ᐅ House (built in 2019) always too warm from April to October
Created on: 23 May 2023 07:28
C
chewbacca123
Hello everyone, I wasn’t sure under which category to post this topic.
We have been living in our house for about four years now; it was built in 2019. The house is built into a slope, with the ground floor containing the living area, kitchen, workspace, and a small bathroom, and the basement level having the bedrooms, building services, and utility room. The attic is not converted.
Now that it’s slowly getting warmer, I notice again, as I do every year:
It’s so warm inside the house. The heating system, underfloor heating (heat pump), is no longer running. We have a thermometer in the cloakroom on the ground floor. This morning it showed 23.4°C (74°F), stuffy and uncomfortable.
Our house has a ventilation system (Wolf), a central ventilation unit. It runs at night and is supposed to bring fresh air into the house or extract air from the rooms as needed.
How can it be that we always have such heat? 23.4°C (74°F) in the hallway?
Of course, I should mention that we get a lot of sun. On the ground floor, in the living area, there are large south-facing windows which we shade when the sun is shining.
In the basement, the terrace door is 2m (6.6 ft) wide and also exposed to the sun. We shade that partially.
We installed the ventilation system back then because it was said to save us from having to open all the windows every morning. Now, between April and October, I basically spend my mornings opening all the windows anyway to get rid of the stuffy and unpleasant warmth inside the house.
Does anyone have similar experiences? How can it be that after a night with 12°C (54°F) outside temperature, the hallway is 23.4°C (74°F) at 7 a.m.?
When I leave the bedroom and walk up the stairs to the ground floor, I can feel the temperature rising with every step :-/
Could this be related to the building services system? The house was built in 2019, with 36cm (14 inch) Porit bricks.
Thanks for your help, best regards
ina
We have been living in our house for about four years now; it was built in 2019. The house is built into a slope, with the ground floor containing the living area, kitchen, workspace, and a small bathroom, and the basement level having the bedrooms, building services, and utility room. The attic is not converted.
Now that it’s slowly getting warmer, I notice again, as I do every year:
It’s so warm inside the house. The heating system, underfloor heating (heat pump), is no longer running. We have a thermometer in the cloakroom on the ground floor. This morning it showed 23.4°C (74°F), stuffy and uncomfortable.
Our house has a ventilation system (Wolf), a central ventilation unit. It runs at night and is supposed to bring fresh air into the house or extract air from the rooms as needed.
How can it be that we always have such heat? 23.4°C (74°F) in the hallway?
Of course, I should mention that we get a lot of sun. On the ground floor, in the living area, there are large south-facing windows which we shade when the sun is shining.
In the basement, the terrace door is 2m (6.6 ft) wide and also exposed to the sun. We shade that partially.
We installed the ventilation system back then because it was said to save us from having to open all the windows every morning. Now, between April and October, I basically spend my mornings opening all the windows anyway to get rid of the stuffy and unpleasant warmth inside the house.
Does anyone have similar experiences? How can it be that after a night with 12°C (54°F) outside temperature, the hallway is 23.4°C (74°F) at 7 a.m.?
When I leave the bedroom and walk up the stairs to the ground floor, I can feel the temperature rising with every step :-/
Could this be related to the building services system? The house was built in 2019, with 36cm (14 inch) Porit bricks.
Thanks for your help, best regards
ina
R
RotorMotor23 May 2023 11:19kati1337 schrieb:
How does it prevent that? By using the heat exchanger.
kati1337 schrieb:
What happens if it’s 30°C (86°F) outside, but only 22°C (72°F) inside because, for example, the air conditioning is running? Would you operate the controlled ventilation system with heat recovery or use the bypass in that case? In that case, the bypass should be closed, and the heat exchanger recovers the heat, or in this situation, the coolness.
The bypass is primarily intended for cooler summer nights.
However, as my calculations show, it only provides limited benefits even then.
chewbacca12323 May 2023 11:4211ant schrieb:
So, you handle that yourselves, and it remains off while you are away?No, we have a Somfy system, everything is programmed.
chewbacca12323 May 2023 11:46RotorMotor schrieb:
The "cooling capacity" of a central controlled mechanical ventilation system with bypass can be calculated, since heating 1m³ of air by 1° requires 0.33Wh of energy.
For example: Outdoor temperature 16°C (61°F), indoor 22°C (72°F). Difference is 6. At 160m³/h (94 cubic feet per minute), this results in a "cooling capacity" of only about 0.3kW.
If one of your windows already heats the room by 1kW through solar gain, you quickly notice the indoor temperature rising.
In this case, planning roofing, shading with plants, or external venetian blinds would have been necessary.
Turning off the central controlled mechanical ventilation in summer is not a good idea.
The heat recovery prevents too warm air from entering the house while providing fresh air at the same time. Absolutely, I am very frustrated that we don’t have external venetian blinds here. Unfortunately, retrofitting them into the roller shutter boxes is not possible—I have already checked. We have three large windows, each 2m (6.6 feet) wide, facing south. You learn these things afterward; I wouldn’t build it this way now without proper shading.
But now we have to work with what we have. One of the three wide windows—the balcony door—will be covered with a large canopy within the next twelve months to provide shading.
For the other two, we installed internal blinds, which help at least in spring and autumn.
If we run the controlled mechanical ventilation continuously during summer, the house gets very warm. We have tested this thoroughly. It actually brings the warm air inside.
There is no cooling effect at all.
chewbacca123 schrieb:
no, we have a Somfy system, everything programmedWhen do your roller shutters go down? At the first ray of sunlight or only after some time?
chewbacca123 schrieb:
If we run the mechanical ventilation with heat recovery continuously during the summer, the house gets really warm. We have checked everything already. It brings warm air into the house. There is no cooling at all.I had the same feeling with our mechanical ventilation with heat recovery back then. We also ran it on the lowest setting during the day in summer and increased it at night.chewbacca123 schrieb:
If we run the mechanical ventilation system continuously during the summer, the house becomes very warm. We have already checked everything. It brings warm air into the house. Nothing is being cooled. I find that quite unusual. As others, even with numbers, say: a mechanical ventilation system usually cannot warm your house.
Yes, it is true that it’s difficult to get rid of heat once it’s inside. For example, we had to sign, (I don’t know what it depends on) that if we did not choose exterior blinds/shutters on the south side, we would have to waive thermal protection. Our architect informed us accordingly.
...
I have skimmed through, including your first posts. You have been dealing with managing the upcoming spring heat for quite some time.
When the sun comes around and basically shines through the windows, it starts to get warm inside, especially with 10 or 12 square meters (about 108 or 129 square feet) of windows that you don’t always want to keep closed.
Personally, I don’t mind the warmth in the house. However, it is also possible that the amount of heat might be overwhelming for me... I have noticed that the upper floor feels warmer despite having fewer windows than the ground floor open-plan area. I have always attributed this to the smaller rooms on the south side as well as the tree canopies in our garden that provide shade, especially on the south side of our house.
Maybe a heat-reflective film on your windows could help reduce the temperature? What about planting one or two tall standard trees? The canopies don’t have to be dense—just enough to provide shade for the upper floor.
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