The Green Consultancy - Mechanical Ventilation Aug 2013

Mechanical ventilation usually takes the form of air-handling units which incorporate fans and their motors, as well as some or all of filtration, heater and chiller batteries and provision for heat recovery. Smaller systems may utilise simple extract and/or supply fans without air treatment, and there are many installations which fall somewhere between the two.

Mechanical ventilation often uses a considerable amount of energy, both in electricity for the drive-motors, and thermal energy for heating and cooling. Very few operate at anywhere near 100% of their theoretical efficiency, and the result is that there is usually considerable scope for realising savings, often with very limited capital investment

Nick Osmaston, The Green Consultancy's Technical Director, explains how ventilation systems waste energy and what you can do to reduce running costs – often with little or no capital expenditure.