By Martin Hart on Mon 18 July 2022
Ventilation is vital to any building as uninterrupted airflow prevents stale, stuffy air from collecting and any lingering smells. In addition, maintaining good air quality is a surprisingly integral part of a person's good health, especially for the many people who suffer from respiratory conditions such as asthma and hayfever.
Ventilation is vital to any building as uninterrupted airflow prevents stale, stuffy air from collecting and any lingering smells. In addition, maintaining good air quality is a surprisingly integral part of a person's good health, especially for the many people who suffer from respiratory conditions such as asthma and hayfever.
Whether those conditions are life-threatening or not, adequate ventilation will provide a pleasant respite as it will help prevent dust, pollen and pollutant accumulation. There are many different approaches to delivering much-needed ventilation to your building, so it's essential to know which one is best for your environment.
Different Ventilation Strategies
There are many different ventilation strategies, all aimed at sufficiently ventilating a space, whether a home or a workplace.
Assisted Ventilation
Unfortunately, too many buildings adopt a policy of no assisted ventilation. Although this common solution used to be quite effective in the past, buildings without effective insulation would automatically leak air, providing an easy exchange throughout the day. The issue in modern times is that while improving our homes to be well insulated with higher EPC scores, this seals the air inside until it creates an unpleasant stale, stuffy atmosphere. This is why adding ventilation to your building is essential.
Natural Ventilation
Natural ventilation is a relatively new concept that is implemented during the construction phase of a building. This usually comprises various types of vents or ducting, such as a solar chimney that is incorporated into the structure of the building and helps replace the air without intervention. This strategy is not a common choice because it requires significant changes to your premises if it was built without these systems.
Balancing Ventilation
Balanced ventilation is a system where separate fans control both the inlet and exhaust airflow of an HVAC. This provides much greater control of where the air is drawn from, where it goes and where the exhaust air is sent. You have a choice with a balanced system to choose a point-sourced or ducted system to suit your needs. A ducted system makes it easier to deliver fresh air to workspaces or living spaces and exhausts indoor air from places that collect moisture or pollutants, such as bathrooms or workshops.
Exhaust vs Supply Ventilation
Small powered fans are commonly used in bathrooms to cycle the air and assist in the removal of moisture. This is called exhaust-only mechanical ventilation. These fans can either operate continuously or intermittently to create a modest negative pressure that exchanges the internal and external air. A similar alternative to this is a supply-only ventilation system. This requires a powered fan to force air into the room, pushing the internal air to escape through any open doors, windows or minor air leakage cracks around the building. A supply-only ventilation system creates air pressure in the house either in one central location or through a ducting system.
Flexible VS Rigid Ducting
What is Ducting?
Domus Ducting is a popular ducting product we supply for the system of pipes and tubing used for the extraction and ventilation of many heating and air conditioning systems. Ducting is also an effective tool for carrying away waste particles such as dust, wood particles, pollen, etc.
Specific regulations must be adhered to when installing ducting for ventilation systems, and these regulations cover the many different designs of ducting. Still, fortunately, these can all be summarised into two general categories, flexible and rigid.
Flexible Ducting
Flexible ducting employs a versatile design comprising ridges that can be compressed or manipulated to suit the installation. The versatility of these designs makes them suitable for a broad range of applications and offers the option to change that installation more easily. As a result, flexible ducting is an excellent choice for small spaces or unusual layouts.
Rigid Ducting
Rigid ducting designs (otherwise known as spiral ducts) are aimed at a more permanent installation. It is a more invasive installation process when choosing rigid ducting, but that investment will be effective for industrial environments requiring many ventilation systems. In addition, the durability of these designs enables large-scale ventilation for more extended periods. Despite the rigidity of this ducting, the many options allow for some customisation to suit your needs.
Why Choose Grilles
Grilles are a practical addition to any vent system, especially standard HVAC plans for commercial buildings. In addition, every building's HVAC system will have a supply vent, which provides hot or cold air to your rooms. This vent and the return vents will be covered in a register to control the airflow; alternatively, a grille will be installed to enhance a smooth, consistent airflow.
Additionally, many grilles will come with filters. These filters will provide much-needed protection against large particles entering the rooms and any condensation generated as a byproduct of cooking. Kitchens are well-known rooms for installing a ventilation grille. Filtered cabinet grilles will help increase airflow through your storage cupboards and the kitchen and ensure that you have no excess moisture building within these cool environments.
Wholesale Supplier of Ducting, Vents, Grilles and Fans
At Hart Wholesale, we stock a wide range of components essential for creating an effective ventilation system that will provide that crucial good air quality. All available wholesale, you can browse our high-quality selection of ventilation options online.