New CFi ventilation unit solved a family’s problem with negative pressure
The indoor air in the Anttila family home improved significantly when their old ventilation unit was replaced with MyVallox 125 CFi, equipped with a constant flow feature. The house used to develop a negative pressure that allowed impurities to enter the home, affecting the family’s health. LVI Kemppi, the company that installed the new ventilation unit, finds Vallox’s products reliable and praises the innovative constant flow feature that makes setup easier and provides balanced ventilation.
You can choose English subtitles for the video in the video settings.
Negative pressure worsened the indoor air quality
The Anttila family of four has lived in their home in Rovaniemi, built in 2008, for nearly a decade.
In recent years, the house’s ventilation began to cause trouble for the family. The indoor air was stuffy and stale, and, worst of all, the family members started to experience respiratory and eye irritation. The family worried that their home’s structures may be damaged.
“We investigated the problem but did not find anything alarming. Finally, we discovered that the problem was negative pressure,” Anttila summarises the start of the replacement project.
The fibres in the air were sampled, which revealed that the number of impurities that had entered indoors from the building structures due to negative pressure exceeded the action level (0.20 fibres/cm2). The VOC values were also slightly elevated.
“We attempted to fix the situation with our old Vallox Digit SE ventilation unit but failed. The old model had AC fans that could not be flexibly adjusted.”
Easy replacement
After receiving the results, Anttila considered different options to find the best replacement for the family’s old ventilation unit. Anttila noticed the Digit SE ventilation unit can be directly replaced with Vallox’s MyVallox 125 CFi unit without any changes to the duct system. This, naturally, meant lower installation costs. Anttila was also impressed by the new unit’s constant flow feature that keeps the supply and extract air flows at the set level regardless of the surrounding conditions.
“Balanced air flows were particularly important to us because we had first-hand experience of impurity-induced health problems caused by negative pressure. We were especially concerned for the health of our children,” Anttila says.
Anttila was initially nervous about the installation, because the old ventilation unit was in the utility room above the boiler – which is typical for these types of houses. In other words, there was little room for installation.
The family chose LVI Kemppi, a local company, to install the new unit.
“The old ventilation unit was removed quickly and, even though lifting the new unit and connecting it to the ceiling mounting plate requires precision, the new unit was installed in no time at all. All in all, the installation was done quickly and professionally,” Anttila praises LVI Kemppi.
Safe and familiar ventilation unit with a new feature
Petri Kemppainen from LVI Kemppi says that the company has a lot of experience of Vallox’s units.
“We install Vallox units often, and I think it is a reliable brand. Vallox products are a safe and familiar choice!”
Although used to Vallox’s units, LVI Kemppi had no first-hand experience of the new CFi constant flow feature, since the new CFi units had just hit the market.
“This new constant flow feature seems to me like a wonderful property.”
According to Kemppainen, the fluctuation of air pressure is common, so the constant flow feature is useful. The new units allow the volumes of air passing through the fans to be adjusted separately. When adjusted correctly, a CFi unit eliminates the harmful effects of negative or high pressure.
“The air volumes can be adjusted in litres, which makes the setup faster.”
As a retailer, Kemppainen values the high availability of Vallox spare parts and is glad that older units can be repaired even after years of use.
“The after-sales service is excellent. If you buy a Vallox product, you can rest assured that spare parts will be available in the future,” Kemppainen sums up.
The return of fresh indoor air
A couple of months after replacing the ventilation unit, Anttila says that the change in the quality of indoor air is apparent.
“You can absolutely sense that the quality of air is much better now!”
A new fibre sampling conducted two months after the replacement verified the family’s observations.
“The fibre volume has dropped. For example, the fibre volume in the bedroom, which was 0.43, has dropped radically to 0.14/cm2 and is now well under the action level.”
In addition to the benefit of preventing excessive negative pressure, the CFi ventilation unit’s filtering efficiency is significantly higher than that of the old unit. The CFi feature does not eliminate the need to replace the filters completely but it does maintain the set air flow balance even when the filters start to collect dirt. Regular filter replacement ensures the purity of indoor air.
The family has also noticed that, although the sensors boost the ventilation rate automatically, the new unit’s control panel is a lot easier to use than the previous one.
“While bathing in the sauna, I noticed how the unit boosted ventilation automatically. This makes our life so much more comfortable. I have also placed a router in the utility room and connected the unit to the cloud service. Now, I can control the ventilation unit from our summer cottage. This is a great technological upgrade!”
Anttila says that the best thing of all is fresh indoor air.
“No one coughs at night anymore, and that is fantastic! The new ventilation unit has met our expectations completely.”