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| Damp Cellars and wet basements |
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 A damp cellar is very common but you can keep it dry
It is not surprising that a cellar is damp. In most cases the cellar floor is close to or below the water table. That said it is an easily solved problem and you do not need to resort to tanking unless you wish to live down there.
Providing you have a S, SE or SW facing wall, and the distance from that wall to the damp cellar or basement is not too far, a SolarVenti panel is an excellent method of keeping the atmosphere in your cellar / basement fresh and dry.
If you have a problem with water ingress, SolarVenti cannot cure this. You will need a sump and pump and you may need to get a builder in to diagnose and fix the problem. However, when it comes to eradicating that horrible damp, musty smell, and eliminating those patches of mildew in the dark and dank corners, SolarVenti will provide a perfect solution at a zero running cost. Every time the sun shines your cellar will be actively supplied with warmed, dry, fresh air; eradicating the moisture and making your cellar amazingly fresher and cleaner. Plus you can switch off your mains dehumidifier and save the electricity.
The image shows an SV3 SolarVenti wall mounted at a slight angle, with an extended flexi-hose providing the air inlet access via an old coal chute.
So how well does SolarVenti work on damp basements and cellars? Let one of our customers tell you himself as he wrote a review of how SolarVenti addressed his damp cellar problem which we have reproduced below or follow the link cellar installation.
It was the smell that was most striking...
...there wasn't one any more.
As I descended lower into the dank, dark, gloomy depths of our cellar, I realised that about all that held true to the earlier part of this sentence anymore was 'depths', as it is well below ground level and, thanks to a brook running about 30' away, the water table too. And as the room hasn't been tanked (basically a big, expensive plastic bag lining) there are two sump pumps (one backup) to keep things dry, as in not underwater. And to keep everything from getting damp and mouldy, there has been a dehumidifier, running pretty 24/7, 365/365, since we got here from Singapore.
And I'm kicking myself. Because it is still. Still there, but no longer required. And the reason is our new (now, not so much) solar-powered dehumidification system from Solarventi.
It really is a very simple system, though operating in a manner that I found unexpected. On an outer (South Facing) wall is the solar collector, which serves to generate the energy for the fan, and to dry out the air it blows. Yes, that's right, blows. I had imagined it would suck the damp air out, but in fact it blows dry air in, displacing the damp up and out.
So you do need two holes. One to get the dry air from the system in to the area to be dehumidified, and somewhere for the damp air to escape. For us the latter was sorted, namely being the stairs and exit to the ground floor.
The inlet was, frankly, more of an issue. There is a finite distance the inlet pipe can travel and still be effective, so you need to locate the unit as near as you can to the room in question, whilst still being in the sun's rays. And for us that meant about 2' down and 2' through solid Herefordshire Georgian foundations. I'll spare you details, along with any pictures of two builders' cracks that would put the Grand Canyon & Marinas Trench to shame.
Suffice to say I am very grateful to Dave of Solarventi to come with the unit to be interviewed, assist with the installation, and share his considerable knowledge on matters enviro and solar with me, which he does to this day, for articles and blogs.
Thumbs Up!
At risk of repetition (but it's often worth it for effect) Junkk.com likes unique (because we think we are!). So there may be others around, and if there are we'll be happy to check them out too, but this was the one we found out about and helped us out with great customer service, so that's the one in the wall.
It's also very simple, useful... and just plain does the job.
With luck it will provide many years of service without needing much, if anything, by way of maintenance, and every minute it blows, that's a few precious watts we're not being charged for or sucking out of a carbon-churning (or nuclear waste stockpiling) power station.
There's a ton more numbers that need to be crunched and shared on ROI (return on investment - Dave kindly has provided some Excel spreadsheets that I will post once I've figured out how), but I just wanted to get something up now.
The thing does exactly what it says on the box, and so far the results are clear, if as yet unscientific.
And once I have figured out how to work the power meter I have yet to review, I will try and put things in terms that jingle in the pocket a bit more, along with the period it will take to pay for itself.
Thumbs Down?
So far, hard to fault.
There are moving parts, so there will be wear and hence matters of reliability, however I am reassured that the Danish (and hence very Nordically precise) makers have over-engineered every part. The casing also seem very solid.
Being solar, you are also at the whim of the sun, which means location, location, location. It is a limiting factor.
Our unit is pretty much at the only place it can be, and when we put it in, the sun sailed gaily across the sky pretty much dawn 'til dusk. That is no longer the case, and it scoots low on the horizon, getting blocked by a row of firs in next door's garden.
While installation is not beyond the means of most competent DIYers, the fact remains that one inevitably ends up punching a fair-sized hole through a thick old wall surface. And if, as in our case, the point where you need to the dry air to blow out isn't the other side to where the unit pumps it out, you can have some work on your hands. There is a limit to how far a pipe you can run, and at 2metres (for our model, the smaller SV3 - larger ones with bigger PV arrays are good for 4-5m) we were taking it about to the max.
And if it is not a 'though and through' the unit needs to be set upon a bracket to allow the flexi-tube to be carried out the back to wherever needed, which is not so neat. See the site for better solutions.
However, when compared to running the dehumidifier, the daily savings to one's bank balance and, naturally, the planet, it is looking like a very good (in every sense of the word) investment. We're hoping for payback in 2-3 years. So this is solar that does make sense (we're looking at the bigger boys and turbines in coming editions), even in the UK.
Big up to those who made it, those who sell it (Solarventi helped us out writing this, so the spoils of PR go their way:), those who use it and, of course, the planet!
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Telephone:
01782 791572 or on
08458 736359 (Local rate from anywhere within the UK)
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eMail:
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Our new address is:
Unit 14A
Moorfields Industrial Estate
Cotes Heath
Stafford
ST21 6QY |
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| Products
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There are six products in the SolarVenti range. Under ideal sunny conditions the smallest unit, the SV2 has a minimum airflow of 20m³/Hour whilst the largest, the SV30 unit has a minimum airflow of 120m³/Hour.
The newest product, the SV30H Plus, is a hybrid version of the SV30 which additionally provides Solar Water Heating. |
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