ᐅ Retrofitting a Bathroom Ventilation System with Heat Recovery

Created on: 21 Sep 2016 08:06
J
Jochen104
Hello everyone,

We built our house last year without a ventilation system and are quite satisfied with that.

Only in the bathroom, due to my wife’s long showers, there is often a noticeably increased humidity level. This, in turn, requires frequent airing, which makes the bathroom too cold for my wife 🙄

We are now considering retrofitting a ventilation system in the bathroom. We would like to install it on one of the two exterior walls. Power supply is available in the attic directly above.

We understand that a core drill hole will be necessary. However, we would prefer to run the electrical wiring either inside the wall or along the outside of the wall up to the attic. The reason is that the interior plaster is finished and nicely painted. On the outside, only the base coat plaster has been applied so far. There, we could simply chase a groove and then fill it again with base coat plaster. I am aware that this will create a small thermal bridge.

Has anyone done or arranged something like this before?
Are there any experiences or recommendations for specific devices?
Is the electrical wiring as described above possible?

Thank you very much 🙂
L
Legurit
21 Sep 2016 14:14
Because you want to get rid of moist air. With inverters, this does not happen about half of the time. With cross-flow heat exchangers, I would be concerned that it might freeze up since there is already heavy condensation inside the unit (but I am not sure).
lastdrop21 Sep 2016 15:17
I am dealing with the same issue but haven’t been willing to do core drilling on a new house so far.

Exhaust air might actually be the most efficient and powerful option. But where does the supply air come from?
L
Legurit
21 Sep 2016 15:21
From holes in the building envelope... if in doubt, through the gap under the front door (even if you usually don’t notice it).
Showering is very localized – a short period of high flow; therefore, the total cubic meter volume is quite low overall.
tomtom7921 Sep 2016 17:57
Or smoke from the chimney into the living room...
L
Legurit
21 Sep 2016 18:24
😀 fair enough. But you would have that with an inverter as well.
S
Saruss
21 Sep 2016 18:38
Our front door also has a bottom seal, so there is no air gap. With enough negative pressure, air will eventually come in, but according to the blower door test, it would have to be quite significant.

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