ᐅ Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery – Planning the Locations for Supply and Exhaust Air

Hello everyone,

The planning for our semi-detached house is becoming more concrete. Now we need to determine the positions of the outlets for the central mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery.

I have read quite a bit on the topic and tried to consider the usual best practices. However, it is quite overwhelming at first and leaves some uncertainty. That’s why I would appreciate it if you could take a look based on your experience.

In general, everything is initially planned as ceiling outlets. However, the concept of displacement ventilation also makes sense to me, so wall outlets near the floor for the supply air could also be considered. What are your thoughts on this?

Yellow dots = Extract air
Red dots = Supply air
Blue dots = Alternative supply air (as a possible alternative position for the same room instead of the red dot)

Ground floor:

• The additional table indicated in the office will ultimately not be placed there.
• I am unsure whether the supply air in the hallway should preferably be near the front door or not.

Upper floor:

• The alternative supply air position is meant to better cover the hallway area. Or is this not relevant, and is it more important that air is supplied directly into the dining/living area?
• Would it be better to have two outlets in the large living and dining area to minimize noise?

Attic floor:

• The children’s rooms are a bit of a headache because it is very difficult to predict exactly how the furniture will be arranged at this stage.
• In the slightly larger children’s room, I’m also not certain about the door position yet. It might be placed all the way to the left (opposite the bedroom door). In that case, the supply air would need to be located elsewhere.

Thank you very much in advance!

Markus

mwinkelm schrieb:

Now we need to determine the locations of the outlets for the central mechanical ventilation system.

This is still the responsibility of a specialist familiar with the technology. You don’t just place them "anywhere."

First, a professional, as YPG already mentioned—after all, you are paying them for their expertise.

I would install two supply air vents in every room, and neither supply nor exhaust air in the hallway and pantry.

For the 65 m2 (700 sq ft) area, I would place four supply air vents.

I would try to position the supply air on the side opposite the door.

This doesn’t look like it was planned by a professional at all, right? How do you intend to properly remove three times the amount of supply air in the sleeping area compared to one exhaust vent on the floor? The living area has far too little supply air, and so on.

Are the outlets usually placed on the floor? Wouldn't it be better to run the cables/pipes along the walls so that the "ducts" are integrated within the walls?

exto1791 schrieb:

Are the outlets usually located on the floor?

No, that depends, among other things, on the general contractor / mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery. Such installations are planned from the very beginning and not placed "somewhere" just because the homeowner thinks it's right—no sloppy work.