Ensuring your home is well ventilated doesn’t mean draughty... it’s time to clean up your act

This is as much about decent ventilation as heat recovery. Traditionally, many UK dwellings have relied on natural air infiltration, otherwise known as draughts, for ventilation. This costs money in lost energy, causes discomfort and adds to your carbon footprint. Bad air pollution in our homes can be down to toxins released by furniture, carpets, cleaning materials and so on. A green home needs to be better insulated, with particular attention on the control and quality of air coming in and out. The answer is for controlled ventilation, either as one system or a room-by-room basis.

Start small with affordable heat recovery fans in the kitchen and bathroom (recover up to 80 per cent heat), while you decide on the other rooms.

Above: BedZED is carbn neutral, using eco devices such as these wind cowls, which supply and extract air from the buildings.

PROS

• In a well-designed system, you get clean air with the minimum amount of heat loss.

CONS

• Unless you are going for a serious refit of your home, this could involve an awful lot of duct work and expense.

• You’re going to need a specialist to advise you on a baffling number of options, and they don’t come cheap

Useful Contacts

Residential Ventilation Association: www.feta.co.uk/rva
Airflow: www.airflow.co.uk

Words: Dominic Murphy