Leading British ventilation manufacturer Vent-Axia has published an eBook ‘A Guide to Meeting Part O with Confidence’. Aimed at UK housebuilders, the publication provides guidance on overheating, helping to identify solutions that balance comfort, compliance, and performance. As new residential properties have become more thermally efficient, to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions to help meet the 2050 Net-Zero target, they are increasingly prone to overheating. Recognising the seriousness of the issue, the UK government introduced Approved Document O of the Building Regulations in 2021. Vent-Axia’s eBook aims to provide an understanding of the regulation and how and when ventilation can be applied to help mitigate overheating.
Written by Vent-Axia the eBook is designed to help housebuilders tackle overheating in homes as it becomes a recognised industry challenge. Offering housebuilders valuable guidance, the publication clearly provides a wealth of information, including explaining the context of overheating in the UK and why it matters, as well as setting out the requirements needed to comply with Part O and related regulations. The eBook also includes a practical overheating design checklist, and explains how Passivhaus principles affect heating and cooling loads in new-build properties.
“Vent-Axia is keen to support housebuilders as they face the increasing challenge of overheating in new build homes, which is a growing issue as buildings become more airtight and global temperatures continue to rise. Our new eBook therefore provides housebuilders with support and advice on how to mitigate overheating risk and comply with Part O and TM59 standards. With an overheating design checklist, DSM practical guidance, and ventilation-integrated cooling advice, the eBook ensures that housebuilders are well equipped to mitigate overheating with ventilation,” said Steve Pearce, Product Manager at Vent-Axia.
When it comes to removing excess heat, Part O lists acceptable methods in order of preference, starting with opening windows, followed by ventilation louvres, mechanical ventilation, and finally mechanical cooling. When natural ventilation options are restricted, mechanical ventilation provides a valuable solution with a number of different types of technology available.
Housebuilders can adopt various ventilation strategies to help reduce overheating. When it is not possible to use windows for ventilation, modern extract systems can help remove excess heat. For example, Vent-Axia’s Lo-Carbon NBR Cool Unitary Fan delivers quiet, compliant ventilation with adjustable airflow and a default setting of 20 l/s, it extracts heat on demand and offers optional automatic temperature control. Meanwhile, Vent-Axia’s NBR CoolBox Kits offer on-demand heat extraction, are compact, low noise and suitable for installation in all habitable rooms.
Meanwhile, the latest Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) units, such as Vent-Axia’s award-winning Lo-Carbon Sentinel Econiq, deliver coolth or heat recovery efficiencies of up to 93%. The Lo-Carbon Sentinel Econiq comes with intelligent automatic 100% summer bypass capabilities, offering free cooling.
But when free cooling via an MVHR summer bypass alone is insufficient to mitigate overheating throughout the year, specifiers can consider MVHR systems with integrated DX cooling modules, such as Vent-Axia’s Lo-Carbon Sentinel Econiq Cool-Flow. This option features intelligent controls that switch automatically between heat recovery, summer bypass and active cooling via the DX cooling module.
One of the latest innovations available is a combined MVHR unit with a hot water air source heat pump. This type of system combines two technologies, offering 2-in-1 – renewable hot water and a free cooling solution. For example. The Lo-Carbon Sentinel Econiq-Cool (KERS), Vent-Axia’s latest flagship MVHR system, features all-new controls allowing communication with the KERS Coolboost Heat Pump.
With climate change raising temperatures while the UK’s Net-Zero target of 2050 is on the horizon, overheating looks set to continue. Overheating is a serious health issue, but it is also a comfort issue, which is why ventilation is key to solving the overheating challenge and helps futureproof homes against the climate challenges ahead.
To find out more about the eBook from Vent-Axia, you can download it by signing up for the eBook guide here. For further information on products and services offered by Vent-Axia call +44 (0) 344 856 0590 or visit https://www.vent-axia.com/.