Mill Meadow Eco-Homes, a luxury, self catering, eco lodge holiday development situated on the edge of Somerset’s Quantock Hills, has opted for Polypipe Ventilation’s Heat Recovery and Domus Radial Duct System for its latest property.
Mill Meadow provides bespoke, high end holiday properties to rent or buy. Built using a traditional Scandinavian log house system with timber sourced from sustainable Finnish forests, these efficient houses have a carbon neutral footprint.
Flycatcher, the latest Mill Meadow property in development, is being installed with a Polypipe Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) appliance ducted using a Domus Radial System. Other sustainable technologies include underfloor heating, an air source heat pump, solar hot water, solar PV and rainwater harvesting.
Chris Heayns, managing director of Mill Meadow, specified Polypipe’s MVHR and Radial duct system because of its environmental benefits and the ability to work within this unusual timber structure. “We decided to use MVHR as the homes are very air tight, so it didn’t make sense cutting holes in the walls and inserting trickle vents. The Polypipe MVHR system has allowed us to optimise energy efficiency and make the property all the more reliable. For example, in Flycatcher where we would have had four extractor fans, which can be inefficient, require maintenance and not always be reliable over the long term, we instead have one Polypipe Heat Recovery appliance.
“However, one of the issues we had was that the wood in these lodges continually moves, which could be a problem for rigid ducting. That’s why we were particularly keen on Polypipe’s Domus Radial duct system as its duct is flexible and will move with the house. It is also simple to install, which was an added bonus.”
The Domus Radial Duct System is an whole house air distribution system which uses a manifold (air distribution box) to service up to 12 rooms through Ø75mm flexible semi-rigid duct. The system can also be installed in up to 60% less time than comparable conventional solutions, making it very simple to install.
It has been designed for use with Polypipe’s range of Heat Recovery appliances, which are Energy Saving Trust Best Practice compliant and SAP Appendix Q rated. These appliances work by warming fresh air drawn into the building, with the heat recovered from waste stale air – as found in the kitchen or bathroom – using an efficient counter flow heat exchanger, thus reducing the need for heating. In addition to reducing fuel bills, Polypipe’s Heat Recovery appliances help prevent the build-up of condensation and improve overall indoor air quality.
Heaynes intends to use the Polypipe MVHR solution in future Mill Meadow properties, stating, “The very first house at Mill Meadow was certified as Excellent under BREEAM EcoHomes standard and we have been improving every property since then. Flycatcher is the latest of 18 properties, but uses heat recovery for the first time. It’s something we will look to use in further lodges.”
