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Russdl

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Everything posted by Russdl

  1. Russdl
    Yes you do. Well, I’m pretty sure I did, just need to find it in my files. I fitted the required restrictor rings, switched it on and as all seemed completely hunky dory I moved the commissioning aspect all the way to the back burner and beyond. That could prove to be mistake number two (of the MVHR mistakes - there are many others). The commissioning will be brought to the front of the hob and set to boost soon.
  2. Russdl
    No, it was all my own doing. That seems like a great idea, I can look into that. Actually, already thinking about it whilst typing. I can measure the RH at the supply vents compared to the intake air before it gets into the MVHR which I’ll be able to do easily. I would expect the supply RH to be higher with the bypass because of the enthalpy but I should be able to see how much higher and then take it from there. Thanks for the idea ?? I could also measure the exhaust RH each side of the MVHR unit. @Adsibob, you’re a genius! (I guess I’ll need the temperature at each reading as well, and then wonder what I do with numbers I get - apart from post them here to be deciphered)
  3. Russdl
    Out of interest @joe90 how long ago did your last ‘wet trade’ finish?
  4. Russdl
    Thats my gut feeling but it still doesn’t quite add up as others on here have enthalpy units and don’t seem to experience the same problems, @joe90’s experience is similar but his windows are 2g so that may explain his occasional condensation. It was cold again last night and there was condensation on most windows (some with thick curtains, some without) We went for the enthalpy expecting future occupancy to be low as I work away a lot. Maybe that was a mistake. Maybe the house does need to dry out further as suggested in this thread (I hope not, humble pie sounds revolting). Investigations are ongoing, but at a slight pause as I’m out of area at the moment.
  5. Russdl
    We have the same tap. Water softener goes to the hot feed. Combimate ’conditioned’ water goes to the boiling water/filtered water/cold feed. Everything we drink is ‘conditioned’ as soon as the mixer is moved away from full cold to slightly warmer/hot it adds more and more softened water, fully hot on the mixer is fully softened hot water. No sign of scale on the tap but not opened the boiling water tank yet to see what lies inside.
  6. Russdl
    I take your point, probably aimed at brick and block and we're timber frame but the point is - it takes a long time. Can't do that, the UFH doesn't seem to be working properly. I'll start another thread on that little issue when I get a roundtoit (the house isn't cold though) I'm starting to feel bullied, I'm off to Tesco's to get some Humble Pie to pop in the fridge ready in case I need it. Which is the number one priority. When that box is ticked nothing else really matters (its just a bloody difficult box to tick!)
  7. Russdl
    All extracts will suck a bit of tissue against the valve and on all supplies you can feel the flow (when it’s on a high setting). As it happens the main offender does, an almost identical window in the room directly below doesn’t have thick or heavy curtains and on cold days it will also have condensation on it, so I don’t think curtains have any part to play in it.
  8. Russdl
    @dpmiller whilst it’s not been properly commissioned it supplies where it should supply and extracts where it should extract. What I don’t know is if it is supplying and extracting the amount of air it should be.
  9. Russdl
    That was going to be my default position but the damn things backed me into a corner, I've got a patio to do, I don't have time for this niff-naff and trivia! Plus work want me to 'work'! There's not enough hours in the day.
  10. Russdl
    I hear you, I hear you, and I'm very grateful for your (and everyone else) input but I honestly don't think the house is or could still be 'wet' despite what the RH levels say, If it transpires that that is the problem then I will whack some Humble Pie in the microwave and scoff it live on air. I kind of agree there. I can't see how it's going to change much. I'm looking suspiciously at the enthalpy heat exchanger but others on here seem to be using those without issue. The only other culprit (if it's not a 'wet' house) has to be the machine itself. It was a 'special order' so perhaps it's been put together incorrectly... That restriction is done in the manifolds at the MVHR end of things with the red restrictor rings, popping out as many as the supplier dictated. I got those restrictor calculations checked twice so I'm fairly confident in them, I'm also fairly confident the correct restrictor ring is over the correct duct in the manifold. The valves in the room also have adjustment, which in theory shouldn't be required, it's those that are set to 0 at the moment, so they can be adjusted to restrict flow further as required That'll hopefully happen soon with the help of a very kind man who has also lent me a CO2 monitor which has been up and monitoring for a few hours. That CO2 monitor shows that when the MVHR is on a low setting the CO2 readings are high, when the MVHR is on a high setting the CO2 reduces quickly - so air is moving in the right direction. And I'm sure the house isn't 'wet'. ?
  11. Russdl
    Yep, that’s on the cards but I’m a bit grumpy that I can’t work it out myself. Got those. All set to 0 at the moment which allows maximum airflow.
  12. Russdl
    @Adsibob I installed them but overlooked the measuring of duct lengths that I’d installed. When it was finally all ready to be turned on (long after the ducts had been installed) I used a vacuumed cleaner to suck a bit of foam tied to a length of string down each duct (worked brilliantly) and then measured how much string zipped down each duct. They definitely all go where I think they go.
  13. Russdl
    Actually, there's no way that can happen unless something is knackered inside the MVHR unit...
  14. Russdl
    That's what we were expecting, it's never achieved that. Not really a long shot, something's clearly not quite right. I've checked it and checked it. I'll be checking it again today.
  15. Russdl
    @Adsibob thanks for that link. The main culprit for condensation is the main bedroom window and there is no heating up there. It's a large window at 1900 x 1500 and I'm sure there is no issue with the window or it's installation. Overnight I've had the MVHR on a much lower setting than of late (moving circa 50m3/hr, for the last few weeks its been moving 200m3/hr pretty much 24/7). This morning there is no condensation anywhere but it was a much milder night last night with the temperature not falling below 9°. The RH is high in the bedroom again at 70%, up from 62% last night We didn't have any heating on downstairs overnight and its actually the warmest it's been downstairs for a while (by half a degree or more) at 20.6°. In summary, well, I don't know, but here's what I do know: Condensation forms on the inside of the windows when it's cold outside. Running the MVHR at a higher rate for weeks has not prevented condensation forming. The house is built to passive standards and the windows are good quality and installed correctly. The house must be dry from any construction moisture (it's had a year or more to do so). The RH is generally high in the house, the highest RH is in the rooms with the shortest duct runs to the MVHR terminal (coincidence?) The MVHR has an enthalpy heat exchanger. The MVHR hasn't been properly commissioned, it's at factory settings with the suppliers recommended restrictors for each supply/extract duct.
  16. Russdl
    Theoretically, but if it's more humid outside than inside, and I have an enthalpy unit does the opposite happen? B*ggered if I know so we'll see what tomorrow brings.
  17. Russdl
    Not quite convinced yet, but certainly leaning in that direction. It may just be that we've been running it too fast or it may be a bit more complicated than that. Experiments continue, but not turning it off just yet.
  18. Russdl
    I agree, especially if the 6 litres I take out is being replaced by the MVHR unit as fast as I remove it from the room. That's what I'm wondering. ~~~~~~ The last wet trade in the house was over a year ago and whilst last summer was a bit rubbish, it still got plenty hot enough for us to have windows open frequently and MVHR on 'party mode' to keep things cool. The more I think about it, the more I think that it can't be that the house is still drying out and the problem must lie with the MVHR or... ...a water leak somewhere in here. No evidence of that though. Further info: The main bedroom was the first room in the house to be skimmed, and that was close to 2 years ago. The main bedroom always has the highest RH in the house. There are two doors between the main bedroom and the en-suite, both normally pulled to, if not closed. The supply duct to the main bedroom is the shortest of all supply ducts at 4.4m. All other supply ducts are two or more times longer. Does any of that make any difference?
  19. Russdl
    Now that's interesting. It is a puny little thing and I do wonder if I'm trying to dry out the planet litre by litre. I got the main bedroom down to 55%RH this afternoon running the dehumidifier for about 3-4 hours, taking out about 1 litre of water. 90 mins later it was back up to 63%. The MVHR is bringing in just under 100m3 an hour of air that apparently has an RH of 97%. The room is around 45m3. So what's happening? Are these figures indicative of me trying to dry the planet one roomful at a time or do they indicate the house is still wet? Or is it not possible to discern anything?
  20. Russdl
    Shows what I know then. And I got homework! Too busy messing about with a patio at the moment so I’ll have to look into that later. It is to passiv standard, and the heating hasn’t been on much. In fact when it has been on it doesn’t seem to do much - but that’s for another thread. Hopefully it is just that the house is ‘wet’ and the little dehumidifier can rectify that over time. My big concern is if I’ve porked it all up by getting an enthalpy unit and it’s that which is causing me the issue.
  21. Russdl
    Of course it is. If I’d stopped to think about it a bit longer I would have got there. The dehumidifier is rated at 300W but that won’t produce 300W of heat energy into a room will it? However the temperature of any room it’s in that has high humidity starts to tick up quite rapidly, more rapidly than a heater would (that’s a guess, I’ve not done any experiments) so it must be converting the water vapour to liquid water that is releasing all that lovely latent heat. It is quite noticeable. We dry clothes in the utility room, it’s never been as successful as I was expecting it to be, we put one of those 300W plug in heaters in there, made the room warm but didn’t speed up the drying process much. With the dehumidifier in there it is quite startling how quickly the clothes dry and also how warm the room gets. And, for what’s it worth it’s a good looking dehumidifier!
  22. Russdl
    Just a quick update. We turned the MVHR up 24/7 for several weeks, RH still remained high and on cold mornings condensation was on the inside of some windows, most noticeably the large frameless window in the main bedroom that faces east. I splashed out on a dehumidifier because there is clearly a lot of water in this house. So far I’ve taken about 6 litres out in about 15-20 hrs of dehumidifier action. (so we have no shortage of window cleaning water). One morning the RH in the main bedroom was over 70%. I put the dehumidifier in there and bought it down to the mid 50’s% relatively quickly and then the moved the dehumidifier to the next room that needed attention. The following morning the RH was back up above 70% (and we’ve re-run that little sketch twice now). Is that an indication of something fundamentally wrong somewhere or just an indication that the house is wet and needs to be dried out. One other thing that really surprised me, that I’m sure our resident scientists will be able to explain with lots of confusing equations: Running the dehumidifier in a room aside from drying it, also warms the room. There is little to no heat from the dehumidifier, is this temperature rise ‘latent heat’ or something to do with ‘dry/saturated adiabatic lapse rates’? Or none of the above?
  23. Russdl
    @Visti Initially we used a 24 Hour Supply Master Fused Spur Time Switch to dictate to the Sunamp when it could/could not charge. It was set to come on at 11:30 and stayed on for 4 hours. During the summer months it would be charged up within 3 or so hours, using the sun if it happened to be shining and grid if it wasn't. I then swapped that out for a Shelly 1PM, as recommended by @PeterW. I was going to use its 'IFTTT' ability as I was on Octopus Agile but that didn't really work as the Agile price has been through the roof, 24/7, for the last month or more. I am now on Octopus Go which has a 5p/kWh price from 00:30 - 04:30 so the Shelly turns the Sunamp on between those hours (again, it's normally finished in about 3 hrs). Shelly's also give our Willis heaters (for the ground floor UFH) the same 4hr window of opportunity if the need is the there, same goes for the towel rails and electric UFH in the bathroom/en-suite. If the sun is shining I'll use the Shelly 'app' to turn stuff on as and when.
  24. Russdl
    Oo-er. Looks like I’ve got some learning to do. I’ve got one, used it a couple of times. I was under the impression that they were perfectly safe for indoor use - that’s what they’re sold for. What am I missing?
  25. Russdl
    Get a bio-ethanol fire. Real flames, real pain if you put your/someone else’s hand in it. No flue required. No dedicated airflow required and when the going gets tough you can probably drink the fuel with a splash of tonic (and an ambulance on speed dial.)
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