Enerphitish Renovation – Air Quality

[offthepiste]

Our Enerphit’ish renovation is well underway and am thinking ahead regarding air quality both from the point of at project completion and ongoing thereafter.

 

I have got a thing about particulates, e.g. PM2.5, particularly (hah) because of the idiots (we are inner London) and yummy parents who have installed wood burners which have previously caused serious breathing problems for us in our very drafty Victorian.

 

I also have been ruminating about Formaldehyde off gassing particularly immediately post renovation.

 

So some thoughts, and would be interested in any feedback:

 

Materials

We will be largely using wood fibre IWI but I still need consider its formaldehyde content.

Also, use of MDF, e.g. for built in furniture / kitchen units, which is available as low / zero Formaldehyde products such as from Medite, who were incredibly helpful when I called them up.

 

Project completion

In researching PM2.5 air quality monitors came across a very interesting website https://smartairfilters.com/en/which has lots of very useful info in particular  https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/how-to-run-formaldehyde-cookout/#more-20301 which outlines an approach to accelerate formaldehyde gassing off after a renovation. I am very tempted to do this but need to understand what the impact might be to our planned engineered wood flooring on basis I would use temporary electric heaters to raise the house temperature and how I would need to set the MVHR (will be Zehnder enthalpy unit).

 

Ongoing

 

• Wood smoke
  I am going to see about installing an active carbon filter something like as described by @Ultima357 in comment https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/22212-mvhr-active-carbon-filter/#comment-348128 as well as a F7 filter on MVHR intake to mitigate wood burner smoke.

 

• Cooking 
  Inevitably am going to have recirculating hob extractor but am either going to add an active carbon filter or something like the https://www.plasmamadefilters.co.uk plasma unit though would be interested to know how effective these actually are. Also, there will a MVHT ceiling extract in the ceiling somewhere.

 

• Air quality monitor
  I will probably have something like the ‘Airthings View Plus’ monitor as it can be used with Homekit (we are an Apple household) and possibly small air purifier, if monitoring highlights a problem, such as the https://smartairfilters.com/en/product/the-sqair-chemical-warfare/.

[JohnMo]

Why are going for an enthalpy mvhr in the UK?  There is really no point, we don't have the sustained cold temperatures, which lead to internal air drying out - which is what the designed to combat.

[offthepiste]

Hi @JohnMo wish to ensure relative humidity levels are maintained between 50-60% as we will have extensive and very expensive wide plank wood flooring throughout. 

 

We are based in London and our house has always been very dry - there are just the two of us and it is large and being an old Victorian is (was) very drafty - I monitored relative humidity from Jan through April which was between 35 - 40% so have concluded that our energy improvement measures particularly MVHR might even further reduce this at worst. Therefore, de risking with enthalpy unit. 

 

Thank you for your feedback.

Do you have any thoughts regarding @Ultima357 solution re wood smoke? This is probably my greatest concern going forward. Wood burners are a fashion accessory in these parts along with farrow & Ball etc.

Edited June 4, 2022 by offthepiste

[SteamyTea]

3 minutes ago, offthepiste said:

Do you have any thoughts regarding @Ultima357 solution re wood smoke? This is probably my greatest concern going forward. Wood burners are a fashion accessory in these parts along with farrow & Ball etc.

Move to Cornwall. One of the most polluted roads in the country is here.

 

[offthepiste]

@SteamyTea Wow ... whilst I live down "in the smoke" pollution from vehicles, at least where we live, is thankfully not an issue though we support the low emission zones.

 

Our neighbours, typically yummy, tend to own at least two vehicles one of which is usually of the 'Chelsea tractor' massive 4x4 type. We even have one who has two Land Rover types with multiple jerry cans strapped to the roof - I suppose I was young once.  

[Iceverge]

 

 

Here you go. ePM2.5  is probably your min spec. 

 

Maybe run the house at a positive pressure to ensure all indoor goes through the filters. 

[JohnMo]

It be worth digging around on here as I have seen reports of condensation of triple glazed windows with enthalpy MVHR. Your relative humidity levels seem very low compared to a London monthly RH of between 75 and 60.

 

[SteamyTea]

22 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

Your relative humidity levels seem very low compared to a London monthly RH of between 75 and 60.

Not if they heat their house to 25°C

[JohnMo]

Obviously not in fuel poverty by any definition.

[SteamyTea]

2 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

Obviously not in fuel poverty by any definition.

No one within the M25 is in any sort of poverty.

And everyone in Cornwall is.

End of.