ᐅ Centralized ventilation system ductwork entirely routed through the attic?

Created on: 27 Dec 2024 17:09
O
oese123
Hello everyone, I joined this forum because we are planning to build a bungalow. Currently, two questions remain open: besides the heat supply (we are currently leaning towards a ground-source heat pump with earth collectors or a ring trench), it’s the ventilation system. At first, we considered a decentralized system since we ventilate a lot anyway and thought of it as an add-on. After researching the topic more thoroughly, however, we realized that you probably can’t ventilate as much or as controlled with such a system, and a continuously running decentralized ventilation might be disturbing due to noise.

So here is my question: We are planning a bungalow with a wooden intermediate ceiling, insulation in the ceiling, and an unfinished attic. We want to use parts of the attic for storage, for example for Christmas items and the like. Before I start deeper discussions with the installer, I would like to know whether loosely laying the ducts in the attic and leading them through the suspended ceiling would make sense? This would have the advantage that we could easily access the ducts at any time, which gives us some peace of mind. Another general contractor suggested embedding the ducts in the screed, but with the now contracted companies, we have not spoken in detail yet, except for the general contractor.

Thanks for your advice!
Tolentino27 Dec 2024 19:37
Or suspend the ceiling and place the pipes there, so they remain within the thermal envelope. The additional 8cm (3 inches) can be compensated by planning the intermediate ceiling higher, in case the clear room height would otherwise become too low.
S
SoL
27 Dec 2024 19:48
That's correct, we are currently planning within an existing building, and on the upper floor I don’t have enough space in the suspended ceiling. This means I need to come down from the attic to the upper floor. At the moment, the attic is an uninsulated roof space (cold roof), but we could change it to an insulated roof (warm roof) as part of the roof renovation. However, that is of course significantly more expensive than just adding some insulation around the few pipes.
tomtom7927 Dec 2024 20:10
Our pipes are installed that way, but our roof is insulated. However, our attic is not heated. But it is perfect for storage.