Today, the choice of new housing in Vilnius is extremely wide. And although the same energy and engineering requirements apply to all new housing, there are many ways to achieve them, so solutions differ depending on both the housing class and the specific choices of developers. We are starting a new section, which we hope will help those choosing new housing make better-informed decisions related to engineering systems, and at the same time – the quality of their future life.
Ventilation. “Given current energy requirements, buildings have become extremely airtight, so it is necessary to install a forced ventilation system in them. It is necessary to ensure air circulation in the premises, because due to the high level of tightness, it would not form naturally and we would have poor air quality indoors. This would mean too much humidity, which would cause windows to fog up, too much CO2 concentration, which would make us feel restless and have poor sleep, and unpleasant odors would accumulate. Unventilated or insufficiently ventilated premises accumulate microbes and create an excellent environment for the spread of viruses,” says Rasa Pečiulaitė, EIKA Energy Project Manager.
You will currently find different ventilation solutions on the market:
- Natural ventilation (an old-style solution that does not work in airtight buildings of class A, A+ and A++).
- Mechanical ventilation, i.e. supply and/or exhaust air (without recuperation). These are fans for extracting air or supplying air to rooms or air ducts.
- Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery: (1) duct heat recovery unit installed in an individual apartment, (2) wall-mounted heat recovery units, (3) central heat recovery, (4) heat recovery is not installed, only an option is provided. This method is one of the most efficient, because the air exhausted from the room gives up its heat to the incoming fresh air from outside. Therefore, there is no need to additionally heat the fresh air and heating costs do not increase.
R. Pečiulaitė notes that about 30 percent of new housing units currently on the market do not have any ventilation solutions installed, they are only planned. This means that the future owner of the apartment will have to install one or another ventilation solution himself if he wants to live comfortably in an A, A+, A++ class building, so an additional investment needs to be foreseen, which can reach 500–3000 EUR per apartment.