A cooker hood, a central vacuum cleaner, a fireplace, or some other extraction device can temporarily increase the underpressure inside the apartment.
An excessive underpressure can be created in the apartment, e.g., when the central vacuum cleaner is used or the cooker hood is turned on to the maximum during cooking. At worst, this can cause the doors to become difficult to open or windows to slam shut on their own. The underpressure inside the apartment can be evened out with a MyVallox ventilation unit.
What causes underpressure in an apartment?
The underpressure is created when the volume of air extracted from the apartment is higher than the volume of air that is supplied into it. Because, e.g., the cooker hood sucks the cooking smells outdoors from the kitchen, the extract air flow from the apartment increases significantly higher than the supply air flow into the apartment. The central vacuum cleaner has a similar operating principle: it also removes air from the apartment in addition to dust. This is not a problem with a traditional vacuum cleaner, which blows the vacuumed air back into the room air. For this reason, the cooker hood and the central vacuum cleaner should not be used at the same time.
What does excessive underpressure cause?
The use of the central vacuum cleaner or an efficient cooker hood can create such a high temporary underpressure inside the apartment that opening the front doors becomes difficult. If there is a fireplace in the apartment, the underpressure can result in the smell of smoke in the premises, even when there is no fire in the fireplace. This is because the damper is not completely airtight. The replacement air can even be taken from sewers, resulting in unpleasant smells inside the apartment. The “problem” most commonly affects airtight buildings, where replacement air cannot be taken into the apartment through the window frames, for example.
How does the ventilation unit help even out the underpressure created by the central vacuum cleaner and the cooker hood?
All MyVallox ventilation units have the readiness to compensate for the extract air flow created by the central vacuum cleaner and the cooker hood, i.e., to even out the temporary underpressure inside the apartment. Of central vacuum cleaners, all vacuum cleaner models by Allaway enable the cabling of contact data or an on/off status detector to the DI1 or DI2 digital input of MyVallox ventilation units. Damper contact data can be retrieved from some of the cooker hood and fan models by Vallox. A separate pressure difference switch can also be installed in connection to the cooker hood, the contact data of which will be led to the MyVallox ventilation unit. In addition to the Custom-function activated through the control panel, a separate fireplace switch can also be connected to MyVallox units.
Based on the contact data or the on/off status detector, the MyVallox ventilation unit knows when the central vacuum cleaner or the cooker hood is turned on. The unit will increase the supply air flow automatically, which evens out the underpressure caused by the vacuum cleaner and the cooker hood. When the vacuum cleaner or the cooker hood is turned off, the MyVallox ventilation unit will restore the supply and extract air ratio back to normal.
Read more about MyVallox ventilation units, which all have the readiness to receive contact data from the central vacuum cleaner and the cooker hood, and subsequently even out the underpressure caused in the apartment by these devices.
How is contact data activated and how do you know that it is turned on?
Activating contact data requires the input of a ventilation professional, i.e., an installer. Clear instructions are available for professional on the compensation of the extract air flow. Instructions are in Finnish only.
When contact data is activated, this is shown on the display of the MyVallox control panel with the I/O symbol. The Custom-mode, on the other hand, is indicated by the changed mode. The activation of contact data can also be seen from Home UI and MyVallox Cloud.
It must be ensured from the installer that all connections and settings have been completed. The resident should also request instructing in the use of the system. The function can also be tested independently by the resident, for example, by turning the cooker hood on and checking if anything changes in the control panel. It is also usually audible when the fan speed of the ventilation unit changes.