One-family house in Oulu with a carefully designed ventilation system
The one-family house built in Oulu in 2021 is a perfect home for a family with children. The light-filled spacious home was designed with the changing needs of the family in mind, including the ventilation. The large and spacious living area was built with supply air valves for the extra room included in the drawings. Therefore, adding the extra room will not require making changes to the ducts.
The ventilation ducts are neatly hidden in the structures. The flexible and compact Vallox BlueSky was installed entirely in a warm space, which means that no specific insulation was needed. Still, the downstairs elevation reduced the area of the intermediate floor so much that some of the ducts were enclosed upstairs. However, the enclosure does not attract particular attention as the enclosure was painted with colours that match the wall material, so that it merges seamlessly with the interior.
Summer weather conditions considered at the construction stage
To ensure fresh indoor air that is not stifling hot even in summer, supply air must enter from the northern side of the house. This was done by leading a well-insulated pipe in the roof of the porch into the northern side of the house. The shortest and easiest route would have led to the southern side, but that would have backfired in the summer in the form of a hot supply air.
The large east-facing windows increase the thermal load of the home in summer. The partial bypass function of Vallox 145 MV helps to relieve this problem, put into operation already in spring when the sun starts rising high. In the hottest summertime periods, the automatic cool recovery function of the ventilation unit recovers cool air produced by the air source heat pump from the extract air and takes it to the supply air side. In this way, the ventilation unit automatically helps with temperature management in summer.
Carefully considered details make everyday life easier
In the beautiful spacious kitchen, the cooker hood keeps cooking smells and vapour out of the living area. However, the efficient extraction of the cooker hood removes more air than is replaced by the ventilation. This causes an underpressure, which means that it can be difficult to open the entrance door or smoke smell comes in from an unlit fireplace. This is also taken into account in this home: the ventilation unit receives information about the use of the cooker hood, so that it can automatically increase the amount of supply air and reduce the effects of underpressure.
In a family with children, the drying of clothes is a daily task for part of the year. This task is easily taken care of by a drying cabinet.
– There is an extract air valve on top of the drying cabinet for the extraction of moist air, so the moisture will not remain in the indoor air, explains Kati, the mother of the family.
The control panel is located conveniently close to the fireplace, so the Custom mode is easy to switch on when it is needed. The control panel is not actually needed for any other purposes, as the integrated sensors of the ventilation unit automatically boost the ventilation according to the need.
