months or so ago when I was speaking to Gary about Envirovent ECO2 Loft (Mr Venty?).
Anyway, my quote from Envirovent was considerably more than Gary's for the same system with an extractor fan for the kitchen (nearly £1500!). The local (Essex) Envirovent rep eventually reduced his price and offered the ECO2 on its own(supply the unit only) for £750.
As my son is an electrician (albeit in a heavy industrial environment - big volts!) I decided to buy a Nuaire Drimaster Heat which (after looking around) I purchased for just over £300. The electrical 'bits' (fused spurs etc) came to around £30. We cut a rather large hole (8 or 9 inch diameter) in the landing ceiling (4 bed detached house with 3 reception rooms downstairs) and after some precarious balancing acts above the stairwell (big drop!) fitted the plastic vent over the hole. The ducting from the unit was then connected to the other side of the ceiling vent in the loft. We broke into the lighting circuit in the loft using a junction box and wired the unit up as per the instructions supplied.
There are I believe 6 fan settings on the Drimaster and we settled on no.5.
When there is no other noise on the landing there is the distant sound of a fan running - a gentle humming which is not at all bothering or intrusive and which cannot be heard in the bedrooms when the doors are closed (4 bedrooms just a few feet from the vent). There is what I would describe as a 'gentle draught' on the landing - the 'injected' air there is definitely cool, but then none of us spend much time on the landing - it is just an 'in transit' place from which to access the bedrooms and bathroom!
The unit has from my point of view 'cured' the condensation - mostly throughout the house. The 3 bedrooms which we sleep in all had condensation on them every morning and in one in particular room the window reveal walls were also wet in the morning when it was very cold outside, creating the accompanying mould. The downstairs toilet cistern used to 'run' with condensed water which has run off and loosened the vinyl floor tiles and rotted the mdf skirting board. This cistern is now dry and also the aluminium patio doors in the 'back lounge' (an extension room which is really the farthest place from the landing vent) are for the most part dry.
So, I can only report from my experience - as they say "every house is different" - mine was a £350 'punt' to try to solve a problem which we have had for years and it seems to have worked!
I take on board the argument that leaving windows open would probably have the same effect, but have you tried leaving a bedroom window open at night with some of the temperatures and cold winds which we have had this winter? I look upon the Drimaster as a sophisticated way of having the windows open in the winter for ventilation (which, if it weren't for the cost of energy and the cold draughts, would be a good idea) without having to suffer these draughts in the rooms which are occupied. We try to leave the doors of all rooms open when it is not necessary to have them closed, although I understand that the air will circulate around the house as long as there are gaps between the door bottoms and carpets.
I am sorry, but I cannot comment on running costs at the moment. I understand that the Drimaster fan is of minimal cost to run - it runs 24/7 until the loft temperature reaches 19c when it turns off automatically (otherwise it would work like a fan heater injecting warm air into an already warm summertime house - we hope!). Likewise the heating element only turns on when the loft temp drops below 10c in order to slightly warm the injected air and I do not know when this is actually happening. Also I have no idea of the temperature in the loft at any given time (sorry - you can come around and sit up there with a thermometer if you want). The above mentioned temperature controls on the Drimaster are adjustable - I have just left them on the factory recommended settings.
Just hope that some of the above might help some of you.
Cheers Del.
PS. I still intend to fit some sort of extractor fan in the kitchen (maybe a heat recovery unit) as I know that a lot of 'localised' cooking condensation is evident there and this needs addressing - the cooker extractor fan is not really fit for purpose.
