The word "house" has many meanings. In this article, the house is an environment artificially created by man, comfortable for living, cool in the heat, warm on a frosty winter day, protecting from dank autumn bad weather.
When building a house, you need to take into account many interrelated factors. For example, in order to make proper ventilation in a private house with your own hands, they take into account what kind of heating system is planned, what material the walls and windows will be made of, where and which rooms to place.
And you yourself determine what to do on your own, and what is better to entrust to designers and builders. If you decide to make ventilation in your home with your own hands, this article will help you.
Do I need a ventilation system at all?
Comfortable conditions in a room are determined by the state of the air in it and are set by its cleanliness, humidity and temperature. Unfortunately, the limits of comfort are very narrow. In the book of the Ukrainian builder Alexey Terekhov "Natural ventilation and microclimate in the house" there is an interesting table,showing this narrow interval. The interval at which a person can simply survive.
Ventilation plays a major role in creating a favorable microclimate. Therefore, it must be provided for, regardless of whether you collect ventilation in your house with your own hands or invite professional installers.
What do we choose from?
What are the systems? Before deciding how to make ventilation in the house with your own hands, you need to know what you can choose from.
Classify ventilation systems according to the following criteria:
- According to the method of air movement - forced and natural. Natural ventilation is carried out without the participation of ventilation equipment - due to the difference in temperature between the outdoor and indoor air, density, air pressure at various points. In forced systems, air is moved by fans.
- By appointment - supply and exhaust. The supply air supplies air inside, and the exhaust air throws it out or into the next room.
- According to the service area - local and general exchange. The general exchange services the entire premises. Local - some local part of it. An example of a local one is an exhaust hood over a stove. It is easy to install by assembling ventilation in a private house with your own hands.
- By design - requiring or not requiring ventilation ducts. Ducted and non-ducted.
This classification is true for the ventilation device in a private house, and in a restaurant, and at an industrial enterprise.
Where to start?
Whenthe choice should take into account the construction technology, the type of heating system, the necessary building materials. You need to decide on the ventilation scheme in a private house at the initial stage - when designing a house.
Choosing the type of ventilation, taking into account the materials used and the technology of wall construction
The ventilation system in old houses was simple. Usually these were houses of a small area (up to 100 m22). The walls and windows were not airtight. In the center was a stove or fireplace, which had its own chimney, which was also a ventilation duct. The layout of the rooms was designed so that the oven one of its walls went into each.
When the furnace was running, a temperature difference was created. Warm air, having a density lower than cold street air, rose through the chimney. The wooden doors and frames were not hermetic, and through them fresh air was drawn in to replace the departed warm air. The oven played the role of a fan. Through her chimney, she removed the air from the house.
At night, on the contrary, she gave off the heat accumulated during the day. That is, the oven was an inertial element that smoothed out daily temperature fluctuations. And a house built using this technology and containing an inertial element was also inertial.
Have you decided to do ventilation in a private house with your own hands? The scheme, design features must necessarily take into account the used building materials and technologies. Modern houses can be both inertial andinertialess.
Inertial houses are made of materials that can accumulate heat and moisture, and if necessary, give them away. Such materials and technologies have been used for centuries.
Inertial houses are built from:
- brick;
- adobe;
- ceramic blocks;
- expanded clay;
- cinder blocks.
Outside, the walls are thermally insulated. Insulation allows you to keep warm for a longer time. It turns out the effect of a thermos. Inertia allows you to smooth out temperature fluctuations. In these houses, the material is heated, which then radiates radiant heat from the walls. They don't heat the air, they heat objects. Therefore, even if the window is opened, the temperature in inertial houses is restored quickly. A natural ventilation system or forced ventilation with recovery fits well here. Here you can save on forced ventilation and air conditioning.
Modern inertia-free houses are built from materials with low vapor permeability (sandwich panels, frame houses filled with insulation, sip panels). A person emits excess heat, excess moisture, and if the walls do not accept this excess, this should be done by the ventilation system. Therefore, it is necessary to install supply and exhaust ventilation here
The choice of ventilation system depends on the location of the house
The choice of type of ventilation in a private house (design and installation) is closely related to its location. If it will be built in a clean, unpolluted place, air can be supplied without prior preparation. If the outside air needs to be cleaned, thenyou need to lay a forced system.
How does natural ventilation work in a private house?
The main task is to organize the intake of air from the "dirty" premises. Of those where there are various hazards - bathrooms, technical rooms, dressing rooms, kitchen. Both supply and extraction are important. Through the valve installed in the window or in the wall, there is an inflow of clean air.
There is usually a heating radiator near the window. Colder and, consequently, denser fresh air sinks down. It mixes with warm air from the radiator. Clean, moist, warm air collects near the ceiling. Near the floor is a waste with a high content of carbon dioxide. CO2 is heavier than air. Therefore, in living rooms, exhaust grilles are not installed at the top of the wall, but, on the contrary, they make slots at the bottom of the door or put overflow grilles.
For the same reason, high ceilings are desirable in naturally ventilated houses. The upper part is a natural accumulator of heat and fresh air. The warm air of the room gives off heat to the walls and ceilings. If the walls warm up enough, then natural comfortable warmth will come from them.
After living rooms, the exhaust air enters the corridor (stairwell). It brings warmth here. The corridor is usually made unheated. Warm air, giving off heat, heats the space and walls there.
Then the air passes into the bathrooms, kitchen, technical rooms. Door overflow grilles here should belarger area to ensure the flow of exhaust air into them. Exhaust grilles should be installed already in the upper zone. With a room height of about 3 meters, it is recommended to install exhaust grilles at a distance of about a meter from the ceiling in order to save the upper zone as a heat accumulator. A "pocket" near the ceiling allows time for heat to be released to the walls and ceiling.
The walls of inertial houses also take away excess moisture. Then they give it away with a lack of moisture in the air. Below is a ventilation diagram in a private house and a natural ventilation system.
In an inertial house, natural ventilation changes the air, regulates heat, humidity and fully justifies itself. In inertialess - only replaces air. It can be done there, but it will be ineffective. In inertial houses, walls and ceilings perform the function of a heat exchanger.
If the house is located outside the city, where there is fresh air, it is better to build an inertial house with natural ventilation. If, however, where the air needs to be cleaned, it is worth installing central ventilation to create comfortable conditions.
Attic - as an element of the natural ventilation system
Attic is also an element of the ventilation system. And without understanding this, it is difficult to figure out how to do natural ventilation correctly, In summer, the air in the attic warms up through the red-hot roof. The temperature difference in the attic and outside can reach 10-15 ˚С. That is, when it is +30 ˚C outside, the attic temperature can be + 40 … + 45 ˚С. ventilation duct passing throughattic warming up. This creates additional traction. At negative temperatures outside in the attic, the temperature is always above zero. This means that the channel is warm and there is additional traction. Although the draft in winter is already very strong.
Arrangement of natural ventilation ducts
Even when designing a room from which you need to take air through ventilation ducts or remove combustion products through chimneys, if possible, you need to place them nearby. This will provide a number of benefits:
- It will allow you to combine ventilation ducts into blocks and make the minimum number of passes through the roof, which will reduce its cost, make the design simpler and more reliable.
- Save on materials as some channels will have common walls.
- Combine in one block with the channels of boilers, stoves, kitchen hoods, the hot air of which will warm up, adjacent ventilation ducts. This is very important (especially in summer) to prevent back draft. Indeed, for the operation of natural ventilation, the temperature difference between the outdoor air and the air in the ventilation duct is important.
The figure below shows the optimal placement of ventilation ducts. Taken from the previously mentioned book by Alexei Terekhov.
Drawing options for the location of channels with natural draft - to help those who collect ventilation in their home with their own hands.
All ventilation ducts need to be well insulated to ensure the temperature difference, and hence good natural draft. There are rules for the minimum height of their output aboveroof level. If these rules are not observed, the wind passing over the ventilation ducts can cause turbulent eddies and thrust tipping.
A properly made ventilation hood also improves draft in ventilation ducts. Chimneys are usually raised above the ventilation hood.
Do-it-yourself forced ventilation in the house
In this case, the system is completed when air ducts are made and equipment is installed that prepares the supplied air. It is filtered, heated, can be moistened, cooled, disinfected. Exhaust fans remove air from the room, while supply fans supply air.
Such preparation is required. It will be impossible to be indoors if cold unheated air is supplied there in winter. According to the norms, the supplied air should not be colder than +12 ˚С. Then, mixing with the warm air at home, it will not create a feeling of discomfort.
Exhaust and supply fan can be supplied separately. But they are found in the form of a monoblock - a supply and exhaust unit. This unit is with two fans and one heat exchanger inside. One fan draws air in, the other throws it out. The monoblock version costs 20 percent more, but when assembling ventilation in a private house with your own hands, it is easier and more convenient. It eliminates errors that may occur when installing complex systems.
The figure shows the operation of the exhaust ventilation.
To improve efficiencyof the air handling unit and saving the coolant, it includes a heat exchanger. Of course, where the layout allows it. Air streams pass through the heat exchanger without mixing, while the air ejected from the room partially heats the incoming outside air, giving it its heat. The figure below schematically shows how to make ventilation in a private house using a recuperator. Supply and exhaust systems with a heat exchanger imitate a natural ventilation system. They allow you to save on heating, since heating will only be used to heat the air to the desired temperature.
Let's consider a drawing of supply and exhaust ventilation in a private house with our own hands, a diagram using a heat exchanger.
Everything needs to be ventilated
Home ventilation does not end with residential ventilation. Everything needs to be ventilated. Tips on how to make ventilation in a private house and not miss anything will help here.
If there are no windows in the basement, then natural ventilation will not work there. If there are rooms where people will be, then you need to make forced ventilation, which works only at the moment when someone is there.
In technical rooms, forced ventilation can be dispensed with. For example, in a boiler room, they ditch the wall, lay an insulated pipe so that there is no condensate during the passage of fresh cold air. Then the place of laying is plastered. The extract here is natural, the inflow is down the technical room. Air passing through itslightly warm.
The following are recommendations on how to make an exhaust and ventilation in a private house, depending on the purpose of the premises. This is one of the options.
- Tambour. Does not require forced ventilation. Ventilated when opening and closing the door
- Boiler room. Outflow and air supply are usually made natural.
- The hall, along with the living room, living rooms and kitchen - natural ventilation. Natural ventilation should be provided. The kitchen umbrella does not participate in the forced ventilation system.
- Sauna inside the house - compulsory exhaust ventilation. Works for a short time. The air supply usually comes from neighboring rooms of the house. Turns on intermittently.
- Bathrooms - periodic forced ventilation
- Garage. Works all the time when the car is in the garage. Make sure there is enough fresh air.
- Ground floor - permanent.
- Basement is a natural urge
- Boiler room - there must be an air supply and the possibility of its release in addition to the chimney. The grate for the ventilation duct is installed at the top of the room, the channel runs parallel to the chimney. The chimney continues above the ventilation hoods on the roof. Serving can be done either from neighboring premises, or directly from the street.
- The hall is ventilated by flows and does not require forced ventilation. When combined with the kitchen, the kitchen ventilation duct is shared between these two rooms.
- Kitchen hood - local exhaust, not involved inforced ventilation.
- There should be separate systems for the built-in garage and basement.
Both natural and forced ventilation systems have their pros and cons. If you decide to do the ventilation in your home with your own hands, the table below will help you decide which system to choose, in which we summarized the results of the tips and solutions suggested in this article.
We also attach a very useful video on the organization of ventilation in a private house.
Short, clear and to the point. It is aimed specifically at those who decide to take care of the ventilation device on their own.
