Commercial MVHR – Commercial mechanical ventilation with heat recovery systems

 

Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) is an essential system for providing fresh air and extracting stale air in commercial premises. Commercial MVHR systems offer highly efficient heat recovery, helping to greatly decrease carbon emissions while maintaining a comfortable indoor environment.Replacing heat loss in a commercial application is expensive these days with high energy costs, commercial heat recovery units absorb exhaust heat energy and preheat the incoming air flow into new or older buildings and help reduce carbon emissions.

This webpage will explore what a mechanical ventilation and commercial heat recovery system entails and the benefits it offers to comply with the current Part F building regulations that we have in the UK.

How does a commercial heat recovery system work?

A commercial MVHR system works by supplying fresh filtered air to a building while extracting stale stagnant air. The system incorporates heat recovery plate heat exchangers to absorb exhaust heat energy from the stale exhaust airstream and transfer it to the incoming supply airstream . This heat recovery element means that up to 80.9% of the heating energy can be recovered, offering major energy efficiency benefits.

Types of MVHR (Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery)

There are several types of heat recovery systems used in decentralised mechanical ventilation with heat recovery systems. Plate heat exchangers are common, using alternating plates to transfer heat between the air streams without mixing them. Thermal wheels, also known as rotary heat exchangers, use a rotating thermal wheel to alternately capture heat from the exhaust air and transfer it to the incoming fresh air. Run around coil exchangers have an exhaust airstream coil that heats or cools a transfer fluid, which then passes through a supply air coil (heat recovery element) for the commercial heat recovery system.

Heat exchanger

Our commercial heat recovery system uses a two-step heat recovery in cross air-to-air heat exchangers for larger duties.

X2-FLOW: The use of two crossflow heat exchangers results in high heat recovery efficiency. Because they are composed of aluminium, they have a high level of corrosion resistance for our commercial heat recovery units in heat recovery ventilation systems.

 

MVHR Product range and options

We are manufacturing market leading solutions, and our mechanical ventilation with heat recovery systems that offer low energy solutions are available in the following versions –

Unheated option for wall mounting

The X2-N-1.2-V are ductless on-wall installation mechanical ventilation with commercial heat recovery units and come without any extra air heating.

Heated options for wall mounting

The X2-W-1.2-V are ductless on-wall installation mechanical ventilation & commercial heat recovery units that come with an additional heater hot water fed. 10kW of heat output based on a water temperature 80/60C, inlet air temperature 5C and 1,200 m3 /h of air flow to prevent heat loss from the exhaust airstream.

Or

The X2-E-1.2-V are ductless on-wall installation mechanical ventilation & commercial heat recovery units that come with an additional heater that is powered by electricity. Output of power steps is 3.5 , 5.5 or  8.5 kW and helps to counter heat loss from the exhaust airstream.

Roof mounted commercial heat recovery with mechanical ventilation options

Firstly our unheated option

The X2-N-1.2-H unit is designed to be installed under the ceiling and comes without any extra air heating.

Heated option

The X2-W-1.2-H – unit is designed to be installed under the ceiling and comes with an additional hot water fed heater – with 10kW of heat output based on a water temperature 80/60C, inlet air temperature 5C and 1,200 m3 /h of air flow.

Full details are in the following brochure and manual for our commercial heat recovery units with heat recovery element and additional filtration.

Download the Oxen commercial heat recovery units with mechanical ventilation brochure from Flexiheat UK

Download the Oxen commercial heat recovery system installation & operating manual

None of our commercial heat recovery units can incorporate cooling as an option.

Sizing mechanical ventilation for commercial premises

The UK government stipulates ever increasing airtightness values for commercial buildings, these are stipulated by the Part L of the building regulations that covers the energy efficiency of buildings. They have tightened the air permeability for new buildings as detailed in the regulations. This means that mechanical ventilation is often the only way to introduce supply fresh filtered air into a commercial premises and this is covered in more detail in Part F of Schedule 1 to the Building Regulations 2010  which stipulates ventilation requirements for buildings other than domestic dwellings.

As a genral rule, the required ventilation air capacity is: –

• Warehouses – The minimum required value of ventilation is 0.5 air exchanges per hour in relation to the cubic capacity of the building.
• Factories / Production areas – It is between 1 and 2 air exchanges per hour in relation to the cubic capacity of the object, and in the case of a particular dirty production process, it can be between 5 and 10 air exchanges per hour.

Commercial heat recovery and mechanical ventilation benefits include:

• Enhances the quality of indoor air as they supply fresh filtered air.
• Mechanical ventilation ensures low levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) which reduces weariness and fatigue of staff or customers in your commercial building.
• Keeps humidity and mould at bay – no stale stagnant air.
• Recovery of heat that is typically lost on chilly days.
• Regulated flow of filtered outside air during warm days.
• All of the air is filtered to lower the amount of pollutants such as airborne bacteria and pollen.

Continuous exposure to fresh air lowers airborne germs and bacteria that can build up in stale air within a commercial building.

Filters

Our units are fitted with EU4 filters for additional filtration- these fine filters are used to clean the supply airstream entering the building to ensure filtered fresh air.

Multiple fan design

Each unit is outfitted with two sections of diagonal fans, each formed by three fans, allowing for consistent distribution of supply air flow throughout the full surface of the heat exchanger, effective heat exchange, quiet operation, and energy efficiency.

MVHR commercial units’ construction

The commercial mvhr unit’s housing is composed of a material that is incredibly lightweight and robust. Expanded polypropylene (EPP) offers notable weight savings for the unit, excellent sound absorption capabilities, and excellent thermal insulation. Expanded polypropylene (EPP) materials are also fully recyclable.

Installation and application examples 

Restaurants and cafes

Car workshops and garages

Warehouse installation example

Manufacturing factory with warehouse installation example

Installation accessories options

We have a full range of accessories to ensure a smooth and easy installation to suite any commercial premises for energy recovery ventilation.

Commercial MVHR units to suit any commercial building

These are ductless unit, meaning no ducting is required for the installation, which assures relatively inexpensive capital  investment as well as operational expenses, they are easy to maintain, and are an ideal option for all new or existing buildings

Installation options and dimensions for our commercial MVHR units are as follows.

Controls and building management system for a commercial building

Our T-Box controller can integrate with a BMS (building management system) for centralized control (controlled remotely), monitoring and maintenance of your commercial building or can be used as a standalone controller. The suitable system choice is yours.

• Can be connected to a BMS (building management system)
• You can control up to 31 units via a single controller.
• Step less air flow regulation.
• Automatic regulation of supplied air temperature
• Operation with or without heat recovery (by-pass) to supply fresh filtered air.
• Weekly programmer
• Anti-freeze protection
• Filters operating time counter
• Integration with control of operation of our unit heaters or air curtains, via a single T-box controller.

Contact us for your commercial MVHR – mechanical ventilation with heat recovery system

Should you require more product information or prices on our commercial mvhr range, to improve indoor air quality with our commercial heat recovery units and reduce your carbon footprint, then please don’t hesitate to contact our sales team on 01202 822221 or use our email contact form via the contact tab above to message us.