We spend up to 90% of our times indoors and indoor air quality can be up to 5x worse than outdoor air. But in circumstances where people have to work from home or have or self-isolate it could mean that we would be spending 100% of our time in the one same place. Although opening windows will seem like it will let fresh air in, the best way to ensure that you are getting the best indoor air quality you need to install a mechanical ventilation system.

There are many benefits to having a MVHR (Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery) system in your home. The main benefit is that it will significantly improve your indoor air quality, but you might be wondering how it improves indoor air and how it works. Check out more benefits of MVHR here.

An MVHR system works to filter the air in your home. It removes any stale, damp or musty air and replaces it with warmed, fresh, filtered air. MVHR units have separate air streams to ensure there is no cross contamination. The units have filters that clean the air brought in from inside to reduce the risk of pollen and other allergens entering your home. If any of your family suffers from asthma or allergies, we recommend using pollen filters where available as this will cut down the risk of agitation of allergies.


Having a build-up of harmful pollutants and chemicals in your home can all cause toxic house syndrome. Check out more information on toxic home syndrome.

Things that cause poor indoor air quality can include textiles, mould, bacteria, gas cookers, cleaning products, pet hair, scented candles, stoves and even products such as deodorants. These products can give off harmful pollutants such as Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), formaldehyde, carbon dioxide (CO2), particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2).

Having poor indoor air quality can have affects such as headaches, cold and flu symptoms, eye irritation, fatigue and in more serious cases can go on to cause problems such as heart disease, strokes and serious asthma and respiratory problems. It is also note worthy to mention that these irritants can also worsen cases of asthma and lung problems.


Opening doors and windows when cooking may not be as effective as you think in circulating fresh air throughout your home, chemical released by cleaning and cooking can stick to walls, surfaces and furnishings. Although we think that when we open doors and windows that we would dilute the volume of air in the house and the chemical released would be removed or at least reduced by outdoor air. This is not the case, to effectively remove smells, contaminants and moisture from the air you must use a mechanical ventilation system in your home. We recommended the best option for mechanical ventilation is an MVHR system. It is important to use a kitchen extraction hood when cooking, whether it be a standalone extractor fan about your cooker or one that is part of your ventilation system such as the Vent Axia Lo-Carbon Sentinel Kinetic Cooker Hood.

When you purchase a system from BPC you are not just purchasing a system but so many services come along with this. These services include a free no obligation proposal, design service, dedicated sales manager, full technical support and also a large range of technical manuals catalogues for our extensive range of products from leading manufacturers with solutions to suit all budgets and applications.

For any technical queries please email our technical team at: technical@bpcventilation.com. For all other questions and queries call us on 028 2827 5150.