The Mechanical Ventilation Conversation You Need to Hear

Continuing the conversation with Cameron Grant from Fresh Ventilation, before welcoming co-director Claire Grant — the founder of the business.Heat recovery ventilation (HRV) is booming, but many homeowners are paying more for an ERV assuming it's better. A Fantech study in Sydney found an HRV outperformed an ERV for 50 out of 52 weeks of the year — for most of Greater Sydney and south of Newcastle, HRV is the right choice.The DVS Reclaim offers a more affordable retrofit heat recovery option designed to work outside the thermal envelope — and Cameron saw window condensation disappear overnight in one particularly problematic home.Unflued gas heating produces water vapour and carbon monoxide — ventilation can help manage the symptoms but Cameron's advice is clear: avoid it if you have any other option.Basement rooms and spaces that back onto a subfloor will always struggle with damp unless ventilation is designed in from the start — Claire explains why extraction along the shared wall is key.Common air leakage points in your home include timber floorboard gaps, behind power points, old downlights cut straight through the ceiling, and anywhere plumbing or electrical enters the building — sealing these up can make a significant difference to energy performance. Cameron is a certified blower door tester through ATTMA.The Fresh Ventilation warehouse was designed by Andy Marlow from Envirotecture and built to Passive House standards — it needs just a 7kW system to condition double the floor area of their previous warehouse, which ran an 18kW system constantly.📍 Find Fresh Ventilation at website | Instagram | phone/emailI'm a Principal Planner and Accredited Energy Assessor. If you’d like to work with me directly in pre-design for your project in Greater Sydney and Surrounds, or use energy rating information to help make project decisions,head to www.sustainableholmes.com.au or message me on www.instagram.com/sustainable_holmes/I’d love to help bring your sustainable home vision to life!