MVHR in a new-build flat; the system you probably already have

Before any kit conversation, the building tells you what is possible. A new-build flat typically presents highly airtight. Most also carry often mvhr-equipped. These facts shape every later decision about comfort.

The most common issue this property surfaces is bedroom overheating, followed by stale air. Any sensible plan addresses those first.

The constraint is service history. Developer-grade MVHR units sit in a hall cupboard, get a label and are then forgotten by every subsequent tenant. Filters clog within twelve months, the heat-recovery efficiency drops sharply and the flat starts to smell like the previous evening's cooking long after the unit was meant to clear it.

Open the cupboard, find the unit, check the filter access door and replace the filters annually. This is the single change that recovers most of the lost performance in flats whose units have never been serviced.

Where the unit predates 2018, check whether the boost mode actually works from the kitchen and bathroom switches; early developer specifications routinely wired these to non-functional terminals, and a competent ventilation engineer can re-commission the controls without replacing the unit.

The published cost range for this work lives in the cost registry, not on this page. The scope it covers is mvhr system, full house install with ductwork.

Most flat owners pay only for filters and a service rather than a full install; the published figure is for a fresh installation in a house.

Flats are the property type where the MVHR conversation is least likely to involve buying a new unit. The cheapest and most defensible upgrade is usually a thirty-minute service that the developer never mentioned, after which the unit does the job it was specified to do for another ten years.