SHAP VHR Development of Prototype

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As new buildings are built to higher energy standards and become more airtight, naturalmeans of ventilation disappear. To overcome this, Mechanical Ventilation is often used. Thiscan lead to up to 5,000 kWh of heat loss from a typical home per year. In order to ‘reclaim’this energy, Heat Recovery is often added, with some models achieving up to 90% efficiency.With two fans running, 24h a day, such systems typically use up to 700kWh of electricity peryear (three times more than a new fridge). In cases where gas heating is used, MechanicalHeat Recovery Ventilation invariably provides either very little or no net CO2 saving.Besides the energy use, mechanical systems have high installation costs. Due to theircomplexity, they require a number of trades to install and maintain, and suffer fromcomponent failures. This further adds to the running costs, which can average £100 per year.Mechanical systems also depend on a number of electronic and mechanical componentscontributing to lack of reliability, resource depletion and future electronic waste.Starting off with our innovative and retrofit specific Passive Ventilation with Heat Recovery(utilising passive stack effect and wind assistance), we have designed, prototyped and tested areliable ventilation system for warmer climates. This incorporates a number of inventionsaround passive extraction boost, extraction period extension, moisture withdrawal andsimplified installation.The proposed system (SHAP VHR) overcomes the main issues associated with Passive StackVentilation, such us summer operation, and makes the product applicable to warmer climates,greatly increasing its export potential. The development of this technology will also allow usto provide a full house system, a proposition preferred by both BRE and LABC