Creating an airing cupboard

[Russell griffiths]

On the plot where we are building the new place we have 2 holiday lets, so we generate a lot of bed linen. 

We are building in a large linen cupboard in the laundry room, I’m thinking it would be nice to have a small amount of warmth in there as well as some moisture extraction. 

 

So my plans are to route one of the extract ducts from the mvhr into the top of the cupboard for moist air extraction. 

But what about sticking some low level heat into the cupboard. 

I have my own ideas, what do you lot think. 

 

Not needed, the extract will do the job

add an outlet duct to the bottom of the cupboard and extract at the top ???  Vents too close together???

 

or just light a big fire in the bottom of the cupboard???

[ProDave]

Put the hot water tank in there, its small heat loss will keep the cupboard warm.

[Gav_P]

Put a small radiator in there?

[SteamyTea]

Fit a portable airconditioning unit, that can supply some heat (the power that the units draws from the mains) and reduce the humidity (greater the difference the faster the drying), both will help drying.

 

And make sure it is a well insulated area, with well controlled ventilation, no point it affecting the rest of the building.

Edited September 8, 2020 by SteamyTea

[Jenni]

I'm siting my airing cupboard above an ufh manifold, I think that will have some losses, combined with mvhr extract above to draw the air through. 

[SuperJohnG]

A flow of air seems to dry everything much faster than heat alone, I would think that would do it. Plus you're house isn't going to be cold...it'll be 20 degrees or thereabouts I'm assuming so thats plenty warm? 

[Russell griffiths]

I was thinking along the lines of one of those tubular heater things, mounted low, on a timer so it could just run for an hour or so. 

 

This is more for the warmer months when there  is no heating on. 

Cannot really put much else in there as the water tank already has its own plant room. 

Ufh manifold is only hot in the winter when it’s on which I’m hoping will only be about 5 months of the year. 

[Ferdinand]

Another possible piece of your toolkit is one of those dehumidifiers with a heating element.

[dpmiller]

how close is it to the plant room? could you (say) loop the return from the hot tank to the boiler through the room?

[Roundtuit]

28 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said:

I was thinking along the lines of one of those tubular heater things, mounted low, on a timer 

That was my initial thought, but if you're extracting from there, the heat will be sucked straight out unless you run it constantly.  Perhaps just try with the mvhr for a start, that should be plenty good enough for 'airing'.

[Russell griffiths]

I think what i might do is run a fused spur in there as a power source but wait and see how it works.