Anyone install Ductless MVHR such as EcoVolt Zero1 or Lunos E60?

I have Ambentika ductless in. Looks to be the same idea as the Lunos and EcoVolt there.

Its seems to be working OK but its very hard to compare bills as the weather isn't matching previous years that well; plus we're still mid-refurb so there's holes in the suspended floors and old vent holes in the kitchen etc pissing cold air in when it is cold.

Appears to be controlling the condensation causing the outside wall/bathroom ceiling mould that we've had since getting the windows replaced - my partner will not open windows for ventilation as apparently that's backwards (:old site format rolleyes emoji:).

However, the controls are bloody infuriating and while you can have them wired together or to a central controller; I don't. So each room has its own remote, and some of the nicer functions - such as using it to pull air from the shaded side of the house in hot weather - required going to each room to change the mode.

That cool side in, hot side out kept the house workable indoors during that heatwave this year as it happens. As the airflow isn't changing direction there's no heat recovery in play.

Also, the vent on our bedroom catches the wind a lot bringing some wind noise in; a centralised system would hopefully be placed somewhere more shielded!

At the night speed level, no. At the normal power levels you will hear something but only notch 3 is annoyingly noisy

Both of us are ok with sleeping with that type of noise so leave them on 1.

It has a light sensor so you can have it drop to night mode when it's dark, it also has humidistats to have it run only when needed. However the front inlet closes when it powers off fully and that will wake you up!

I don't have a base model yet they're still not interconnected. I don't think the place we got them from was very good, they couldn't really install either unless you had the perfect preformed vents

Its still too dusty to tell yet unfortunately!

I also don't have one in the kitchen, yet anyway, only the upstairs rooms. Kitchen is getting a jet engine of a hood installed when its getting done.

Do you crack open a window close to the hood when extracting?

Mick, not to be argumentative but just inquisitive - after reading about these devices here in early Jan I have been thinking about and doing some measurements around that over the last number of weeks, and I'm not so sure that they are all that bad.

I have a 4 bed, detached house with a attic converted for storage with foil on all plasterboard under the attic space. Attic floor is insulated with glasswool between 150mm in spots to 300mm in others. The RH in the attic has always - as far as I can tell - swung with the ambient external humidity levels and does not appear to be leaking much vapour from the conditioned envelope. Ventilation in the attic from soffit vents is only just sufficient. I popped a numbers of RH meters (uncalibrated, I'll admit) into my attic, kitchen, hall and bedroom. I then used a formula (the longer & more precise formula) to calculate the absolute humidity in g/m^3 and plot these on a graph to show which location has the most water per cubic meter.

Surprisingly over the course of the last 16 days - and even for days when the outside air was 100% saturated - the attic space had the least g/m^3 at an average of around 6.6g/m^3, while the kitchen was averaging around 10.8 with large swings during cooking periods naturally. At no point was the absolute humidity in the attic greater than that of any of the measured rooms. The attic had an average temperature of ~11.6 C but had variation between 14.7 C and 10.0 C over that duration.

(sorry for the noise on the Sonoff/kitchen, sensor issues).

PIR3 (purple) is the attic. PIR1 is the hall. PIR2 is a back-hall (clothes dryer, etc), ShellyHT is a bedroom and Sonoff is the kitchen.

My takeaway from this is that in my house type the attic could be a supply of warmer and dryer air for the majority of the winter time, especially if a heater is fitted to the PIV unit which would only be increasing the temperature of the incoming air by around 7 degrees, as opposed to ~15 degrees if the air was taken externally. It will also help to draw additional air into the attic, consequently reducing the ambient temperature (and the knock-on effects of that), but also drying the attic air due to the temperature difference.

I'm not trying to convince you otherwise, just adding colour to the discussion. 👍️

no, Id have the window closed while the hood extraction is switched on. Ive gone outside to the vent a couple of times just to check it and there is a big whoosh of air. But at the extraction unit itself you can put your hand close and barely feel any suction, presumably because the filters are slowing it down.

Ive never tried running it without the filters so must do that just to see what its like, obvoiusly not long term or Id end up with duct work going outside caked in cooking grease. I do clean the filters once every 3 months and they pick up a lot of grease on the outsides of them so can only imagine what is like inside them. After wiping down with paper towels I put them through the dishwasher as per instructions but maybe I need to clean them monthly instead as I do cook a lot of smokey stuff like wok cooking, steaks, burgers, etc and the grease from that is likely slowing down the airflow.

Either that or its extraction rating isnt sufficient but Id calculated the space its in as 85m3 and the hood itself is rated to 1000m3 per hour so it should be way over specced for the size of the kitchen. But maybe that rating they give is without the filters on and is just the power of the fan motor?

This the model

Anyone come across any installers for these systems?

Ecovolt will sell directly, Ermen will sell me the ecocomfort but none seem to do any installation.

These seem a much cheaper option, no idea how good they are though

Thanks, 230 euro is a great price so they truly have come down in price compared to a couple of years ago when I got a quote of 700 for a single Lunos unit. I was wary about paying big money without knowing the longevity of the units. I still wonder about that because they are supposed to run 24/7 which is a lot for a motor to do year after year.

I cant comment on the performance of one system over the other but my understanding is that these ductless units are aimed at houses that are retrofitting. The ducted versions are moreso for new builds where they have access to walls during construction so ductwork can be run behind the plasterboard. Retrofitting a ducted system to an old house would cost a fortune because sections of walls would have to be removed and holes made in ceilngs, etc to get ductwork to the central ventilation unit located in the attic. A company quoted me before and just laying the ductwork in a retrofit 3 bed semi would cost 2-3k before you pay for the cost of the equipment so it could run to 4-5k all up.

So its not economically viable unless money is no object. If you were building a brand new house you'd go with a ducted system as thats the industry standard for ventilation. If retrofitting then these ductless units provide a ventilation solution that avoids spending a fortune opening up walls to lay ductwork.

As regards functonality of the ductless units as far as I can see they perform the same task of changing the air and heating the new air coming in. My main question is about the longevity of the units, like if it broke down after 5 years and it cost 500 you wouldnt be too impressed.

Mount it on what though? You would hardly want exposed ducting running up the walls around the house and through ceilings & floors?

These non ducted units are less than a foot in length with a fan and motor inside them. They would be pretty efficient at moving air, perhaps even more so than a system that has metres of ducting running all around the place with 90 degree turns when it meets an obstacle.

All articles I've read have said that ducted is the better system as its better at moving air throughout a building. That and noise are the main disadvantages of a ductless system.