3 Benefits of Intelligent PIV Units for Social Housing

With the start of condensation season just around the corner, it’s the ideal time for social housing providers to be thinking about what ventilation system they have in place to tackle this issue. Positive Input Ventilation (PIV) has long been the go-to ventilation solution for dealing with condensation dampness in social housing. However, as we make our buildings more airtight and thermally efficient, our ventilation methods need to change too.

Here are three benefits of opting for more advanced PIV units in order to tackle condensation.

1. Balancing efficiency and comfort

It will come as no surprise that one of the key concerns in social housing is making sure tenants are comfortable. To ensure cold air isn’t delivered into the home during the winter, many PIV units feature an electric heater to increase the temperature of the incoming air. But while this improves tenant comfort, it has a downside of increasing energy costs.

By using a system which measures the temperature and moisture content of the air delivered into the home, the fan speed can be regulated to ensure the best levels of ventilation effectiveness are achieved in the most energy efficient way. As a result, social housing providers and residents are able to avoid the excessive heating costs and discomfort reported by users of conventional PIV systems.

2. Meet Building Regulations

PIV systems having remained largely unchanged for decades, so their ability to meet building regulation requirements is often clumsy at best.

Since 2006, our Building Regulations (Approved Document F – means of ventilation) require ventilation systems to achieve minimum ventilation rates based on the size and occupancy of a home. However, there are still some PIV units that are not able to match this requirement. This results in homes that are either under-ventilated and less able to deal with condensation related dampness, or over-ventilated, leading to greater reliance on built-in heaters and heating systems in winter months.

To tackle this our latest SANO Intelligent PIV system has up to eight settings, which meet the requirements of the latest Building Regulations from 2010 with 2013 amendments.

3. Tackling condensation

Opting for a more measured and targeted ventilation technique is key to combatting condensation. Intelligent PIV units are capable of automatically adjusting air flow in colder months when the air is a lot dryer and smaller quantities can be used to achieve the high levels of ventilation effectiveness that are needed to tackle condensation dampness and mould growth.

Thanks to these new developments in PIV systems, housing providers can now tackle the issue of condensation dampness, without it leading to complaints about reduced thermal comfort and increased heating costs.