BUILDING FABRIC & EXTERIORS
A healthy home is a sustainable home
Heat recovery ventilation can make homes dramatically healthier, and going a step further with heat pump ventilation can also offer energy efficient heating and cooling, says Clarissa Youden of Total Home Environment
W
ith self-builders becoming more aware that they need to insulate and seal-up their homes to save
energy, the environment and pocket, the air in their home can become more polluted than the air near a busy road. Several items inside your home emit a cocktail of chemicals called VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) which leach out of soft furnishings, chipboard, laminates, paint, plastics and room sprays. If you’re renovating a home but not digging up the floors, radon gas is also a danger. Colourless and odourless, it is the second biggest cause of lung cancer in the UK, seeping out of the soil and getting caught inside homes. To live in comfortable conditions, an
adult needs approximately 30 m³ of fresh air per hour, meaning that two adults sleeping in a bedroom have less than an
hour before CO2 and water vapour will build up with condensation and mould spores forming – worrying for Asthma sufferers. Plus, despite having eight hours sleep, you can wake up tired and your cognitive ability can be reduced significantly because you haven’t had clean air to breathe. You spend 70 per cent of your time at home and you breathe over 10,000 litres of air a day – don’t you want the cleanest, healthiest air in your home for you and your family? Ventilating the home by poking holes
through the skin with archaic technology – unfiltered trickle-vents in window frames (that people then shut because they’re
may/june 2019
To live in comfortable conditions, an adult needs approximately 30 m³ of fresh air per hour
too draughty) and noisy extractor fans in kitchens and bathrooms (which are never cleaned, so block-up) is not adequate. Opening windows also isn’t viable – to meet the 0.44 air changes per hour currently set by Building Regulations in England, you’d need to open all the
windows for 10 minutes, every couple of hours – not particularly convenient and if you’re in a town do you want the noise and pollution inside? Plus, in all instances you’re throwing away vital heat. This ventilation method contributes between 50-60 per cent of the typical
www.sbhonline.co.uk 31
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