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Smoke problem from neighbours


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1 minute ago, Mr Punter said:

I guess if your bathroom does not have a window, turning off the MVHR would be a bad plan.

 

For weeks on end yes. For a few hours when there's a fire nearby, probably not.

 

We have no opening windows in the bathrooms so do run it year round - summer bypass when its hot.

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16 hours ago, Savage87 said:

 

I have one of those sensor and don't do much, plus that you shoudn't turn off the MVHR ever.

 

 

I have been in contact with Blauberg for the same solution. This would add a lot of resistance to the system, it's an expensive solution and the filters are expensive as well

 

Insted, I have bought a 5 inch filter box from blauberg(amazon) and I have also bought a automotive carbon pollen filter to go in it and replace the g3 filter that comes with the filter box.

 

I can't say this will work as I haven't yet fitted it. For some reason I haven't been getting smoke in the house for a while, possible change in wind direction.

 

If this fails I'm planning to get a high flow hydroponics carbon filter.

 

I've also looked into something similar, much less of a pressure drop with the hydroponics ones and far cheaper.

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So, I spoke to the manufacturer of my MVHR Nuaire and they said it would invalidate the warranty.For example, my mvhr has a builtin clock which count how much time it's been on and off during it's life.

 

When designing a MVHR system it's intended use is 24h per day, 7days a week and so on (except for maintenance). If a smoke problem is foreseen, it get's sorted out at the design stage with asditional filtration. When it's badly designed or unforeen we start looking for alternative solutions, like this topic :)

Some people might disagree, but this is my opinion.

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Not all MHRV systems are the same.  Not all use cases are the same.  Not all definitions of an "MHRV system" are even the same.

 

My simple one based on single-room MHRVs is certainly not in that mould.

 

The kitchen one does run 24x7, generally, but the bathroom one is off for half the year.

 

Rgds

 

Damon

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1 hour ago, Savage87 said:

So, I spoke to the manufacturer of my MVHR Nuaire and they said it would invalidate the warranty.For example, my mvhr has a builtin clock which count how much time it's been on and off during it's life.

 

Did they say why, and more importantly on what grounds? There's no such restrictions in the written details as far as I can see.

 

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They should put a clause to that effect in their written warranty really if they beleive it to be an issue.

 

Did you make it clear you'd only be looking for it to be temporarily disabled? (Assuming you're not persistently smoked out of course) 

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Defeating the purpose is one thing, voiding the warranty (despite no such constraint being a condition) is the bit that concerns me.

 

I'd put your health and comfort first, and worry about any warranty issue if/when it comes to it. 

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So what if you live in a power cut area, are they going to invalidate your warranty because you had a power cut every day.

 

I found Nuaire difficult to work with, they did a design for me, and even said semi-rigid ducting would invalidate their warranty, and they would only support 125mm metal ducting.

 

Nuaire do have a very expensive NOx Box so I'm surprised they didn't recommend you one of those, but as i said before, there is no guaranteed solution.

 

Also poor design isn't necessarily the issue for me...we can't control what happens around us, and for me I wanted to (and still want to) ascertain how much of a problem the smoke/smell actually is before spending a lot of money on expensive filters, and in my case so far I've not found it bad enough to need to do anything, but its nice to have a plan to act if i need to.

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  • 3 months later...
44 minutes ago, Savage87 said:

Wow! Must a cost you half the mvhr install, all because of neighbours that live in the past..

 

Does the cleanbox have an additional fan?


it did cost a small fortune, around £300, and annoyingly I’d forgot about the Zhender modular solution which comes in at same price initially but filter changes are cheaper, so will have to take a hit at some point, the curse of having a bad memory! Lol

 

so many houses round here have stoves, or coal can’t blame any one person really.

 

only having a small bungalow means my flow rates are small anyway, so I wouldn’t say the change of filter has made much impact, though I have yet to test and balance the system, so don’t know true airflow rates. I raised the supply by 2% just in case which also helped to recover more heat from the exhaust, but overall seems same as before filter box, still get the fresh air smell ?
 

at some point I’ll add everything to my blog, but haven’t been too well lately so have just done stuff and not taken any photos 

Edited by MikeGrahamT21
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  • 1 year later...
On 23/02/2021 at 21:38, MikeGrahamT21 said:


it did cost a small fortune, around £300, and annoyingly I’d forgot about the Zhender modular solution which comes in at same price initially but filter changes are cheaper, so will have to take a hit at some point, the curse of having a bad memory! Lol

 

so many houses round here have stoves, or coal can’t blame any one person really.

 

only having a small bungalow means my flow rates are small anyway, so I wouldn’t say the change of filter has made much impact, though I have yet to test and balance the system, so don’t know true airflow rates. I raised the supply by 2% just in case which also helped to recover more heat from the exhaust, but overall seems same as before filter box, still get the fresh air smell ?
 

at some point I’ll add everything to my blog, but haven’t been too well lately so have just done stuff and not taken any photos 

 

Sorry for the necro of this old post, but I'm looking for a NOx filtration system that is not in the £1000s.. (Zehnder, Nuaire etc).

What was this modular Zehnder system if you can recall? I've only seen their large unit:

https://www.zehnder.co.uk/products-and-systems/comfortable-indoor-ventilation/zehnder-filter-housing-nox

 

For which I have been quoted £3850 +VAT .

Currently considering the Blauberg CleanBox or the Nuaire supply valves (but they add 8Pa of pressure each), but a modular zehnder in the similar price range would be worth considering if you know the details?

How has your Blauberg cleanbox worked out, not too much extra noise in the end?

 

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23 minutes ago, Ewan said:

 

Sorry for the necro of this old post, but I'm looking for a NOx filtration system that is not in the £1000s.. (Zehnder, Nuaire etc).

What was this modular Zehnder system if you can recall? I've only seen their large unit:

https://www.zehnder.co.uk/products-and-systems/comfortable-indoor-ventilation/zehnder-filter-housing-nox

 

For which I have been quoted £3850 +VAT .

Currently considering the Blauberg CleanBox or the Nuaire supply valves (but they add 8Pa of pressure each), but a modular zehnder in the similar price range would be worth considering if you know the details?

How has your Blauberg cleanbox worked out, not too much extra noise in the end?

 

 

The Zehnder one was this: https://www.paulheatrecovery.co.uk/product-category/mvhr-ducting/comfowell-modular-air-manifold-silencer-system/

 

CleanBox has been fantastic, just swapped the filters over (not the carbon filter as thats still filtering smells fine), and now running a G4 and a H13 HEPA filter.

 

Old vs New on both the ones i swapped:

OBLX9472.thumb.JPG.b75b8b228361b3d3c351fbe8754b0e68.JPG

JDJO5967.thumb.JPG.fd887aa988a90fb2aad9dde28dfe12ab.JPG

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Just spotted this thread and showed it to my other half who still mentions her annoyance at me deleting the stove from our build. We’ve made every decision together but on this I was quite adamant I didn’t want a stove for exactly this reason. We only have one neighbour and she died last year and the house remains empty. Even when she was alive I never saw any smoke from the chimney. Fortunately the prevailing winds tend to blow away from our plot towards the neighbour so even if there was smoke it should be fine. But I can see it being a much bigger issue in more built up areas. 

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Thanks Mike, looks like it will be just the ticket. The 200mm version has the best static pressure performance, looks like it adds about 30Pa at our normal fan speed.. which basically doubles our system Pa but should be within tolerance. 
 

The Zehnder unit was about 11Pa, but £4k is just ridiculous. 
 

Yes Kelvin, the message re log burner harm does seem to be slow to filter through to people who aren’t actively looking.. though reasonably regular articles in newspapers these days, hopefully awareness will grow. 

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5 hours ago, Ewan said:

Thanks Mike, looks like it will be just the ticket. The 200mm version has the best static pressure performance, looks like it adds about 30Pa at our normal fan speed.. which basically doubles our system Pa but should be within tolerance. 
 

The Zehnder unit was about 11Pa, but £4k is just ridiculous. 
 

Yes Kelvin, the message re log burner harm does seem to be slow to filter through to people who aren’t actively looking.. though reasonably regular articles in newspapers these days, hopefully awareness will grow. 


I wonder how much the new ecodesign stoves give out, meant to be much improved

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19 hours ago, Ewan said:

NOx filtration system

The term 'filtration' may be misused when it comes to NOX.

It is more usual to use a catalyst.  Ammonia (a wonder chemical) is often used to strip the oxygen off the molecule, called selective catalyst reduction, SRC.

I don't think a physical filter is going to make any difference.

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22 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

The term 'filtration' may be misused when it comes to NOX.

It is more usual to use a catalyst.  Ammonia (a wonder chemical) is often used to strip the oxygen off the molecule, called selective catalyst reduction, SRC.

I don't think a physical filter is going to make any difference.


not going to make a difference to smoke smell? I can assure you it definitely does. Gone are the mornings when smoke smell from wood burning used to wake me up on a morning.

 

as with all activated charcoal it absorbs VOCs

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So perhaps that's the reason the other NOx filters are so expensive? Although they are seemingly physical filters too, just massive ones.

Would be pretty misleading of Zehnder etc to sell filtration units that do not...

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  • 10 months later...

The air quality is regularly very poor (200-300 µg/m³ PM2.5) where I live so carbon filters would have limited benefit. 


While not condoned, I installed a WiFi switch on the power input to the MVHR unit and switch it on/off automatically based on the PM2.5 readings from an air quality monitor.

 

If this ever has an impact on a warranty claim, I will live with that rather than risk the health of my family. 

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