Partnering with a ventilation specialist - Total Home Environment

Total Home Environment is a family business set-up in the Cotswolds in 1998.  Passionate about clean fresh air, we plan, select and install ventilation, heating and cleaning systems to achieve the healthiest outcome. We research and choose our products carefully so you can be sure they give outstanding performance and we only specify those that fit best with people’s plans and budget.We cover:

• • • • • • • heat recovery ventilation
            • heat pump ventilation
            • air-source heat pumps
            • air-water heat pumps
            • central vacuum systems.

We spoke with Clarissa Youden, associate director at Total Home Environment about why ventilation is so important for your self-build home. Read on to learn more about options for the self-builder.How do you help self-builders?We understand that a self-build or major renovation can be a daunting and complex process, as several of our team have completed projects themselves! We are happy to advise and support our clients in navigating the changing technology and to comply with regulations.It's important for us to understand our client's lifestyle and how they live, from the spaces they use the most during the day, to their ideal temperature. This then allows our clients to understand the components they need to create a truly sustainable home by ensuring that insulation, ventilation and heating work effectively together with the building fabric.Our involvement could span simple advice (as we’re not afraid to say ‘No, this system’s not suitable’), right through to room-by-room heat loss reports, system design, installation and ongoing support.Why is ventilation so important when building a home?As we are encouraged to seal and insulate our homes more, the indoor air can have more pollutants in it than the air next to a busy road – this can result in itchy eyes, headaches, allergy symptoms and reduced cognitive ability – all of which are associated with ‘Sick-building Syndrome’.Unfortunately, a constant cocktail of chemicals is released from carpets, curtains, sofas, laminates, cleaning detergents… the list is endless. Also, CO₂ from breathing and humidity caused by cooking and showering, increases the perceived temperature in the warmer months to an uncomfortable level. If you’re not putting a vapour membrane within the floor of a renovation project and are in a high Radon Gas area, this radioactive gas could also get trapped within your home.It’s easy to assume that opening windows will keep the air inside your home fairly healthy. Unfortunately, that’s not the case, because to have adequate ventilation, you’d need to have the windows open every couple of hours for at least 10 minutes at a time – quite inconvenient. Also, when it’s cold, you’ll keep windows and trickle-vents closed to stop the draughts. In summer when air temperatures are similar inside and out, there won’t be any air movement, even with windows open.What options are available to self-builders?Ventilating your home by poking holes through the skin with unfiltered trickle-vents in window frames and noisy extractor fans in kitchens and bathrooms won’t be adequate if you’re really sealing it up to save heat. You can install Passive Stack Ventilation (PSV), Positive Input Ventilation (PIV) and Mechanical Extract Ventilation (MEV). However, all of these forms of ventilation are either uncontrollable, rely on a leaky home, squander heat or won’t guarantee you enough fresh air.The only way to get balanced ventilation without losing your hard-earned heat, is with mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) also known as Heat Recovery Ventilation (HRV). MVHR continuously extracts stale air out of wetrooms (kitchens/bathrooms) through ductwork and draws fresh filtered air from outside, whilst recovering up to 95% of the heat that you would normally lose through other types of ventilation.You get a whole house air change every two hours and can save up to a third on your heating bills.For homes that are to be super-insulated and airtight with low U-values, you can go a step further with the Passivhaus certified HPV Series and HPW 300. They form an energy efficient heat pump ventilation solution, providing heating, MVHR, cooling and hot water. Having one infrastructure for all these, allows for less materials, trades on site and installation time – a win for the environment, your pocket and a shorter build period.For smaller homes or apartments, we would recommend the PKOM 4 compact service unit, which does all the above in one compact box.Once you have clean, healthy air, why compromise it by using a traditional vacuum cleaner that simply redistributes dust around your home? A truly healthy home will also have a Beam Central Vacuum which can last for 30 years+, is 50% more powerful than a portable, with little noise, no smells and nothing to lug about.When should self-builders engage with you?Although it isn’t a disaster to talk to us once you have Building Regulations plans, these systems should be considered as early as possible, even before you talk with your architect. You can visit our permanent stand at the NSBRC in Swindon, or you can visit our showroom in Moreton in Marsh to discuss your project aspirations. Getting a feel for the size of the units and plant room space, the type of duct, floor joists depths and U-values are all important to contemplate.On your Gannt chart, we advise to allow up to eight weeks between ordering and having a system design done, so materials can be delivered in good time for first fix.How do you work with Frame Technologies?With over 10 years of partnering with us, Frame Technologies have a good understanding of the space required for our ventilation units, the joist depths to allow ductwork to run and likely positioning of the ducts to atmosphere (where air is coming in and out of the ventilation unit through the building envelope).Looking at floorplans, our sales team will calculate the volume of the house to ascertain correct airflows and if we have U-values, we will have an idea as to the heating load for the home. We may get in contact with Frame Technologies to check that the unit location is suitable in size and orientation for ducts to atmosphere and that joist depths are deep enough, if it’s not indicated on the plans. This allows us to confidently recommend heating and ventilation solutions in a pricing proposal.Once we receive an order from you, our design team will re-check the above with Frame Technologies and design the best routes for ductwork to avoid structural beams etc. If you have opted for a combined heating and ventilation solution, we will also complete a room-by-room heat loss report to ensure that it will be suitable for your home. Operations will consult with Frame Technologies on likely first and second fix timings so that materials delivery, installation and commissioning can be co-ordinated as well as getting plumbing and wiring details to other trades.Do you have any top tips or things to consider when thinking about ventilation/building your own home?There are many tips we could give, but here are just three:

1. ensure that your plant room is big enough for all your plant: i.e. ventilation and heating units, electric meter, central vacuum, smart home hub, PV batteries etc – there is nothing more annoying than to have service people trooping all over the house, when they can have everything organised in one place.
2. Posi-joists are worth investing in, as they allow ducting, plumbing pipes and electric cables to effortlessly navigate through the build structure reducing installation time.
3. spend as much of your budget as you can, on getting the fabric of your home as airtight and well insulated as possible, so you spend less on heating it in the long run - that £30k kitchen can replace your humble one at a later date!

If you would like more information on the heating and ventilation options or would like to book an appointment to see demonstrations of the systems mentioned above, contact Frame Technologies and we will be happy to put you in touch.