MVHR Heat Recovery Ventilation

Improve air quality, comfort, and energy efficiency with an MVHR system
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What is MVHR

MVHR systems provide a continuous supply of fresh, filtered air throughout your home while recovering heat from the outgoing stale air. 

At the same time, they recover heat from the warm, stale air being extracted and use it to pre-warm the fresh air coming in. This process happens through a heat exchanger and can achieve up to 93% efficiency.

By maintaining a steady indoor temperature -regardless of the weather outside - MVHR works especially well when combined with a well-insulated building design. The result is a more energy-efficient home with improved air quality, reduced pollutants, and greater overall comfort.

Key benefits include:-

* Consistently comfortable indoor temperatures year-round 

* Cleaner, healthier air with reduced indoor pollutants 

* Lower energy bills thanks to heat recovery

* Ideal compatibility with airtight, well-insulated buildings.

What is MVHR?

Learn more about heat recovery ventilation and MVHR and why it's essential for our health and wellbeing.

Is your home suitable for MVHR?

MVHR systems perform best in homes with an airtight thermal envelope — ideally below 3 air changes per hour (ACH50). However, studies by the Passivhaus Trust show MVHR can still reduce carbon emissions in less airtight homes, though efficiency drops in drafty buildings.

Not sure if your home qualifies?

Why MVHR design matters

When planning to install an MVHR system in a new build or refurbishment, it’s essential to consider it from the earliest design stages. A well-designed MVHR system can operate quietly and efficiently in the background, helping to maintain indoor air quality and reduce energy use. Because MVHR helps equalise temperatures throughout the home, it can influence where and how heat is delivered -sometimes allowing you to heat only the most used spaces.

On the other hand, poor design can lead to a system that’s noisy, inefficient, and wastes both heat and electricity.

Key Design Considerations that can affect efficiency:

* Duct Routing

* Room Layout

* Coordination with the heating system

Book a MVHR design service and see how we maximise energy efficiency for you.

We’ll work alongside you and your project team to design and advise on the most suitable MVHR system for your needs and budget.

What makes our MVHR systems different?

  • MVHR ductwork is embedded into the fabric of the building and would be very disruptive to have to replace, so it is worth investing in a high quality system from the outset. We recommend galvanised steel spiral wound rigid ducting for our systems, designed to last the lifetime of the building.

  • We carefully calculate air flow rates of our systems to each room and look to select MVHR units that have constant volume flow fans. Ductwork airtightness is important to ensure that the designed air flow is delivered to the rooms. Air leakage is designed out through use of rigid steel round ducting systems with airtight joints. By minimising air leakage we reduce air speeds within the system, helping ensure lower energy consumption and noise levels.

  • By designing the ducting to minimise air resistance and to suit the air flow requirements in each part of the building, our designs deliver the appropriate amount of fresh air to each room in the house while minimising the energy required to move the air.

  • We offer a wide range of units from manufacturers including Zehnder and SALDA, to suit all projects and specifications. We help you choose a quality MVHR unit to suit the ventilation demands of the building and to achieve optimal heat recovery efficiency.

  • Condensation within an MVHR system could cause damage to ductwork, the unit or the building fabric. We design out potential problems by paying attention to the ductwork detailing and insulation requirements where temperature and humidity differences will cause condensation, either inside or outside the duct.

  • It is essential that MVHR systems run quietly, especially within already quieter well-insulated buildings. Unlike the majority of our competitors, we model the acoustics of our systems so that we choose the right size of sound silencer for each duct run. We specify primary attenuators (silencers) to reduce noise generated by the MVHR unit fans, and secondary ‘cross talk’ attenuators, to reduce voice transmission between rooms. The cross talk attenuators also offer further sound suppression for duct generated noise. Duct sizes in our designs are typically larger than those specified by other companies, helping to keep air speeds low, thus minimising duct generated noise. As a result, we design our MVHR systems to have noise levels of no more than 30 dB(A) at the extract valve and no more than 25 dB(A) at the supply valves.

  • We offer telephone support for installers and supply clearly labelled ducting drawings to facilitate step by step installation.

  • It is critical that the system is correctly commissioned in order to maximise comfort and energy efficiency. 21°s optional commissioning service also offers a valuable check on the installation process and functioning of the MVHR system.

  • 21° has a national reputation for designing high quality MVHR systems for Passivhaus and low energy builds, from one-off houses to large social housing schemes and community centres.

Shop for products you need on the 21 Degrees online store.

Browse our range of products for airtightness and specialist insulation and our MVHR filters.

MVHR support

Servicing and commissioning

Once you’re settled on your designed MVHR system, a specialist 21 Degrees MVHR commissioning engineer will visit the site to commission and balance the system to ensure it is performing as designed. A detailed handover of the system and its controls will be given to the end user and a certificate will be provided for Building Control.

You can choose to extend the life and ensure superior performance with our servicing options.

Download the MVHR brochure

Discover more detail about how MVHR works, the MVHR units and components, our MVHR design service and why MVHR will bring comfort - to you and your family.

Download now

It's a long haul from advice to design to installation and eventual commissioning of an MVHR system on a 2yr renovation project but the designer, engineers and the admin team at 21 degrees were with us every step of the way. They patiently explained the system (several times!), made numerous changes as things inevitably changed on site and were on the end of the phone to answer queries during installation. Then they sent a lovely engineer to commission the system all the way from Carlisle to Pembrokeshire. MVHR is a big investment and frankly you can only do it once. We looked at cheaper systems but most of those companies are not doing a bespoke design and their systems and the units they use are not such good quality. 21 degrees is a company which really knows their onions, which is essential because MVHR is not something that the majority of people know about or understand. So we need proper advice and design from people who do (and not a sales team). That's what you get from 21 Degrees - Highly recommended.

Natalie

The MVHR system delivers brilliant air quality into the house while operating noiselessly - so quietly, in fact, that we forget it is there!

Andrew & Linda, Woodlands Passivhaus

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Download our MVHR brochure

Download our MVHR brochure to explore how mechanical ventilation with heat recovery can improve indoor air quality and energy efficiency in your home or building project.

Find out more
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