in my 2 bed ground floor maisonette there are 2 heat recovery
ventilators fitted. they are made by kair. they are rather unsightly
with 2 boxes each at the top of the walls in the lounge and main
bedroom with a boost cord hanging down. also there is the trunking for
the power cables going up the wall.

my question is, does anybody have experience with these or similar
units. to be honest they don't seem to make any difference whether on
or off. the maisonette has had problems with damp (i'm pretty sure
its cold wall condensation and nothing more).

also one of them stays permanently in boost mode which is quite loud,
the humidity sensor doesn't seem to work. its definitely not manually
set to boost.

i get the feeling the previous owner called in a specialist company
and had a salesman call in and sell these units without properly
checking the cause of the damp/mould on walls.

any views welcome as i'm pretty inexperienced with diy!

On 20 Dec, 18:26, benpost wrote:
in my 2 bed ground floor maisonette there are 2 heat recovery
ventilators fitted. they are made by kair. *they are rather unsightly
with 2 boxes each at the top of the walls in the lounge and main
bedroom with a boost cord hanging down. also there is the trunking for
the power cables going up the wall.

my question is, does anybody have experience with these or similar
units. to be honest they don't seem to make any difference whether on
or off. *the maisonette has had problems with damp (i'm pretty sure
its cold wall condensation and nothing more).

also one of them stays permanently in boost mode which is quite loud,
the humidity sensor doesn't seem to work. *its definitely not manually
set to boost.

i get the feeling the previous owner called in a specialist company
and had a salesman call in and sell these units without properly
checking the cause of the damp/mould on walls.

any views welcome as i'm pretty inexperienced with diy!

Heat recovery units are next to useless in the UK climate, OK for
Scandinavia, but no use here.

But they may be functioning as a positive pressure fan to combat mould
and damp, and in this situation they do tend to work if used in
conjunction with other vents to let the damp air out.

dg

I think that makes sense , i'm guessing they were sold to the previous
owner without a lot of research / trial and error being done. I'm
going to live without them on for a few months and see whether a mould
problem develops again (once ive finished cleaning it all off, not
easy on a stippled ceiling).

If the mould problem doesnt come back then I'll get rid of them. Only
thing is i'll have 2 holes in the wall! Cant believe someone paid
£300+ each for 2 of these things.

On 21 Dec, 08:50, dg wrote:


Heat recovery units are next to useless in the UK climate, OK for
Scandinavia, but no use here.


Why do they work in Scandinavia but not here?

T

In article ,
benpost writes:
I think that makes sense , i'm guessing they were sold to the previous
owner without a lot of research / trial and error being done. I'm
going to live without them on for a few months and see whether a mould
problem develops again (once ive finished cleaning it all off, not
easy on a stippled ceiling).
If the mould problem doesnt come back then I'll get rid of them. Only
thing is i'll have 2 holes in the wall! Cant believe someone paid
£300+ each for 2 of these things.

They are very expensive items. On that basis I wouldn't fit them,
but if they were already there, I probably wouldn't take them out!

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On 2007-12-24 14:42:04 +0000, said:

On 21 Dec, 08:50, dg wrote:


Heat recovery units are next to useless in the UK climate, OK for
Scandinavia, but no use here.


Why do they work in Scandinavia but not here?

T

Because on average, the temperature difference from inside to outside
is much greater for longer times during the year and more heat can be
recovered. Like any other form of heat exchanger, the heat
transferred is proportional to the temperature difference between its
primary and secondary sides.

In message
,
writes
On 21 Dec, 08:50, dg wrote:


Heat recovery units are next to useless in the UK climate, OK for
Scandinavia, but no use here.


Why do they work in Scandinavia but not here?

Different kind of snow ...

--
geoff

I think i will take them out, for a few reasons:

- they dont seem to work properly, one stays on boost mode which is
noisy, the other will sit on trickle mode but doesnt seem to go to
boost mode at all even with a boiling kettle under the sensor

- as the wall backs on to an alleyway you can hear any activity such
as kids through the ventilator and it seems to echo the noise

- i dont think they were required in the first place i'm pretty sure i
can solve the problem by reducing condensation in the first place and
using the window latch position for airflow

- it will be nice to have a smooth plain wall without trunking up the
wall and 2 boxes at the top

hi,
when attempting to remove the heat recovery ventilators, i found they
are secured with a tamperproof screw.
ive contacted the manufacturer and been told i need to buy either a
screwdriver:
http://www.i-sells.co.uk/advanced_se..._description=1
or a drill bit:
http://www.i-sells.co.uk/advanced_se...on=1&x=69&y=16
just wondered whether these can be bought anywhere else?
thanks

any ideas anyone as im going to the diy shop tomorrow! hoping to find
a screwdriver like this one there, hoping its a standard tamperproof
type and not specific to that company.

please please please
does anyone know if this screwdriver bit is standard or do i have to
order it from the specialist site i've been given:
http://www.i-sells.co.uk/tamper-proo...2.html?image=0
thanks

well now i have got the tool i removed one of the ventilators from the
wall and there is plastic tubing about 15cm diameter going from inside
to outside. removing this will expose the bricks and cavity. if i do
this what would be the best way of filling in the holes from inside
and outside??

haha looks like i'm talking to myself on this post :P