A well-sealed building needs deliberate ventilation. MVHR provides it, and recovers most of the warmth that would otherwise leave through a trickle vent or an open window.
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Most work on
New builds & major refurbs
Design Output
Full CAD layout
We specify
Elta Group
Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery is a whole-house ventilation system. It extracts stale, humid air from kitchens, bathrooms and utility rooms, and supplies filtered fresh air to living rooms and bedrooms. Both streams pass through a heat exchanger, so most of the heat in the outgoing air is transferred to the incoming air without the two mixing.
It’s become necessary rather than optional as buildings have been built and renovated to higher airtightness standards. Once a dwelling is designed to an air permeability of 5m³/(h·m²) at 50Pa or tighter, trickle vents and intermittent extract fans are no longer an adequate strategy, and continuous mechanical extract or heat recovery is required instead.
Extract ducts draw air from the wet rooms; supply ducts deliver fresh air to habitable rooms; air moves between them through the rest of the house. The heat exchanger sits in the middle, transferring warmth from the outgoing stream to the incoming one.
Filters remove pollen and particulates from the incoming air. The unit runs continuously at a low rate, boosting when humidity rises. Ducting has to be routed before ceilings and floors are closed up, which is why it is designed alongside the heating rather than added by a separate trade later.
Stale, humid air is drawn out continuously, boosting automatically when humidity rises.
Filtered fresh air is delivered in, with pollen and particulates removed before it enters the room.
Their product range, price point and technical support at design and aftercare stages is excellent. They’ll also undertake site visits for complex installations and will supply and amend CAD to support project developments.
Most of our MVHR work is on new builds and major refurbishments, where the ducting can be routed properly before ceilings and floors close up. We design off plan and issue a CAD layout for your contractor to install the ducting and units, then commission the system once it’s in. That way the build programme stays in your contractor’s hands, while the design and the commissioning stay with us.
If the building is airtight, yes. Once a dwelling is sealed past a defined airtightness threshold, the regulations expect continuous mechanical extract or heat recovery rather than trickle vents. New builds and well-executed deep retrofits usually reach that point. We assess it at design stage.
A correctly designed system is barely audible. Noise usually comes from undersized ducting or a unit sited without acoustic consideration, rather than from the technology itself. Duct sizing, routing and unit placement are design decisions, which is why we specify them alongside the heating.
No, and it shouldn’t be sold as though it can. MVHR recovers heat that’s already in the air leaving the building; it doesn’t generate any. It reduces how much heating you need, but the heating itself comes from the heat pump and the emitters.
Sometimes, though it’s far easier where ceilings or floors are already coming up. The constraint is ducting: every room needs a route to the unit. In an occupied house without a renovation underway, continuous mechanical extract is often the more practical answer.
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Ducting has to be routed early, so the earlier MVHR is part of the conversation, the more straightforward the install. Tell us about the project, or book a design survey directly.
Prefer to talk it through first?
We design renewable heating systes around your home and the way you live.
Prefer to talk to us first?
Call: 01271 850 040
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Prefer to talk to us first?
Call: 01271 850 040
