Stable air exchange in a country house is a prerequisite for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Stimulating a comfortable microclimate directly solves hygienic and sanitary problems associated with the regular occurrence of harmful compounds in the air. There are various means of artificially maintaining air exchange, but at the basic level ventilation of a country house should be organized - mechanically or naturally.
Principles of organizing a ventilation system
There are a number of technical and operational requirements for the installation of an air renewal system in private homes. They should be taken into account at all stages of solving the problem. So, the basic principles can be formulated as follows:
- Structural optimization. Own cottage provides many opportunities for the installation of a ventilation system, but this does not mean that it is necessary to use the maximum area and capacity of the equipment. According to the regulations, proper ventilation of a country house has a balanced infrastructure that can service a specific object in certain loading parameters.
- Energy efficiency. Ventilation should consume resources economically, consuming just as much energy as is needed to solve current problems. In this regard, modern equipment is assisted by automated control tools.
- Environmental Safety. Climatic and ventilation equipment often uses chemicals to provide separate filtration and air cleaning processes. The choice of such devices must be approached carefully and not confuse industrial and domestic systems.
- Reliability and reliability. Equipment and ducts should be made of durable, durable and resistant to stress materials.
- Ergonomics in management. Comfort issues in terms of monitoring and adjusting the ventilation systems of a country house are of particular importance. Again, they are solved by automation and wireless controls.
- Flexibility in terms of technical and functional expansion. Organized infrastructure with work nodes should allow for the possibility of modernization and reconstruction with minimal cost.
Design solution development
Technically, the task of creating an effective ventilation system is multistage. Direct installation of equipment and components of the functional infrastructure is preceded by a critical design stage, during which a technical task is compiled. But for starters, baseline data is collected, on the basis of which it will be possible, in principle, to determine what ventilation of a country house will be needed in a particular case. These data include a floor plan, an indication of the area, the configuration of the location of technical zones with a kitchen and a bathroom, layouts of window and doorways, the availability of air conditioning, etc.
Of key importance in the design will be the calculated data. In the simplest household model, you should at least roughly estimate the amount of air that should be updated within 1 hour. This calculation will be based on the assessment of the area of the room. For example, a room of 50 m 2 will require that 50 m 3 of clean air enter it in 1 hour. Depending on the number of people in the room and their occupation, this figure can be adjusted.
Along with this, the discharge load on the air exchange ventilation in a country house is taken into account - that is, the volumes of outgoing flows. In this part, the configuration of the placement of autonomous exhaust grilles, which are installed in kitchens, toilets, laundries, and also in other technical and utility rooms, is rather important. To exclude excess pressure with discharge, the volume of discharged flows must correspond to the injected air mass. In terms of optimal indicators of output intensity, you can focus on the following calculation principles:
- The volume of air leaving the toilet or bathtub should be at least 50 m 3 / h. For the kitchen, the indicator for the same parameter reaches 70 m 3 / h.
- One grille provides air outlet with an intensity of at least 30 m 3 / h.
How to design natural ventilation in a country house?
The fundamental difference between natural and forced air exchange is the lack of circulation support from power equipment represented by fans, coolers, ventilators and air conditioners. But from the point of view of installation, the difference in the technical and construction device will be of the greatest importance. It is not difficult to organize a compulsory system of air flow circulation in the already built house. But high-quality natural ventilation is thought out even at the stages of preparing the general architectural design of the building.
The main difficulty in developing a technical solution will not even consist in creating a network of vertical and horizontal channels along walls and ceilings, but in calculating the natural traction force that will ensure air circulation without coercion. The work of such systems is based on the difference in indoor air temperatures. For example, if the street air is colder than in the room, then the natural ventilation of the country house will ensure the stable passage of fresh flows through the supply slots and openings in the walls.
The task of the designer will be to balance the distribution of gratings and channels evenly across all rooms. Ventilation grilles are usually installed in the kitchen, in the bathroom, toilet and dressing room. But, unlike typical projects with forced ventilation, in this case, a system is implemented for directing flows from the air inlets in the house to the ventilation grill, with the subsequent direction to a vertical shaft.
Duct installation
In private homes, ventilation ducts with a large cross-section are provided to ensure sufficient bandwidth. But to overdo it in the quest for high productivity is not worth it, as in winter, large-scale mines will help fill the premises with cold air.
During the installation of the duct, its proper integration into the wall or ceiling is important. Obviously, the channel should not only be hidden from view, but also occupy as little useful space as possible. How to make the ventilation of a country house, taking into account the principles of optimization and energy efficiency?
At a basic level, the most common supply and exhaust shafts are recommended to be placed in the attic and in the basement. In residential premises, only outlet channels with a small cross section and branches can be left. Such wiring can be done through the overlap. Masking the ducts for ventilation of a country house with one floor is not necessary at all. In extreme cases, you can make double walls, but, again, such decisions are calculated even at the stages of creating the design of the entire building.
Small horizontal ducts are installed in niches of suspended ceilings along with electrical, gas and water supply communications. Plasterboard plates mounted on a metal frame will help hide the shafts with a small cross section. But if there is an opportunity to get around the living rooms, then the main contours of the ventilation system of a country house should be laid in technical and utility rooms. For bedrooms, nurseries and living rooms, it is worthwhile to consider either the same interior grilles that restore the balance of air exchange without central communications, or arrange direct channels of the inflows using compact fans and ventilators.
Which ducts to use?
You can choose from segments with round and rectangular sections, as well as flexible and rigid models. As for the round duct, it is easier to install, it is stronger and more reliable. If rectangular structures are depressurized over time, and during operation provide aerodynamic resistance to flows, then the round channel is devoid of such disadvantages. Therefore, wherever possible, round ducts should be used for ventilation of a country house. Do-it-yourself installation of this design is performed by inserting one segment into another using adhesive tape. For complex indirect and angular joints, tees, elbows, adapters, and other mounting accessories are used. In such areas, by the way, it is recommended to use flexible mines. But due to the low strength and abuse their use is also not worth it.
In turn, rectangular ducts find their place where it is technically impossible to use a round channel. Basically, these limitations are related to size. For example, a main shaft for exhaust ventilation in a country house has average parameters of 150 x 100 mm with a length of about 1200 mm. A round duct with the same throughput will take 5-10 cm more space in diameter.
Installation of supply and exhaust units
Once the air duct network is organized, we can move on to integrating functional ventilation components. When choosing a supply and exhaust system, it is important to take into account the throughput, fan speed and dimensions so that the equipment fits into the intended installation location.
The best place to place the unit is in a subceiling niche or directly in the ceiling, if there is a structural possibility for this. At the time of installation, communications with a sufficient number of nozzles should be connected to this point. Next, the supply and exhaust ventilation is assembled. In a country house, it is desirable to use a typesetting system, which over time can be improved by the inclusion of certain functional components. At a minimum, this unit should contain a fan, a silencer, a filter barrier, a recuperator and a cooling module.
The unit is mounted using the complete mounting hardware. Often use brackets that clamp metal clamps, clutching the housing along several lines. Do not forget about sealing. Using silicone mixtures, polyurethane foam and polyurethane, it is necessary to process joints with air ducts, as well as structural inserts on the block body.
Ventilation installation with recuperator
The intake of street air inevitably worsens the microclimate, lowering the temperature in the rooms. Therefore, in the supply ventilation of a country house, a recuperator is increasingly used. This is an insulated heat exchange component that provides heating processes for incoming air flows.
The recuperator itself can be considered both as an additional component in the same supply and exhaust units, and as an independent functional device in the air duct. Installation of such equipment is simple. It is enough to select the device according to the given shaft dimensions, think over the optimal fastening scheme and, if necessary, bring electrical communications. It is more important to determine by what principle ventilation with recovery in a country house will work, since there are different ways of heating the air.
For residential premises, one of the main ventilation conditions will be the intake of clean air. Therefore, it is recommended to install recuperators with separate heat exchange chambers. Outgoing streams will transfer heat through thin metal plates to the compartment through which fresh but cold air passes. This is not the most efficient heat transfer, but in terms of environmental cleanliness and optimization of energy consumption, it is optimal.
Features of microventilation
If the natural duct is organized correctly in the house and with the correct calculation of draft, then it is possible to increase the ventilation efficiency in separate areas not covered by the channels. As already noted, for residential premises without the passage of central communications, compact ventilators can be provided. These are microventilation devices that can manually or automatically control the air exchange rate.
Installation of such devices is carried out in walls with through holes. That is, you should first make large-format drilling with a perforator or stationary installation with a diamond drill. In a lightweight version, you can implement the installation of ventilation in a country house through the windows. For example, order modern metal-plastic constructions with technological airtight openings just for integration of ventilators. All that is required of the user is to install the device in a prepared niche and fix it with fixing devices. Next, sealing and connecting to the network.
Additional functionality of the ventilation system
The communication network, coupled with electrical equipment, is an optimal base for maintaining various microclimatic parameters. We have already talked about air recuperators that increase the temperature of the incoming flows, but this is not the only auxiliary ventilation function. It can perform the tasks of cooling, fine filtering, ozonation, drainage and moisturizing. For this, appropriate equipment or devices are installed at different levels of the duct.
Monitoring microclimatic indicators can be important for controlling the ventilation of a country house. Do it yourself with your own hands to automate the process of monitoring channel bandwidth and controlling temperature with humidity through the integration of climate sensors. In the circuits of the air passage mounted detectors of air speed, temperature, humidity and pressure. They are connected to the central ventilation control panel, which, in turn, is programmed to work in a certain mode, based on the readings of the same sensors.
Conclusion
If in urban apartments, residents solve the problem of ventilation of the premises using compact appliances, then the owners of their own houses have to approach similar issues in a wider scope. In choosing the appropriate method for updating the air environment, a lot of parameters are taken into account from the area of the premises to the configuration of their location and microclimate requirements.
At a basic level, you should decide on the type of system. By what principle will it work - in natural circulation mode or with forced movement of flows? In most cases, combined exhaust ventilation of a country house is implemented, which combines vertical air ducts and power support equipment that stimulates air activity.
In addition to determining the key parameters of the system, it will not be superfluous to take into account small operational nuances at each stage of design and installation. Whether the system will make noise during operation, whether the weather will affect it, how much maintenance will cost - these and other issues are not so obvious at the design stage, but during the use of the equipment they make themselves felt. The choice of the manufacturer of components for ventilation is also important. It is recommended that you select functional blocks, segments for duct shafts, and small mounting accessories from the assortment of a large manufacturer, otherwise there will soon be a risk of detecting a malfunction in a particular operating unit of the system.