If we’re talking statistics, currently over 1/3 of UK households operate on a tenant-landlord relationship, with occupants reliant upon their landlords to fix issues within the property. The introduction of the Homes Act aims to ensure that rented properties are safe and healthy for habitation – in other words, free from things that could cause serious harm.

Here are three tips to help landlords ease the problems associated with condensation:

Quick responses

One of the main reasons that condensation is so prevalent in rented housing is its link to occupant behaviour. There are a range of activities that exacerbate these levels, especially in social housing conditions. Drying clothes indoors, for example, is something that is unavoidable for anyone who doesn’t have the luxury of outdoor space.

There’s also the worrying rise of fuel poverty, which prevents many from being able to afford heating bills. This leaves houses colder than they should be, worsening condensation with potentially damaging health implications.

This highlights why the fight against condensation is such a challenging one for landlords, and while they may have little to no control over what their tenants do, it places more emphasis on the need to be responsive and act quickly. 

Avoid misdiagnoses

Being reactive is one thing, but taking the right steps for treatment can be another challenge. Condensation is often left untreated or mistreated due to misdiagnosis as dampness or mould. Not only does this do nothing to address the problem, but it can prove costly in time and expense as damp-orientated solutions are incorrectly invested in.

To help avoid misdiagnosis, there are courses on combatting condensation which provide landlords and other property professionals with the skills and confidence to make informed evaluations on ventilation in homes.

Intelligent PIV units

In an ideal world, we could simply reduce condensation by producing less moisture within structures. However, this is not always the case, so instead we look towards effective ventilation for removing moisture.

Intelligent PIV units, such as Elta’s SANO Intelligent PIV, are capable of automatically adjusting air flow depending on the moisture content and temperature of incoming air. This ensures optimal thermal comfort for tenants, without incurring the high energy costs associated with using a heater. Integral controls allow the unit to be responsive to the individual requirements helping to reduce the likelihood of condensation.

Everyone has the responsibility to understand the symptoms, causes, and treatments for condensation, not just landlords.

While further details on residential training courses can be found here:  https://www.property-care.org/training-qualifications/training-courses/residential-veon-masterclass/

Here are the top five features of the Revolution SLC EC:

1. Future-proofed

The evolving nature of the ventilation industry means that products are frequently at risk of not being compliant, with manufacturers under constant pressure to deliver in-line with the latest legislative changes.

The Revolution SLC EC has been developed to ensure compliance with legislation likely in 2021, and should easily pass any regulations that are anticipated before 2030. In a sector that is vulnerable to sudden change, it provides an assurance of continuity for those tasked with delivering ventilation solutions.

2. Lower running costs

A defining feature of the new fan is the transition from an AC motor to a low energy EC motor. This has a number of benefits, not least the reduction in running costs associated with the unit.

Complete with high-quality impeller blades and an increased blade chord and twist, the Revolution SLC EC achieves running cost savings of up to 20%, helping to reduce overall energy consumption compared to previous models. It also makes ventilation management far easier for the end user, due to built-in control for setting fan speed during commissioning and operation.

3. Greener credentials

Aside from the lowering the running costs, the Revolution SLC EC also significantly reduces CO2 emissions. This is particularly important with the current trend towards improving the environmental impact of buildings, putting pressure on contractors and facilities managers to deliver effective products. The efficiency of the new fan is ideal for decreasing energy consumption and ensuring compliance with the latest ecodesign regulations.

4. Versatility

The range of applications that it can be used in marks the Revolution SLC EC as a versatile ventilation option. It’s designed to operate in a wide range of locations, including sports centres, warehousing and stores, factories, and commercial kitchens.

It’s also available in a range of sizes, from 315mm to 630mm, ensuring that the benefits of the long-cased axial fan can be enjoyed in a wide range of applications.

5. Easy installation

The host of benefits associated with the Revolution SLC EC are underpinned by the straightforward installation and maintenance processes. A fitted IP55 terminal box allows the fan to be positioned conveniently to incoming electrical inputs, and the complicated task of having to install a commissioning device is removed because it’s located within the fan itself.

Contractors are able to pass on these savings to their customers, and in an industry fraught with uncertainty, the innovative Revolution SLC EC provides peace of mind for those tasked with delivering ventilation strategies.

Know the signs

It will come as no surprise that damp and condensation are causing major problems in rented housing across the UK. Being as vigilant as possible is key, whether it’s noticing a damp and musty smell, mould or mildew on walls, or those all-too-common water droplets on windows. The link between these issues and poor ventilation is well known, so if you spot these signs, act quickly by seeking the advice of a qualified and experienced ventilation professional.

By understanding the underlying causes of condensation and damp, you’ll be able to assess whether a new ventilation strategy is needed, or if tenant behaviour is the biggest factor. For example, it can be exacerbated by certain actions, such as drying clothes indoors or close to radiators.

Know the consequences

While manufacturers can help to demystify the new standards, it’s actually designers, installers and building owners which have a responsibility under current Building Regulations to ensure compliance

The new Homes Act gives tenants much greater power to take action over landlords if properties aren’t suitable for safe and healthy living. For instance, if a rented property is deemed unfit, the court can enforce compulsory improvement to the home. In some cases, this might even result in compensation being given to the tenant.

Know the solutions

While getting to grips with any new piece of legislation is no small feat, the Homes Act is key to making sure rented properties are safe and comfortable for tenants. Once landlords understand this piece of legislation and Building Regulations covering ventilation, it’s much easier to know who to approach for guidance.

It will also help to ensure the products specified are compliant, so you can rest easy knowing you’ve fulfilled your obligations. To help navigate these changes and the potential solutions, we’ve developed a CPD accredited training course.

• Take Responsibility

The link between condensation, damp, mould and ventilation is well established, so it’s likely that if a landlord spots these issues, they will seek the advice of a ventilation professional. This is where installers need to be confident in their knowledge, to ensure they are able to provide the right advice to their customers.

By taking the time to learn about the new regulations and latest products, installers can become experts, and help to deliver effective, compliant ventilation solutions.

• Understand the regulations

As with any regulatory requirements and guidance documents on ventilation, there is a huge amount of information to take on board. The Homes Act adds to this, but for good reason, as it aims to make sure that rented properties are safe and suitable for tenancy. It essentially gives more power to tenants, allowing courts to enforce compulsory improvement to the condition of properties, if deemed unfit.

Installers should take the time to understand how all of the regulations and guidance documents interact with one another, in order to assess whether the existing ventilation strategy in a home is adequate.

• Get to grips with the latest products

If a non-compliant ventilation product is installed in a home, it’s the installer who is potentially responsible. It’s therefore important that installers familiarise themselves with the latest products, to ensure they are fitting compliant and effective ventilation strategies.

There are a wide range of ventilation solutions available, including Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR), continuous mechanical extract ventilation (MEV), and intelligent Positive Input Ventilation (PIV), alongside several others. The most important thing to bear in mind is that ventilation should be controllable in order to maintain good indoor air quality and avoid wasting energy.

Overall, the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 should be viewed as an opportunity for installers. By ensuring they are up to date on the latest regulations and products, they can become a vital asset to their customers, and help to deliver effective ventilation across the UK.

Paul Harrington, Head of Residential Sales at Elta

One solution is Positive Input Ventilation (PIV), known to supply fresh filtered air into homes to tackle and prevent mould growth and condensation dampness as well as improving indoor air quality. Only in relatively recent years have they been offered with electric heaters to address complaints about colder air entering the home during the winter months.

Since then, PIV units with heaters have become an established requirement for many social housing providers. Yet with both energy prices and the use of smart meters on the rise, an innovation that was originally intended to increase tenant acceptability could now be responsible for hindering it.

So, not all PIV units are the same. Here are five truths to help distinguish the efficient from the inefficient:

1. PIV units are renowned for their low upfront cost and minimal energy usage. But coupling them with built-in heaters undermines the low energy credentials, with some tenants reporting a hike in their energy bills after installation.
2. These systems typically consume 500 watts of power (or 100 times that of a non-heated version) and running costs can be as much as £1 a day when the heater is enabled. It’s therefore easy to see why this sudden increase in energy usage and cost would be a problem for anyone with a low income.
3. It is important to provide a ventilation system that meets the whole dwelling ventilation requirements of Approved Document F with as much intelligence and adjustment as possible. This will avoid under-ventilation and poor performance, as well as over-ventilation, which can lead to increased energy costs.
4. By removing the heater and choosing a more adjustable and intelligent PIV system to better suit the property and its occupants, the central heating system (which will often use gas) can be relied upon to top-up the temperature to the required comfort levels much more cost effectively.
5. As it stands, many specifications still require PIV units with built-in heaters and, while at Elta we have done everything we can to reduce the impact of this for tenants and landlords, the industry needs to move away from an over-reliance on heaters, and towards more measured and targeted ventilation.

A more efficient solution?

To reduce energy usage even further, Elta’s sister company, Homevent, offers Wall and Loft SANO Intelligent PIV units with Eco-LoFlo technology measures the temperature and moisture content of the air being delivered into the home. It is capable of automatically adjusting air flow in colder months when the air is a lot dryer. As such, smaller quantities can be used to achieve the high levels of ventilation effectiveness that are needed to tackle condensation dampness and mould growth. This ensures optimum airflow and provides the most efficient ventilation rates for the conditions, reducing running costs and improving comfort levels.

The sooner honest conversations are had with social housing providers and landlords about running costs, false economies and fuel poverty, the better.

When temperatures plummet and condensation season really hits its peak, many local authorities and housing associations see single room heat recovery ventilators (SRHRV) as the only viable energy saving approach to ventilating habitable rooms in existing homes. The problem with such loyalty to this old habit is that many are missing out on the performance gains and cost savings offered by modern alternatives.

Yes, these heat recovery systems have been established for some time and may do a reasonable job in certain instances, but they can also be prone to internal and external short circuiting of air, leading to poor performance and an undesirable drain on already-tightened maintenance budgets. Worse still, units are often perceived by tenants as expensive to run and noisy to operate, so are either left on at lower than required speed settings or turned off altogether – both of which limit any ventilation effectiveness.

So “what’s the solution?”
All the evidence suggests that the next generation of condensation dampness control ventilation equipment for habitable rooms lies in the form of alternate flow with heat retention technology – a solution which effectively allows a room to breathe. With a ceramic heat retention core rather than a heat exchanger, and alternate instead of simultaneous supply and extraction, such units are much smaller, quieter, easier to maintain, and around half the cost to run.

As housing organisations look to improve living conditions under greater budgetary constraints for them and their tenants, Single Room Alternate Flow with Heat Retention fans offer a very practical and cost-effective solution. Put like that, it’s a no-brainer.

Get your copy of our guide to combatting condensation

Nowhere is this more important than in homes. The launch of the Elta’s Mori dMEV decentralised mechanical extract ventilation unit is a great example of how the effects of IAQ influenced and drove the intensive two year design and development programme. Why is IAQ so important?

Indoor air quality is vital to the health of our nation. Statistics tell us that the average UK citizen spends a staggering 90% of their time indoors and that 70% of this time is in their own homes. So it’s not surprising that indoor air quality is vital to the wellbeing of our population. Today’s concern is that with so many properties being designed to be as near air tight as possible – to keep energy bills to a minimum and to prevent warm air escaping – there is evidence that adequate ventilation is put at risk.

With that fact in mind, it’s no surprise that the stale, contaminated and humid air that we are breathing in our homes is bringing serious illness to many of our population. The phrase ‘Toxic Home Syndrome’ refers to a person’s health deteriorating as a result of the air circulating in their home. The condition affects more than 15.3 million homes across the UK.

Mould is the enemy Airtight homes, created by double glazing, insulation, draught proofing, blocked chimneys and other building modifications, bring with them problems of mould and condensation which provide an attractive environment for pollutants. Mould is a type of fungi, a parasite that thrives on water, a food source and warm temperatures, which can wreak havoc in our homes. Germinating in as little as 4-12 hours, some moulds produce toxins that severely compromise IAQ and sometimes affect our immune systems. The air we breathe, so who says this is a problem? The World Health Organisation (W.H.O.) for one.

The W.H.O. published a paper that concluded that the air we breathe is polluted with, at its worst, a mixture of cancer causing substances. Other effects include respiratory illnesses, nasal stuffiness, coughing/wheezing, eye or throat irritation, skin rash, headaches and fatigue. The UK press have recently released articles, bringing these issues and warnings to the fore of the public’s mind, graphically depicting the many air pollutants and contaminants that are sharing our homes. Implications for housing stock For those involved in owning and managing housing stock, dealing with the consequences of poor ventilation can be costly and severe, year on year.

There’s a vicious circle at work in poorly ventilated properties, condensation problems lead to investigations that result in repairs and treatments that prompt others to complain. Within new build projects, it is becoming evermore imperative that IAQ requirements, based on a number of factors including location, occupancy activities, construction materials and many, many others are considered at the very beginning of the development and design process. Bringing IAQ and ventilation requirements to the table for discussion in the early stages makes it easier, and more effective, to provide good IAQ at no added or reduced cost. Through a ventilation system that has considered all the potential issues and loads from lighting, glazing and building material selections.

The solution This frightening situation has a relatively simple solution – effective ventilation. A balance between energy efficiency and indoor air quality is the aim. Good ventilation ensures that moisture is controlled and reduces air pollutants, leading to some significant benefits including: reducing condensation, air draughts, controlling dust mite populations, and allergenic materials. Buildings need a constant supply of fresh air to ensure the good health of occupants. A well thought through ventilation strategy can, in the case of rented properties; help reduce maintenance budgets, the risk of tenant complaints and call outs.

There are many well proven ventilation fans and products that can solve problems that often arise in kitchens, bathrooms, shower areas etc. The innovative Elta Mori dMEV decentralised mechanical extract ventilation unit has been designed around the need for good and reliable IAQ. Independent test results from the Building Research Establishment (BRE) highlight the unit’s low running costs, carbon footprint savings and multi application functionality.

The Mori dMEV has an annual running cost of less than £1 per year in a kitchen and just £0.75 in a bathroom/utility area. So for a typical house (kitchen + 3 wet rooms) average running costs would be £3.25 per annum. Power consumption for continually running the Mori dMEV equates to almost a third of the energy of an 18W low energy light bulb in use four hours a day. The unit also has exceptionally low noise levels that make it quieter than a ticking watch (typically 13 dB(A) for bathroom/utility. The product has brought to the house building and social housing markets, unprecedented efficiency. Each Mori dMEV saves 1.96kg per year of CO₂ compared to the next best unit on the market. .

One of the striking facts to come out of the testing is that the Mori dMEV has an annual running cost of less than £1 per year in kitchens and just £0.75 in bathroom/utility areas. Power consumption for continually running the Mori dMEV equates to just a third of the energy of an 18W low energy light bulb in use four hours a day. The unit also has exceptionally low noise levels that make it quieter than a ticking watch (typically 13 dB(A) for bathroom/utility. The product brings, to house builders, housing authorities and social landlords, unprecedented efficiency.

Each Mori dMEV also saves 1.96 kg per year of CO₂ compared to the next best unit on the market. Shortlisted for the H&V News ‘Domestic H&V Product of the Year – Sustainability and Safety’ award, the Mori dMEV constant volume unit is designed for System 3 ventilation in new build or refurbishment for social housing, and private housing applications.

Elta also contends that its latest Mori dMEV is 62% more efficient than the dMEV which won the H&V Award two years ago. During two years of intensive and stringent design and product testing, started in February 2012, the Mori dMEV has been meticulously developed by Elta. For the impeller alone, more than 35 3D models were created, 19 of which became prototypes with the most recent of these becoming the unique ‘BLADELET’ impeller.

The result is a product which has the lowest SFP (0.09 W/(L/s)) and provides the lowest running costs of any dMEV to date. Elta Residential Division, is part of the Elta Group – a family of businesses with operations in seven countries on four continents – the 2015 Ecobuild exhibition is an important opportunity to demonstrate the value of the Mori dMEV for the housing sector and, in particular in social housing.

Elta Group Building Services Head of Sales, Mathew Axford said: “Our company is committed to providing exceptional indoor air quality in the most cost effective way for the health of the nation. “Our focus at Ecobuild is to engage with social landlords and building companies to expand our message of being the ‘Home of Ventilation’ offering market leading, innovative products,” explained Matthew Axford. Other features of the Mori dMEV include: Low energy, highly efficient EC motor with onboard electronics, Operates up to 50°C, TMP safety tested of domestic fans to IEC 60335-1 AND 60335-2, Low energy, 2.5W EC motor with inbuilt constant volume control. Compliant with ISO/IEC 17025, 3 year warranty and many more. .

Considered to be the building services industry’s equivalent of the Oscars, the awards represent the best companies and products in their fields. Elta is delighted to have made the shortlist for the award with a product that has been painstakingly designed and developed over a two year period, ahead of its launch in 2014. During the 24 month development and testing programme every aspect of the product’s design was scrutinised. For the impeller alone, in excess of 35, 3D models were created. These were reduced to 19 prototypes, the final one becoming the Mori dMEV unique ‘bladelet’ impeller. This unrelenting attention to detail was applied to all aspects of the design, development, construction and testing of the unit. The innovative

Mori dMEV conforms to System 3 ventilation types and is suitable for the extraction of stale air either direct or through short length ducting. The unit provides market leading SFP, some 30% below the nearest competition at the time of testing, and minimal noise emissions. Colin Hone, Head of UK Residential Sales, said: “Everyone here is excited about our nomination. The Mori dMEV is the most efficient dMEV unit ever produced and has provided our dedicated residential ventilation team with a fantastic product which has been very well received in the market.”

The prestigious awards, which celebrate their 21st anniversary this year, will be announced on Thursday 16 April at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, London. .