It is a fact that our homes are getting more and more air tight to prevent heat loss. The
good news for electricians is that there is a massive opportunity to fit ventilation.
This joint need for energy efficiency and ventilation has given rise to new technology
such as single room heat recovery units. Here we join our regular product tester Evan Cockin,
to find out just how easy it is to fit EnviroVents new heat saver unit. Hi we're here today to
retro-fit an existing fan with a single room heat recovery unit, into this wet room. This
extract fan removes the humid air and the heat from this wet room. Whereas the heatsava
extracts the warm humid air and warms up the colder incoming air using a heat exchanger.
The first step is to remove the existing fan, I already know the wall depth for this job
so I've got the correct unit here, however it would be prudent to make sure that you've
got the right dimensions before ordering. Using the template provided I'm marking the
three most appropriate fixing holes for the fan. For this installation I have to re-position
cowl because it has to always face downwards. The unit comes with the fan and the power
supply which are connected together, so all you have to do is run the cabling in conduit
and then wherever you position the power supply you need to make an electrical connection.
Because the orientation of the pull-cord switch is in the wrong place for this installation
I have to loosen the collar from the switch with a pair of long nose pliers, remove the
switch from its current position, re-locate it to its new position, re-tighten the collar
with the long nose pliers. The heatsava product has additional safety feature its this little
magnet here that fits into that hole there, which ensures that the fan power is cut off
should the cover come loose or be removed. And now I'm simply reset the cover. Just make
sure not to over-tighten this screw. Well that's it then, job done - completed, as you
can see it's quite easy to install but before you walk away just make sure that when you
put a piece of tissue paper onto the extract vent that it's held in place - that means
it's working. Just to make sure that you check that the boost increases the fan speed and
decreases the fan speed. It's a really simple installation on a retro-fit like this as you
can see. Single room heat recovery units such as heatsava are increasingly being specified,
they are easy to install and help save energy whilst circulating fresh air and removing
moisture and condensation. The market potential is massive. To achieve the governments target
of reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, it is estimated that two and a half thousand
retro-fits would have to take place every day for the next 30 years - that is a lot
of air tight houses that will need energy efficient ventilation.