Dry throat

O.K. so I should have seen this coming.

The solarventi SV14 unit, in full sun all day, has so reduced the humidity from the house norm of about 60%, to below 20%, (According to our hygrometer display relative humidity is "LO%" which I think means it can't measure below 20%) that it has dried my face and throat.

How silly of me, to sit in the study, down the landing from the bathroom where the solar panel pours in the very, very, dry air. Not only are the towels over the banister like starched sheets, but I need to have a long cool drink every 5 minutes.

The air is so much drier than the outside air, I don't think I was really anticipating the amazing dehydrating qualities of this unit.

I was quite uncomfortable, so I threw the windows wide open; this is May in Peterborough, and outside temps have not reached 20 degrees C yet. Great stuff. But there is a problem. You can't tell what the weather will be exactly, and you can't leave the windows open just in case. And you can't afford to dry the house to a crisp. Literally, arrive home, 2 minutes upstairs and my throat is dry.

The longer term solution, when I am going out for the day and can't leave the windows wide open, is to work-out the best temperature setting on the solarventi controller. It's not too difficult to gauge what temp you have set. The panel's selector needle shows 15 degrees as the lowest value (anti-clockwise) and 30 as the highest. However, when 30 degree air was being pumped into the bathroom, the fan did not hesitate for a moment, it continued at full speed. Perhaps 30 doesn't mean 30?

I don't have the answer to this yet, so I chose something around where I imagine 25 would be, setting the needle at a position of TWO O'CLOCK on the temperature gauge.

I need to ask Solaventi UK for their opinion on the temp.setting best suited.

The other option is to override the fan speed. (This is the other needle on the controller for the solarventi unit) I have concluded that since the dehumidifying aspect of the panel seems to correlate with temp. (higher the temp. the lower the humidity) then setting temp. cut-off at 25 should limit the humidity to a sensible range and suit all weather patterns.

Like today, occasional sunshine, the panel rarely reaches 25, but it is worth having the fan on full power whilst it approaches that temp.

Yesterday, Sunday, when the sun was shining, I was able to check my settings, since the hygrometer showed 24 degrees and 31% relative humidity. This seemed reasonably comfortable to me.

I imagine if customers have installed these larger solarventi units without the controller in their homes, it will prove necessary to switch the unit off in summer. Or lock the windows in an open position. Personally I did not find this enabled enough flow of air into the house.

The driver for me, my aim on installation of the solarventi model, has always been to dry the bathroom and reduce/remove the pin mould problem. No sign of the mould at the moment !!! I am very optimistic on that front.

If my main aim had been to heat the house (upstairs at least) to a very comfortable 28+ degrees then I would now consider it an un-realistic goal, since the dehumidifying behaviour of the unit is too powerful to allow the unit to keep running at that high a temperature with the windows closed, in my opinion.