Near-silent, continuous running ventilation from Vent-Axia, the market leader in low carbon ventilation, is helping one housing association in the West Country make across the board improvements to its tenanted housing stock. Vent-Axia’s ground-breaking Lo-Carbon™ Centra and Quadra fans, combined with Freshvent 100 natural ventilation technology, are enabling the Magna West Somerset Housing Association to make dramatic savings on maintenance costs, cut carbon emissions and simplify product specification and installation whilst improving living conditions and reducing fuel bills for tenants.
Based in Williton, near Taunton, the Magna West Somerset Housing Association is responsible for 2,200 properties, comprising a mixture of one, two, three and four bedroom flats, houses, bungalows and sheltered schemes. Having worked with Vent-Axia for a number of years, the organisation had always rated the company’s ventilation products highly for their performance, reliability, and cost effective installation. But fuel poverty issues in a number of properties were creating condensation problems leading to rising maintenance costs. The Association’s Contracts Manager, Sean Thompson, takes up the story.
“We operate in an area with a very high level of fuel poverty. One of our biggest problems is condensation and mould growth caused by residents turning off the extract fans at the isolator because of the running cost and the operating noise of the fans.”
The Association co-operated closely with Vent-Axia to resolve these issues, resulting in an ongoing ventilation refit programme for its properties. Old intermittent fans in kitchen and bathroom areas are being replaced by new continuous running Lo-Carbon™ Centra and Quadra products to provide an ultra-quiet, energy efficient and easy to fit alternative, supported by Freshvent 100 natural ventilation.
Ideal for retrofitting, Vent-Axia’s Lo-Carbon™ Centra offers virtually noiseless operation in a fresh design which fits discreetly and easily into any home. It offers trickle ventilation and includes a boost feature which can be utilised as necessary based on specific room requirements. Adjustable ‘Normal’ running speeds make it suitable for continuous extract in kitchens, bathrooms, en-suites and utility rooms, so social housing specifiers only require one fan type for any dwelling. Vent-Axia’s Quadra is a domestic fan suited to through-the-wall or ducted applications. Also designed for quick and straightforward installation in multiple rooms, Quadra provides a guaranteed installed performance thanks to an innovative switch ’n fit feature in the fan. It offers a range of advanced control options to boost efficiency, and ease installation and commissioning. Both fans incorporate energy saving Vent-Axia Lo-Carbon™ DC motors, bringing up to a 90% reduction in fuel consumption over traditional AC fans.
Freshvent 100 is a range of passive ventilators for use with positive pressure ventilation. These ventilators provide an important outlet for air circulating around the house. Stale air is expelled through the unit to the outside without letting in noise and draughts.
“Thanks to Vent-Axia, we are seeing a positive reduction in condensation and associated health and property maintenance problems” says Sean. “There are important additional benefits too. The versatility of the Centra and Quadra fans has helped us to rationalise our stock. We now fit these units in all applications. They’ve allowed us to reduce the stockholding for our electrical contracting teams, enabling us to improve our service to our residents”.
Unlike traditional intermittent fans, continuous ventilation systems work with the natural air infiltration to prevent the migration of damaging humidity and pollutants. This is achieved through continuous running, low speed extract fans in the wet rooms with a boost via the light switch, an integral pull cord or sensor when higher ventilation rates are required. Systems can thus run near silently at a much lower rate all the time, rather than at a noisy, high rate for one or two hours a day.
Both Centra and Quadra are part of Vent-Axia’s Lo-Carbon™ collection. The aim of the Lo-Carbon initiative is to offer the latest low carbon ventilation technology in order to reduce building energy consumption and so carbon emissions. For further information on these products offered by Vent-Axia, visit http://www.vent-axia.com/range/lo-carbon-residential-range