Our team has a decade’s worth of experiencing designing, supplying, installing, commissioning, trouble-shooting and servicing MVHR systems.
Based in the North West and London, we are committed to only ever designing for high performance, comfortable and healthy homes across the UK.
Our founding aim is to promote MVHR in a clear, concise and informative way to ensure that all MVHR systems built in the UK are built to our high standards: super-quiet, highly efficient and built to last using high-performance materials.
Heat, Space and Light Ltd are a team of specialists in designing, building and commissioning energy efficient, comfortable and healthy buildings. Our team is based in Chester and London, and we operate across the UK. Please see our case studies for more.
Our design strategy is based on taking building physics principles that prioritise external fabric efficiency, thermal performance and good indoor ventilation, and applying them to create a building that is warm in winter, cool in summer and healthy to live in all year round.
We worked on the MVHR system for “Britain’s most hypoallergenic home” in Richmond for Grand Designs. The twin children had suffered from severe asthma in their old home, but as the parents said at the end of the project, the new home had greatly reduced their attacks with fresh, healthy indoor air quality.
Our Head of Ventilation and Building Airtightness lead Patrick was also filmed conducting the airtightness pressure test for the project.
You can watch the full show on Channel 4 here – it’s an excellent episode! Or you can see a short recap here:
MVHR Design, Supply and Commissioning
As a core of Passivhaus consultants, MVHR technicians and Level 1 and 2 Airtightness Testers, our expertise includes the design, supply and commissioning of high performance Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) systems. Our team has been involved in the design, supply and commissioning of over 500 MVHR projects over recent years, so we know what works, what doesn’t, and what to watch out for. We offer a low energy, ultra-quiet MVHR specification that values high-performance materials and specification, and longevity.
If you would like a sizing and specification proposal with bespoke pricing for a high performance MVHR system for your project please use our form here.
If you would like to understand more about MVHR pricing, please click here.
If you would like to learn more about the design process, please click here or here.
Airtightness Testing
As Level 1, 2 and Passivhaus-qualified airtightness testing technicians, our team also helps self-builders, architects and contractors develop and implement strategies to design and build highly airtight new build and retrofit projects, as well as schools, offices and other commercial buildings.
We offer airtightness pressure testing of buildings at forensic and compliance stages, and have seen airtightness performance improvements following our intervention of 40% and more – improving comfort, indoor air quality, noise and energy efficiency for the lifetime of the building.
Designing for warmth in winter and cooling in summer
With years of experience building and renovating homes to Passivhaus and low energy standards, we can also offer guidance on how to keep homes warm in winter and cool in summer.
Heat, Space and Light in the Media
Our team has spoken at spoken at CIBSE Build2Perform about NOx and Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), and our work in the MVHR and building physics sector has been featured on the BBC in a report about overheating issues in new build homes and for Sky News on how the UK housing stock can be renovated to meet our challenging UK climate targets.
The Heat, Space and Light name
Whether building a new home, renovating or adding an extension, our experience suggests the early decision-making can be simplified to three fundamental design principles for our buildings:
Heat, Space and Light.
Comfort, health and energy efficiency are core to these building principles.
As a low energy building design company that specialises in using the building physics from PassivHaus and EnerPHit architectural design standards to create comfortable, luxurious and low energy homes and offices, we understand heat, space and light.
Heat
High levels of comfort in winter and summer is possible by taking a “Fabric First” approach. High-performing insulation, windows and doors are key, made airtight with a strategy that works and an MVHR system that delivers healthy, comfortably tempered air in summer and winter.
Insulation will last the lifetime of a home or office, so if it’s installed correctly to reduce the draughts and cold spots that make living spaces uncomfortable, it can offer exceptional payback.
Creating a warm space in summer and a cool home in winter comes down to simple concepts of energy performance that we can help decode and incorporate into your build. We believe true luxury in building design is about feeling comfortable, safe and calm in a home setting.
Space
If space is at a premium (and it certainly is in capital cities like London), clever design and pre-planning of the MVHR system ductwork is crucial in maximising space available to you. But spaces which are too large are difficult to heat and can cause acoustic issues, so balance is key.
Light
Light gives life. Light makes us happy, regulates our waking and sleeping patterns and allows us to work and play and have fun. Getting the placement and sizing of windows correct is key to bringing light into the room, to maximise solar gains or heat from the sun entering the building in winter months, but ensuring that same light doesn’t create overheating problems in summer. Simple design principles such as having less glazing on the south-facing façade of a building can help massively.
Privacy, heat loss, condensation and noise pollution can all be issues, but we know how to solve them using building physics principles and an MVHR system to provide healthy levels of fresh, filtered air – even with the windows closed in winter or during pollen season.