VENTILATION
IN AN APARTMENT

When buying an apartment in a high-rise apartment building, you should be prepared that you will have to rethink the engineering solutions provided by the developer. This also applies to ventilation in an apartment: your comfort depends on it, and it is definitely not worth sacrificing it.

So, the keys to your apartment in a new building or “secondary” are in your hands.

Let's find out what kind of housing you bought and what ventilation is needed in an apartment.

We always consider ventilation not as a separate engineering system, but as a network of systems. During the construction of a house, the developer used various building technologies, which influenced the overall design of the building. 

Everything matters:

Thermal insulation materials make the building energy efficient, that is, one that loses a minimum of heat and cold.

How not to waste the energy efficiency potential implemented by builders?

First of all, think about a ventilation system. The ventilation ducts that are already in the bathrooms, wardrobes or dressing rooms, and kitchens are not the ventilation of an apartment. The developer created them, foremost because he needed to meet the standards, without which it would not be possible to put the house into operation.

The first step to building a real ventilation system is when you put an axial or centrifugal fan on the ventilation ducts, which will utilize moisture and odors. It is also worth thinking about how to ensure the supply of fresh air to an apartment. In old leaky houses, outside air penetrated into the room (albeit in small volumes), providing infiltration. However, modern buildings are absolutely leak-proof. Are you certain that an open window will be enough, or is it worth searching for an alternative?

This will be discussed further.

A decentralized ventilation system in an apartment with ductwork distributes air supply and air exhaust to different rooms.

This is a unique solution of the Meltem brand (Germany), and a real “hit” of sales for typical Ukrainian apartments up to 80 square meters. To implement this system, a Meltem ventilation unit of the first or second generation is installed, which supplies 100 cubic meters of air.

How can you build such a system in an apartment with two bedrooms, a kitchen-living room and a bathroom?

The main task is to ensure the supply and exhaust of the same volume of air from the housing.

For example, one Meltem recuperator is installed, from which two air ducts with a diameter of 75 mm exit. Each duct carries 50 cubic meters of air into two rooms. Air ducts responsible for air intake are installed in the kitchen, closer to the hob, and in the bathroom.

So, in two bedrooms, where parents and children are, 25 cubic meters are supplied for each family member. Clean air from the bedroom exits through a barrier-free system to other rooms. In the toilet, bathroom and dressing room, it is removed through exhaust fans.

In an apartment up to 80 square meters with one bedroom, air can be supplied to the bedroom, distributed throughout the rooms and extracted from the kitchen.

Air exchange is carried out by air ducts and an air distributor – a grille, an anemostat or a linear diffuser. In this system, a fan with a timer (axial or centrifugal) is installed in the bathroom.

Advantages – the system becomes energy efficient. From the perspective of air distribution, it is designed reasonably: there is no stagnation of air anywhere, the rooms are saturated with oxygen to the maximum.

These recuperators can work based on a humidity or CO2 sensor. In this case, if you need to maintain a carbon dioxide level of 600 ppm, the device will adjust the engine power to reach the required level.

If the humidity is high, the unit will turn on to ventilate the rooms faster.

Jablotron supply and exhaust ventilation system with VAV valves and CO2 sensor.

In the previous central ventilation system, it was impossible to track where a person was and where more air supply is needed. The equipment manufactured by Jablotron (Czech Republic) has sensors with assigned valves, which are connected on flexi air ducts. The variable airflow VAV valve delivers air only where there is a person. If there is no increase in carbon dioxide, the sensor does not detect it, the valve will close.

An important difference of this system is that it constantly tries to operate at minimum speed to maintain the desired quality of air masses. This saves energy and your money.

If a lot of people suddenly appear in the room, the system will work hard, implementing a scenario that is rare for it. However, if only family members are in an apartment, the air handling unit supplies 240 cubic meters of air, 60 cubic meters per adult or child. This is quite enough to maintain a normal level of carbon dioxide - 800 ppm.

Remark: as a rule, Jablotron domestic units can supply up to 450 cubic meters, that is, they operate at approximately half of the system's built-in capacity.

When the Jablotron system is installed in “dirty” areas, the boost button chip is responsible for air exchange.

Each valve lets through about 100 cubic meters of air - they are distributed over the rooms of the "dirty" area - bathrooms, wardrobes. When we enter the bathroom, the system tries to operate at minimum speed. 

The boost button is built-in behind the switch, it sends a command that a person has entered, the air exchange needs to be more active, and 100 cubic meters will be extracted from the room where the boost button is activated. 

When the light turns off and the time set by the timer passes, the system understands that it is possible to evenly distribute air to the bathrooms and wardrobe again, returning to the previous mode of operation. 

It is also worth mentioning the joint development of Jablotron and Faber – unique kitchen hoods, that can be integrated into the ventilation system. 

These kitchen hoods were created five years ago, and at the same time they proved not only the commitment of development companies to innovation, but also the demand for such solutions among consumers.

What is the point of this development? In all previous cases, ventilation in an apartment assumed a third-party kitchen hood and air release into the ventilation duct. The Faber kitchen hood has a boost button chip. It is connected not to the ventilation duct, but to the unit through four 90 mm air ducts.

When the hob is working, the system ignores the CO2 level and runs at maximum speed - each valve takes in 100 cubic meters, in total, 400 cubic meters of air, which is then given to the recuperator.

After turning off the kitchen hood, the system works for about half an hour at increased speed, and then starts working again according to the CO2 sensors indications.

We also note that at a fairly high price, Jablotron has other features for the user: remote control from a smartphone, a cool breeze cooling section, enthalpy recovery that provides passive humidification, and a high level of filtration.