Reply To: What impact do ventilation systems have on heating performance

[Phil Squire]

Thanks Simon. I was just up at my parent’s home in the weekend. They have a reasonably a 1900 concrete house with thick walls and no dampcourse between the foundations and the walls. Hence some wicking of moisture (though the house is raised above the theoretical wicking height- whatever that is).

Anyways, the southern rooms get awfully cold and damp in the winter, and are usually unused. The best practice theory is that they open the windows every day but my guess is that the humidity in the house isn’t going to be affected by passive ventilation. So I’ve recommended they install a heat transfer system (from the lounge log burner) to the other three back rooms. From my own experience with a standard gas central heating, the internal pressure differences in various rooms also encourage internal/external air exchange, and in their situation the addition of heat (from an existing source) and some forced ventilation may yield the result they are after.

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