Russdl

@dpmiller it goes in a cold oven that is then heated to 200 degrees (iirc) for an hour and then left to cool down. The kitchen is a no go zone for a good couple of hours. Obviously not a problem in the summer when doors and windows are opened.

@Blooda exactly the same! We only use boost when cleaning the charcoal filter. Did it a couple of days ago when the sun was shining bright. Absolutely poisonous. The instructions do say to make sure the room is well ventilated but it was way too cold to open a door/window 😂

Our down draft hob has a washable grease filter and a rechargeable charcoal filter. It expels the air at floor level below a standard ceiling mounted MVHR extract duct. I didn’t expect it to be completely effective for the reasons @Dreadnaught mentions, but after two and a half years of use I’d have to say that it is. There is no evidence of grease etc in the MVHR extract duct and the pendant lights that hang down to about a meter above the back of the hob are equally unmarked. We don’t fry a great deal of food which will obviously help but I’d say the down draft hobs are more effective than you might expect.

The white pipe filling with water looks like a tumble dryer hose! I presume it’s ‘exhaust’. I can’t quite work out the orientation of it, Is it just filling up with rain? What does the outside look like?

Factory silicone for most of ours iirc. The condensation is a minor irritant that happens only occasionally and I think I’m the only one here with 3G windows that suffers from it - you’ll be fine.

Ah, ok. It looks like our windows are different then but if it helps here’s some pictures of ours. This is one of our frameless windows. and this is the back door. Condensation is always a feature for us when it’s particularly cold outside. The house has definitely dried out, my belief is it’s connected to the Enthalpy MVHR but the jury is still out on that one.

@Meabh I can’t see where the gunk is you’re referring to, can you elaborate? We don’t have HF410’s but we do have fixed HX300’s so maybe a similar build up or our back door is an AT410, obviously that opens but otherwise maybe a similar build up? If you can highlight your exact issue I can ‘compare and contrast’ for you.

It looks like the bricks have been cleaned (left side different shade to right side) in a straight line coincident with the new fence. What’s going on there?

And probably needs protecting. If you’re not familiar with pedestals for a patio here’s a picture of ours, different build to yours but I’m pretty sure it would work and the pedestals would keep the air bricks free to do their job.

@richie9648 have you considered pedestals for your patio? The air bricks would remain unobstructed, and your patio could be pretty much level with the patio doors. We did that with the Aco below the patio tiles and out of sight.

Do you have any recourse to the original installer? If your simple cleaning job fixes it, perhaps they can pay for all the additional (ineffectual) call outs you’ve had. I wonder if all the crap in the system has made it’s way into the blending valve or wether it still needs flushing.

Good luck. Really really shoddy installation or is something breaking up in there?

Not in the middle of winter in an electric house. That’s one problem replaced with another.

@revelation Ours is a similar setup. 3 years use and no condensation noticed in or below the cupboards. Were you running boiling water straight down the plug hole for a length of time just to test it? Do you mean you’ve rebated the underside of the wall units? If so you can seal a channel in to that for the LED strip.

We have a couple of portable CO2 monitors that include an alarm feature. Not mandatory down this neck of the woods yet but a damn good idea. In a power cut all is well for a short while unless you start lighting candles etc then the air quality falls off a cliff (according to the monitor, not so easy to detect yourself). I’m sure it would take a good many hours in an airtight house with a non functioning MVHR to become a serious health issue. In our case we’ve bought 11-12 hours of extra MVHR if we lose power with an Ecoflow battery that kicks in to power the MVHR in the event of a power cut - mainly so we don’t have to open any windows and throw the heat away.

I vote for option 1 and keep the MVHR well out of the equation.

Delete the MVHR extract and surely the problem goes away doesn’t it? If the chimney effect is not sufficient then I would have thought an extractor fan of some description would be sufficient to get the required airflow through the cabinet. I have no maths to back up that theory!

Missed that. Is that a good idea anyway? Why not keep that excess heat inside, obviously there will be occasions when it’s not welcome but most of the time it would be.

@puntloos I wonder if you’re overthinking this regarding the MVHR aspect. The downdraft recirculating extractor on our hob can boost at up to 570m3/hr though more normally it’s around the 200-300m3/hr. I’ve not once considered its effect on the MVHR which is seldom above 100m3/hr and never noticed any problems. With the extractor on a high setting it starts moving air internally around the house which becomes apparent if we’re cooking something pungent, with the extractor on a high setting and the kitchen door open, the smell will start spreading around the house indicative of all of the air in the house starting to move around heading towards the kitchen extractor. This is not an obvious airflow, only detectable as the smell spreads around. I would expect the same in your situation that with a high ventilation rate to keep your network cupboard cool the air within the house will slowly start recirculating through the cupboard. The MVHR will just get on with its thing, unperturbed.

Micro Louvre’s are a solution we contemplated for one of our troublesome overheating rooms. We got a sample from them, it wouldn’t be an invisible fix but probably would be a goodish fix. In the end we didn’t go for it as we managed to control the problem by closing the curtains and isolating the room whilst the sun was beating in the east facing window. https://www.smartlouvre.com/

@Roger440 sorry, no idea but @JohnMo’s comment is worth considering.

That sucks. For once it looks like I’ll benefit from my endless prevarication.

https://givenergy.co.uk/breaking-uk-government-announces-tax-relief-on-battery-storage-systems/ Looks like the stars may have aligned for me.

That is exactly what is required I reckon. I suspect you’ll need to drag your other half down the path of learning as well, and you’re right, this is a very good place to start. Your homework for tonight is to read loads and loads.

Why? Do you think it’s ’Fake News’? Why? Is it for fresh air? That is what the MVHR does. It also cleans and pre warms that fresh air as well. A bit of a no brainier really. If it’s for the ambient night time noises, well it can’t do that but you could probably use one of the many streaming services to provide that. Get ‘tilt and turn’ windows that open inwards. When tilted the top is open and it is a perfectly secure way of letting outside air into your home and in my view would be far superior to cutting a hole in a flat roof and plonking an opening window in that with the associated leak risk, rain noise, unwanted solar gain that such a set up could bring. Don’t be afraid of new(ish) ways of doing things. Try and work out exactly what you want and why or else you could end up building a one of home to the same standard that the mass build developer achieves and that would be very disappointing (As per @JohnMo I had to delete and re-write my original response)