SIC energy-efficient home ventilation system: up to 95% efficiency

The design features of the modern building envelopes, because of the need to match higher and higher energy performance in order to achieve lower and lower energy consumption, has hardly reduced building heat losses, even those related to air leakage.

Then, if on one hand the goal of energy saving has been reached (still evolving target), on the other hand the building became a box increasingly hermetic.

However, the domestic enviroments can’t avoid the need of continuous air renewal to ensure an acceptable level of indoor healthiness. In fact, the lack or insufficiency of ventilation in these rooms causes in a short time an indoor pollution level by a mix of harmful substances including:

• carbon dioxide, produced by combustion in general and then by human metabolism and by cooking also;
• formaldehyde, present in the furnishing and building materials;
• mold, due to stagnation of moisture on walls and ceilings;
• cigarette smoking;
• dust in general.

The opening of doors and windows to renew the indoor air to reduce all these pollutants to an acceptable level of concentration may often not be enough, both because it is not obvious that outdoor air is actually cleaner and because that generates a sudden and negative heat discomfort, definitely uncontrollable.

Benefits of controlled home ventilation

To match at the same time :

• the reduction of energy consumption related to building envelope;
• indoor climate comfort, at any season;
• indoor acoustic comfort;
• indoor air quality, at any condition;

it is necessary to use systems able to ensure a continuous and controlled air renewal, which can no longer be given by the opening of doors/windows.

In fact, these system are standard equipped with suitable air filtering, low consumption and low noise fans, self-adjusted or humidity controlled air intakes/vents; the possible heat recovery, at very high efficiency level, further reduces the total heat demand.

The controlled air renewal systems by SIC not only are at the farefront about the best use of energy and the respect of the (indoor & outdoor) environment, but also have been designed to facilitate assembly, control and maintenance operations.

Stand-alone room ventilation with high efficiency heat recovery unit

It allows the extraction of stale and wet air from the rooms of the house and the supply of fresh air by one unit that integrates the functions of filtering, ventilation and heat recovery, otherwise lost while expelling the extracted air; such heat recovery amount is so high that any re-heating system is not strictly needed.
The plant of which the heat recovery unit is the heart is generally composed of air collector modules, suitable shape and geometry ductwork, suction vents and air intakes.

Technical characteristics

Series of 2 models to cover up to 330 m3/h airflow rate, for ceiling/false ceiling installation or vertical wall installation and composed of :

• casing and cover panel made from expandend polypropylene, fitted with external reinforcement plates for airtight closing and for ceiling/wall mounting; internal aerodynamic shape able to minimize air pressure drops and rustles;
• G4 efficiency panel filters on both air intakes; as an option, additional F7 compact filter in polypropylene with low air pressure drop;
• air-to-air counterflow polystyrene heat recovery with very high efficiency (up to 95%), already equipped with motorised by-pass device and easily removable for cleaning;
• supply and exhaust plenum fans with plastic impeller and housing, direct driven by EC technology motors;
• plastic collars fitted with additional airtight rubber gasket;
• built-in electronic control complete with NTC sensors inside the unit and plug-in type user inteface (possibly remotable).